The 2011 World Youth Day has come and gone.

Two million young Catholics found their way to Madrid to hear Pope Benedict XVI.

Hundreds of thousands greeted his arrival with deafening sounds.

Yet at the appropriate moments – during Mass, during the pauses on the Way of the Cross – the silence was absolute.

It tempts one to hope that the lives of many attending were being changed . . . .

And that on going home their pride in being Catholic – and their humility in being sinners redeemed by the Passion of Christ – will not be lost.

* * *

That was the Pope’s take-home message:

* that they must “make Christ, the Son of God, the centre of (their) life.”

* that they must spread that message to a world “filled with young people who are looking for something greater. . . .”

 * and to help others to resist being “seduced by the empty promises of a lifestyle which has no room for God.”

* * *

Certainly the youth of many nations are today looking for something – risking their lives, trying to topple dictators and crying out “freedom!” and “democracy!”.

Oh dear. Are not freedom and democracy rather watery rations on which to confront the forces of evil?

He who dies for democracy, dies for the triumph of mediocrity and compromise.

Freedom? A myth. We all slaves to sin. Toppling Mr Gaddafi won’t help in that direction.

* * *

Will the WYD returnees find their home churches filled with a great thirst for the Sacraments and a great zeal for the spread of God’s Kingdom in the world?

The Church has made terrible mistakes, but it is God’s Church.

As the Pope says, you cannot be a Christian on your own.

The Church is a must.

If the Church is imperfect, then let us work to make it better — not abandon it.

In the year 1867, on August 15, Mary MacKillop took her vows as “Sister Mary of the Cross” and became a nun of the Order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph.

In a letter to her mother, she wrote, “I little imagined that I could so soon have the happiness of being allowed to make my religious profession, which I did on my favourite festival, the Assumption.”

Her favourite festival?

Yes, Mary MacKillop had a great love for the Blessed Virgin, right from childhood.

It is important to remember that Saint Mary MacKillop had a faith that was simple and traditional and, in some ways, child-like.

A pity the rest of us, in our day, too seldom follow her in that.

* * *

Mary MacKillop was NOT a rebel.

She was NOT a feminist.

She wasn’t even glamorous — despite the prettied-up pictures used in her modern day publicity.

Mary MacKillop attended Mass every Sunday and every holy day. She insisted that her Sisters and her converts did the same.

She went to Confession regularly. She insisted that her Sisters and converts did the same.

She was pure and modest. She rescued prostitutes from brothels and gave them refuges to live in until they found a better life.

Dear Mary MacKillop, Saint Mary of the Cross, pray for us that we might be faithful to Our Lord as you were.

P.S. As far as I know, the only book about Mary MacKillop that is fair to her, presenting her in all her Catholic goodness – not dressing her up as some kind of modern “ecumenist” — is “The REAL Mary MacKillop”, written by modest me.

Due to troubles with PayPal, you probably can’t get it by clicking the buttons as per this page.

If you want a copy, please write by surface mail to PO Box 533 Mildura 3502 Victoria, Australia.

The price is supposedly $20 or something. You can have it for nothing if you prefer. It will reach you by surface mail fairly promptly.

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

After the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, his mother lived with the Apostle John for about another 12 years.

On the third day after her death, when the apostles gathered at her tomb, they found it empty.

They understood that Mary’s body had been taken up (assumed) into heaven. That is what “the Assumption” means.

Why didn’t her body just reabsorb into the earth like everybody else?

The grave had no power over this woman. She was immaculate and sinless from the time of her conception.

As she had shared with Jesus in his sorrows and agony, so she now came to share in his victory over death.

God had given her great privileges, and she had been faithful to the graces received.

* * *

Many who profess to be Christians have trouble with the Church’s teaching about Mary, the Mother of God.

They shouldn’t. To a thinking Christian, there is no alternative.

Followers of Jesus believe they he was both true man and true God.

Because he was true man, Mary is rightly called a mother.

Because he is truly God, she is called the Mother of God.

* * *

It is fitting that we should consecrate our lives to this Mother, and pray to her in words such as these:

O Mary, conceived without sin, I wish to place myself under your special protection.

I choose you for my patroness, my mistress and my mother . . . .

