The Australian flag at the entrance to Ballina District Hospital (NSW) has flapped itself to pieces.

One and a half stars of the Southern Cross are gone.

The local branch of the RSL (Returned and Services League) has complained and wants something done about it.

Not a big deal?

It might be, if you had fought in a war to defend the flag and what it stands for.

* * *

A bigger deal, media-wise, was Australian athletes at the Winter Olympics draping a huge “boxing kangaroo” flag across a multi-storey Vancouver building.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) told them to remove it.

They didn’t.

Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, mocked the IOC, saying, “We want to see a lot of the Boxing Kangaroo, particularly now that we’ve had this ridiculous ruling.”

* * *

Is this flag affair just a matter of taste, or is there a serious issue involved?

What does a boxing kangaroo represent?

It signifies that we will do anything — except the obviously right thing — to defy everybody and draw attention to ourselves, threatening a punch-up or similar if not given our own way.

If we must be defiant, why not do something better than the conventional thing, rather than something stupider?

* * *

In Russia, in 2002, the government ordered regions to design their own local flags.

The city of Penza (600km east of Moscow, population 500,000) defied convention by designing a flag carrying an image of Jesus.

Yury Leptev, speaking for Penza’s Social Politics Committee, explained that there is a legend that in the 1500s Ivan the Terrible presented an icon of Christ to the people of Penza.

Leptev said they had held an unofficial referendum about the flag, and support for the chosen image was “strong”.

Some non-Christian leaders criticised it, saying it “blurred the lines separating Church and State”.  (St Petersburg Times)

To which one might reply, “No need for lines separating Church and State –  as long as it’s the right Church.”

Last weekend, Sydney streets were occupied by people “celebrating” their  involvement in homosexual practices.

The media gave them un-critical coverage, with headlines like “Police praise Mardi Gras behaviour”. (Bigpondnews.com)

The Police, in fact, attended 140 incidents, arresting 35 people for drug possession, assault, offensive behaviour etc. One man was reportedly “seriously” assaulted, two others stabbed. One police officer fell during a brawl and suffered head injuries.

But none of that is probably the point . . . .

* * *

Would one be a spoil-sport to mention that everyone knows that homosexual acts cause disease?

We’ve known for ages that oral sex, as practised by over 90% of homosexual males, is a major means of the spread of hepatitis A and hepatitis B. (1)

Anal sex, as practised by over 90% of homosexual males, is a leading cause of gonorrhoea, syphilis and AIDS. (2)

Then there is the question of whether homosexually-active persons are more inclined than others to sexually assault children.

In Victoria, 20% of sexual assault victims are males, 83% being aged under 17. (3)

The proportion of Australian men identifying as homosexual is 1.6%.  The number identifying as “bisexual” is 0.9% (4)

If a category of less than 3% of the male population commits more than 20% of male sex crimes, isn’t that a bit of a worry?

* * *

Homosexual people must be treated respectfully. That’s true.

But that’s no excuse for media (and schools) to misinform children and to condone dangerous behaviours.

Most adolescents experiencing same-sex-attraction will lose the tendency by age 25.

Adolescents that way inclined are sometimes told that “coming out” will solve their problems.

It will not. It puts their lives in danger.

 .

 (1) The Lancet 399:938, (2) Journal of the American Medical Association 251: 237, (3) Victoria Police Crime Statistics 2000-2005. (4)  Aust NZ J. Public Health 27: 138-145

The Sisters of St Joseph, the Order of Catholic Sisters founded by Australia’s Blessed Mary MacKillop, have started a Twitter account for Blessed Mary.

The lady writing the daily tweet is Sister Annette Arnold. She also has a Mary MacKillop Facebook profile.

One recent tweet, for example, reveals that Pope Benedict XVI will meet cardinals in Rome on February 19 to announce the date for Mary’s canonisation, perhaps as soon as April 2010.

* * *

Sister Annette says, “If Blessed Mary MacKillop were alive today she would be tweeting . . . Mary was an incredible communicator . . .  she would be using any form of modern communication.”

It’s true.  Mary MacKillop communicated non-stop, writing letters constantly. Over 1000 of her letters — to her family, to her Josephite Sisters, to bishops, to the Pope of her day — have been preserved intact.

* * *

Sister Annette says, “It is all about getting her message out . . . Mary is an inspiration to people of all denominations.”

True enough.

Let’s not forget that her message to people of all denominations was that God wants every person to be  a Roman Catholic.

She was quite strong on that point.

* * *

Mary had a Protestant friend, Joanna Barr Smith, who gave money generously to support the Sisters’ work.

