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Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam
Bulletin for June 2010
Sunday Mass Times
0730 Mass in Thai
0930 Mass in English
Weekday Mass Times
18.00 Mass in Thai in Chapel of Building 3
18.00 Mass in English in Chapel of Building 2 [when there are English-speaking retreatants]
Intentions of Pope Benedict XVI
JUNE
General: That every national and transnational institution may strive to guarantee respect for human life from conception to natural death.
Mission: That the Churches in Asia, which constitute a “little flock” among non-Christian populations, may know how to communicate the Gospel and give joyful witness to their adherence to Christ.
Some Feasts in June
Tuesday 1st St. Justin, Martyr
Thursday 3rd St Charles Lwanga & Companions, Martyrs
Saturday 5th St. Boniface, Apostle to Germany, Martyr
Sunday 6th The Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ
Weds 9th Bl Joseph de Anchieta, S.J.
Friday 11th The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Saturday 12th The Immaculate Heart of Mary
Monday 21st St. Aloysius, S.J.
Tuesday 22nd Ss John Fisher & Thomas More, Martyrs in England
Thursday 24th Birthday of St. John the Baptist
Sunday 27th Ss Peter & Paul (from 29th)
Monday 28th St. Irenaeus, Martyr
Also in June
Saturday 5th World Environment Day
Saturday 26th International Anti-Drug Day
In July
Friday 2nd St Bernadine Realino & Companions, S.J.
Saturday 3rd St. Thomas, Apostle
Collection
The Sunday Offertory Collection for the month of March & April was 48,670 Baht. We thank you for your very generous support of the mission & outreach of The Seven Fountains Spirituality Centre.
Keep the Thai People and their Nation in your thoughts and prayers during this protracted period of violent and tragic social and political turmoil
Thai Church readies for Bangkok relief effort
Rally participants with the message ‘stop killing people’ in Thai (UCA News)
Thai Church leaders have called on Catholics to join relief work in Bang-kook after the army stormed the main red-shirt protest site on May 19.
Despite the surrender of key leaders of the anti-government movement, riots and fires continued in many parts of the city throughout the afternoon, as the government ordered a curfew.
Bishop Phibul Visitnonthachai of Nakhon Sawan told UCA News he wants Catholics to be involved in blood-donation drives and visit wounded people.
But any action will be seriously hindered by the security situation.
“Now we can only urge people to pray for the country,” said the bishop, who heads the Thai bishops’ commission for the law and economy.
The red-shirt protesters, who say the government is illegitimate, have occupied large areas of central Bangkok for more than two months demanding that parliament be dissolved and new elections called.
The Thai Church leadership had planned to call Catholics for a mass prayer rally in the capital on Sunday, May 23, but Bishop Phibul says this may now be impossible.
The Church leaders also asked the faithful to pray the rosary for the dead and for the country every day for the rest of the year.
“We call on all sides stop violence and cooperate to solve the political problems by love and forgiveness,” the statement said.
“We call for a return to dialogue to calm down the situation and resolve matters peacefully.”
Fr Pipat Rungruangkanokkul, deputy secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Thailand, also expressed dismay at the renewed violence.
“The political unrest is claiming more and more dead and wounded. We demand a halt to all violent actions,” the priest said.
“Thais all want this situation to end peacefully.”
Meanwhile, 200 people of all religions, calling themselves the Solidarity for Peace network, gathered for a rally to pray for peace at the United Nations building in Bangkok on May 19.
Churches offer haven from Bangkok violence
Catholic churches and schools are opening their doors as safe havens from the violence that has paralyzed the Thai capital.
At least five Catholic centers are in areas where fighting has been fiercest.
Father Sirichai Laukobkul, parish priest of the adjacent Holy Redeemer Church in Ruam Rudee, said.
“They feel unsafe. The violence, smoke from burning tires, the cutting off of electricity and water supplies, and jamming of mobile-phone signals in some areas have forced people to flee,” the priest said.
Pairin Chotsakulrat, a Catholic and leader of the Peace Witness Volunteer group, said her organization asked Catholic churches and schools to aid those fleeing violence.
Our Lady of Fatima School in Din Daeng, the Sacred Heart Convent School and Mercy Center orphans’ home, both in Klong Toei, as well as the Jesuits’ house, Xavier Hall, at Victory Monument, have answered Pairin’s call.
“Our church is prepared to accommodate the affected people and provide sleeping bags and basic necessities,” Jesuit Father Vichai Pokthavi of Xavier Hall said.
Mahidol University’s Research Center for Peace Building is also providing humanitarian support.
“We already helped 20 families move from Klong Toei district to their relatives’ homes,” Jaisiri Worathamniem, a Catholic working at Mahidol, said.
“We also provide information for community leaders on how to manage oneself if violence happens and how and who to ask for support.”
Meditative/Contemplative Prayer Experiences you can download
livesimply is a challenge to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with people in poverty.