I desire to make a solemn profession of belonging unreservedly to you, imitating your virtues: particularly your angelic purity, your profound humility, your blind obedience and your incomparable charity . . . .

Obtain for me, dear Mother, the grace of being faithful to this profession all my life, so that I may merit the favour of being your child during all eternity.

Amen.

A Catholic Order in the USA (Maryknoll Fathers) is dismissing one of its priests for speaking in favour of ordaining women priests.

He was given two weeks to revoke his stand or face formal removal from the priesthood.

Comments:

(1) The Priest himself, Father Bourgeois, refuses to conform, saying last week that Catholic banning of women priests is “rooted in sexism,” which “like racism, is a sin.”

(2) Some would defend Father B by quoting the Catholic Catechism, “Man has the right to act in conscience . . . he must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience . . . especially in religious matters.”

 (3) Others would accuse the Church of “discriminating against women”, demanding that women be “empowered” (including letting them be priests).

Comments on the comments:

(1) “Sexism” and “racism” aren’t sins. They are ill-defined terms of abuse, best avoided. If an action towards a person of a particular sex or race is based on an attitude of malice, that is a sin – a sin against Charity. But restricting the priesthood to men only, as practised by the Catholic Church – and practised by Jesus himself in his lifetime — is not based on malice.

(2) Nobody is “forcing” Father B to do anything. He can promote women priests as much as he likes — but must do so as a layman. If a member of Carlton AFL football team decides in conscience to kick the ball towards the opposing team’s goal, nobody denies his right to kick footballs anywhere he wants — but not while a member of a team.

 (3) Women already have almost absolute power. They have the dominating influence on all (nearly all) young humans, from birth until puberty or whatever. Rightly so. Men’s skills lie elsewhere — in another direction — fatherhood.

* fatherhood, physically, in begetting the child

* fatherhood socially, in going out to work as the family’s provider, and

* fatherhood spiritually, in being, if so called by God, a priest.

2011 is the centenary of the Australian Census.

A lot of things have changed since the first Census in 1911.

But some have not.

Governments still need to know how many Australians there are, where they are, what they do and what they think.

That way provides a basis on which to decide how best to  justly distribute funding.

* * *

It is desirable that all Catholics answer the optional question about religion.

Not just from the funding angle, but because it’s a chance to make a stand for the Faith.

I’ve heard people say that, because of the child abuse scandals etc., they feel “ashamed to be Catholics”.

Yes, we’ re all disappointed that some Church officials have behaved so appallingly and that others have “covered-up” for them.

But that is no reason to abandon one’s loyalty to the Church that God himself founded.

Just the opposite.

Now is the time to stand up and be counted, literally.

* * *

If you’re unhappy with how the Church is, don’t moan about it, don’t quit it, don’t abandon it . . . .

Try to change it.

Not easy to change the structures of the Church – but there is one thing about the Church that you CAN change.

Change yourself.

You can make at least one Catholic a better Christian — a better example of the Faith — namely yourself.

Do that, and you’ve taken a first step to making the Catholic Church truly Catholic.

On August 6, the Catholic Church traditionally celebrates the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.

The event in question was recorded in the gospel as follows:

Jesus took Peter, James, and John up into a high mountain: and he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun: his garments white like snow.

And there appeared Moses and Elias, talking with him.

Peter said to Jesus: ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here: let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias.’

As he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And a voice: ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him.’

The disciples hearing it, fell upon their faces . . . .

* * *

The disciples regarded this as a miracle.

It helped them to appreciate that Jesus was, in fact, the Son of God, as he claimed to be.

Later, they learned also that being God’s Son — and living in a world as hateful of God as this one – suffering must inevitably follow.

So the universal symbol of the Faith is not a glorious figure enclosed in rays of light — but a tortured body, racked with pain and hanging, impaled, on a cross.

This symbol is so powerful, and so compelling in its message, that wordly people are maddened by hate of it.

So much so that they must subject it to bizarre and futile mockeries.

* * *

This last week in the Philippines a blasphemous mutilation of a depiction of the crucified Lord was hung as “art” to entertain the enemies of God.

When some people tried to destroy it, the media called their action vandalism(!)