In a letter to her mother, Blessed Mary mentioned Mrs Smith, saying, “Both she and her husband know that my earnest desire is for her conversion . . . pray for her to return to us as a Catholic.”

* * *

When visiting Scotland in 1873, Blessed Mary enjoyed meeting many relatives, but was upset that one uncle, Archibald MacKillop, had abandoned his Catholic Faith and was bringing his children up quite anti-Catholic.

She wrote to the Sisters back in Australia, “Pray for the grace of repentance for this unhappy father and his family.”

She learned later, with delight, that at least one young member of Uncle Archie’s family did convert back to Catholicism.

Research published in this month’s Journal of the American Heart Association reveals that:

* the average Australian watches television three hours  per day

* every extra hour a day spent watching television increases one’s risk of death from heart disease by 18 percent

* those watching four hours a day have an 80 percent higher heart death risk than those watching two hours or less.

Most people wouldn’t be surprised by these figures — we know television is bad for us.

Why do we watch it then?

Are we addicted to it?

* * *

In a 1970s study, 182 German families agreed to stop watching television for a year and were offered money if they succeeded.

None lasted beyond six months. All suffered anxiety, depression etc., and had to start watching again, just to feel “normal”.

That’s true addiction — compulsive, self-harmful behaviour, without which the user can’t feel normal.

And there’s a side to every person which enjoys seeing human nature at its worst. Television brings this tendency to the surface.

Health problems and physical death aren’t the worst aspects of television.

* * *

The answer is never to watch television at all.

That would make your day three hours longer.

You could comfortably fit in an hour of praying, an hour of useful reading and an hour of silent contemplation in God’s presence.

If you could teach yourself to do that, you might increase your chances of being an unselfish and loving person here on earth by several hundred percent.

And improve your chances of being found fit to spend eternity with God by an infinite amount.

What will the New Year bring?

One thing we may have to cope with is a kiddies’ story book by Australia’s Prime Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd.

It is about the PM’s cat and dog. It will be published later this month.

Why?

* * *

This project must be considered a vote-catcher, an image-softener.

Media-aware prime ministers know there’s more political mileage in being a celebrity than in facing moral issues.

Children are being exploited as part of this – being brainwashed again – taught how not to think — certainly not to think about God.

* * *

Children are uneasily aware that things are going wrong in the world.

Like their TV-watching parents, they are being fed a never-ending series of panic-inducing sideshows to be anxious about.

Global warming (man-made and man-fixable)

Pandemics (spread by humans, preventable by human-invented vaccinations)

Economic crises (caused by human greed, fixable by human-stimulated spending-sprees)

Because rational creatures can’t be convinced by such yarns, it’s politically important to prevent creatures being rational.

Adults succumb best to violence, sport and pornography.

Children, up to a certain age, still fall for cuteness and Prime Ministers who can speak, not only Mandarin, but also baby-talk.

* * *

When things go wrong in the world we should be looking to the primary Cause (God), not just airbrushing the secondary causes.

Children are capable of understanding that there is a God who rules the universe and who loves us — and that we should spend our lives seeking, not just to “feel good” and “look good”, but in trying to please God by being good and showing him by our lives that we love him.

* * *

God has put the Catholic Church into the world to lead us, adults and children, into union with him through the Sacraments of the Church.

God wants to dwell in your soul (your intellect and your will).

That is what we need to focus on and talk to our children about.

Originally the word “avatar” meant the earthly appearance or embodiment or incarnation of a Hindu god.

Then it came to be used for an electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer-game player.

Now there’s a film called “Avatar” — which some claim to be a quantum leap forward in Cinema.

Is it?

* * *

While one reviewer calls it “a cultural milestone”, another labels it “uniquely awful . . .  the worst movie I have ever seen”.

All of which tells you it is probably about average.

Its “M” rating assures us that there will be unnecessary nudity, stomach-turning violence and, of course, the irreverent use of the names of God and Jesus Christ.

People who seem to be white Anglo-Saxon protestants – and if this film has a message at all, it is that we should loathe white Anglo-Saxons —  are the enemies whom we are to despise, because they plan to loot and exploit planet Pandora in the same way whites have done and do on earth. Ho hum.

The violence and the semi-human spooks are nightmare material for children. Believe me, no little kid seeing this film will ever forget it. Somewhere in his brain he will not be the same. But does anybody care?

* * *

Many people are going to see this film, and more will.

Why? Because they are bored out of their minds, and it numbs the pain for a while to witness, and be entertained by, irreverence against something . . . anything.

They also like inventive animation.

If this society of ours had any respect, nobody would attend — simply because of the blasphemy alone.

.