Prayers for Luke Haebe
The Haebe's eldest son, Luke was in a very severe motorcycle accident on Thursday or Friday of last week. He was in Phoenix riding a "dirt bike" of his buddy's in the desert when he fell and broke his back. Mike and I don't want to bother Ellen and Todd with too many details right now, but from my short conversations with Ellen, my understanding is that he broke 3 of his vertebrate but has feeling in his fingers and toes.
Luke, together with his sister Tess and brother Jake served on the altar at Seven Fountains
Ellen & Todd write: - Hello,
Prayers do work!! Thank you so much. We transferred Luke to St. Joseph's Hospital and he is getting excellent care. He has broken his back, but there is no damage to the spinal cord and he has all feeling and movement. We have opted to avoid surgery and rods for right now. We are confident of full recovery after several months in a brace and taking it easy this year. Not an easy task for a 20 year old, but we believe it is best to avoid surgery if we can. If it is determined that pain later in life will be much alieviated with surgery, we may decide to do that later.
The prayers are appreciated and have, once again, made so much of a difference. Thank you and God Bless,
The Haebes
An Online Retreat
USCCB - Roman Missal
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announce-ed April 30 that the Vatican has given its “recognition”, or confirmation, of the new English translation of the Roman Missal, the Catholic News Service has reported. This website has been prepared to help the transition into it.
Websurfers will find resources for the faithful, for the clergy, and for parish and diocesan leaders, “so that all of us will be ready to implement the new text late next year (2011)”, says the website.
USCCB - Roman Missal
Discussing the Divine
In a new document, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales explore the practice of and call to interreligious dialogue. Michael Barnes SJ examines the themes in Meeting God in Friend and Stranger, which reminds us that whenever we embrace the ‘atmosphere of curiosity’ that stimulates interreligious exchanges, we are participating in the very dialogue that God initiated with humankind.
http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20100518_1.htm
Should I stay or should I go?
From The Tablet 10/4/10
Timothy Radcliffe, O.P.
As the scandal of child sexual abuse and its cover-up swirls around the Church, some Catholics are considering their options as regards their very membership of the institution. Here a former Master of the Dominicans explains why the Church is stuck with him, whatever happens
Fresh revelations of sexual abuse by priests in Germany and Italy have provoked a tide of anger and disgust. I have received emails from people all around Europe asking how can they possibly remain in the Church. I was even sent a form with which to renounce my membership of the Church. Why stay?
First of all, why go? Some people feel that they can no longer remain associated with an institution that is so corrupt and dangerous for children. The suffering of so many children is indeed horrific. They must be our first concern. Nothing that I will write is intended in any way to lessen our horror at the evil of sexual abuse. But the statistics for the US, from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2004, suggest that Catholic clergy do not offend more than the married clergy of other Churches.
Some surveys even give a lower level of offence for Catholic priests. They are less likely to offend than lay school teachers, and perhaps half as likely as the general population. Celibacy does not push people to abuse children. It is simply untrue to imagine that leaving the Church for another denomination would make one’s children safer. We must face the terrible fact that the abuse of children is widespread in every part of society. To make the Church the scapegoat would be a cover-up.
But what about the cover-up within the Church? Have not our bishops been shockingly irresponsible in moving offenders around, not reporting them to the police and so perpetuating the abuse? Yes, sometimes. But the great majority of these cases go back to the 1960s and 1970s, when bishops often regarded sexual abuse as a sin rather than also a pathological condition, and when lawyers and psychologists often reassured them that it was safe to reassign priests after treatment. It is unjust to project backwards an awareness of the nature and seriousness of sexual abuse which simply did not exist then. It was only the rise of feminism in the late 1970s which, by shedding light on the violence of some men against women, alerted us to the terrible damage done to vulnerable children.
But what about the Vatican? Pope Benedict has taken a strong line in tackling this issue as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and since becoming Pope. Now the finger is pointed at him. It appears that some cases reported to the CDF under his watch were not dealt with. Isn’t the Pope’s credibility undermined? There are demonstrators in front of St Peter’s calling for his resignation. I am morally certain that he bears no blame here.
It is generally imagined that the Vatican is a vast and efficient organisation. In fact it is tiny. The CDF only employs 45 people, dealing with doctrinal and disciplinary issues for a Church which has 1.3 billion members, 17 per cent of the world’s population, and some 400,000 priests. When I dealt with the CDF as Master of the Dominican Order, it was obvious that they were struggling to cope. Documents slipped through the cracks. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger lamented to me that the staff was simply too small for the job.
People are furious with the Vatican’s failure to open up its files and offer a clear explanation of what happened. Why is it so secretive? Angry and hurt Catholics feel a right to transparent government. I agree. But we must, in justice, understand why the Vatican is so self-protective. There were more martyrs in the twentieth century than in all the previous centuries combined. Bishops and priests, Religious and laity were assassinated in Western Europe, in Soviet countries, in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Many Catholics still suffer imprisonment and death for their faith. Of course, the Vatican tends to stress confidentiality; this has been necessary to protect the Church from people who wish to destroy her. So it is understandable that the Vatican reacts aggressively to demands for transparency and will read legitimate requests for openness as a form of persecution. And some people in the media do, without any doubt, wish to damage the credibility of the Church.
But we owe a debt of gratitude to the press for its insistence that the Church face its failures. If it had not been for the media, then this shameful abuse might have remained unaddressed.
Confidentiality is also a consequence of the Church’s insistence on the right of everyone accused to keep their good name until they are proved to be guilty. This is very hard for our society to understand, whose media destroy people’s reputations without a thought.
Why go? If it is to find a safer haven, a less corrupt Church, then I think that you will be disappointed. I too long for more transparent government, more open debate, but the Church’s secrecy is understandable, and sometimes necessary. To understand is not always to condone, but necessary if we are to act justly.
Why stay? I must lay my cards on the table; even if the Church were obviously worse than other Churches, I still would not go. I am not a Catholic because our Church is the best, or even because I like Catholicism. I do love much about my Church but there are aspects of it which I dislike. I am not a Catholic because of a consumer option for an ecclesiastical Waitrose rather than Tesco, but because I believe that it embodies something which is essential to the Christian witness to the Resurrection, visible unity.
When Jesus died, his community fell apart. He had been betrayed, denied, and most of his disciples fled. It was chiefly the women who accompanied him to the end. On Easter Day, he appeared to the disciples. This was more than the physical resuscitation of a dead corpse.
In him God triumphed over all that destroys community: sin, cowardice, lies, misunderstanding, suffering and death. The Resurrection was made visible to the world in the astonishing sight of a community reborn. These cowards and deniers were gathered together again. They were not a reputable bunch, and shamefaced at what they had done, but once again they were one. The unity of the Church is a sign that all the forces that fragment and scatter are defeated in Christ.
All Christians are one in the Body of Christ. I have deepest respect and affection for Christians from other Churches who nurture and inspire me. But this unity in Christ needs some visible embodiment. Christianity is not a vague spirituality but a religion of incarnation, in which the deepest truths take the physical and sometimes institutional form. Historically this unity has found its focus in Peter, the Rock in Matthew, Mark and Luke, and the shepherd of the flock in John’s gospel.
From the beginning and throughout history, Peter has often been a wobbly rock, a source of scandal, corrupt, and yet this is the one – and his successors – whose task is to hold us together so that we may witness to Christ’s defeat on Easter Day of sin’s power to divide. And so the Church is stuck with me whatever happens. We may be embarrassed to admit that we are Catholics, but Jesus kept shameful company from the beginning.
To help deepen your grasp of your Christian faith
THE HEYTHROP INSTITUTE FOR RELIGION ETHICS AND PUBLIC LIFE
www.heythrop.ac.uk/HIREPL
Thinking Faith is a free on-line publication of the British Jesuits.
On the subject of objective Truth, I once heard it said that Christ is the eternal framework of the universe; and that this is why we read in John 19:36 that "not a bone of Him shall be broken." When all was lost for me; when I had sunk into the void; I remember having to tell myself over and over that as long as the Framework of the universe remained sure (that is, in the objective realm outside of my personal experience), then it somehow didn't matter so much what became of me. Even in total resignation and despair, I would "content" myself with the knowledge that Christ IS and that he REMAINS --independent of me; of anything I could or could not do "find" Him. The Unbroken Framework that is Christ is there to uphold and sustain all things, even as a trellis or lattice upholds a climbing vine. The vine may falter, wither, or even die . . . but that's okay. We content ourselves in the knowledge that the Framework Itself remains sure --from everlasting to everlasting. All shall be well, and all shall be well. No matter how terrifying the journey gets (and I think most of us have tasted of the terror, and will perhaps taste more of it), we can let go . . . it will be okay. He remains. This is our faith, our anchor, and our unspeakable joy.
In His fathomless Love,
From Susan Keane
Just wanted to shoot off a quick note to say thanks for sending me this update. We are delighted to know that both you and Fr. Miguel are doing so well. A huge congratulations to Fr. Miguel on his 50th Jubilee! We have such fond memories of our time in Chiang Mai and it is wonderful to hear your news.
All is reasonably well with us. Patrick is graduating from university in May. Katrina is about to complete her 2nd year in art school and absolutely loves it. Donal is carrying on in Kathmandu....it is quite a challenging environment with constant strikes, disruptions and uncertain factors, but he's hanging in there and doing well under the circumstances. I am spending a few months in the States with my family. Donal will join all of us in early May, so we are looking forward to having the family together again.
We are researching the possibilities of visiting Thailand in early July. If it all works out, I'll let you know. We would love to see you all again.
Till then, take care and much love to you both.
Susan and Donal (
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Proverbs 31:8-9
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Romans 15:4
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
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Laus Deo Semper
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