| LMF News |  April 2010 | |
Dear friends,
Christ Is Risen...Happy Easter! We hope you were able to enjoy a good Easter break with family and participate in some of the beautiful Triduum ceremonies.
There are a few events coming up within the Archdiocese and the first one is our Afternoon for Couples Hoping to Conceive which you can read about below in the first article. SCENE is also back for 2010 and there is an article all about what's happening there. For all the Mothers, we are holding a retreat day on Saturday 8th May. This event 'sold out' last year so you would be wise to get in early and book a place for yourself and/or your mother! Find out more about the mother's retreat here.
You will find the contents of this months newsletter down to the left. This month we have some great articles and short videos as well as the 'Ten Commandments' for husbands and fathers. We also consider the difficult question of what to do with the thousands of embryos in frozen storage.
If you like our newsletter we would love you to pass it on to at least one friend. You will see the green 'Forward this email to a Friend' button to the left, it's ready and waiting for you to use it :)
Have a great month and until we meet again, may the graces of the Easter Season be yours.
The Life, Marriage and Family Centre Team |
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An Afternoon for Couples Hoping to Conceive |
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Saturday 17 April
Each year the Life, Marriage and Family Centre hosts events to strengthen and affirm couples and families.
 Once again we are holding an information afternoon for married couples who are having difficulty conceiving, who are trying to have children, or, who desire to learn more about the various options available to assist fertility, which are in harmony with the dignity of married love.
If you or someone you know is in this situation (Catholic or otherwise) please consider our invitation. This afternoon will be held on Saturday 17 April at Lidcombe.
Click here to see the event flyer with full details.
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What Does Your Body Mean? | | |
When love gets a name...
People can live their entire lives without ever realising who they are. In this short but enlightening video Fr Michael Schmitz talks about who we are in our bodies and what our love means...
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What Would Jesus Do: Homosexuality |
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Would Jesus Defend Marriage?
Colleen Carroll Campbell - It was a controversy tailor-made for the TV cameras: A lesbian couple in the liberal bastion of Boulder, Colorado, had enrolled their children in a Catholic parish school, only to see those children denied re-enrollment once the parish priest learned of their  home situation.
When the story leaked last week, Boulder's vociferous gay-rights activists mobilised to protest the priest, the parish and the Archdiocese of Denver, brandishing signs outside the church that plaintively asked: "What would Jesus do?"
For the reporters breathlessly covering the story and many Catholics, the answer was obvious. Jesus would allow the children to stay in the school. He would tell the teachers not to worry about the conflict between their duty to teach Catholic doctrine on marriage and their desire to protect the feelings of students being raised by a couple that flouted that doctrine in a particularly obvious way. The solution, he would say, is simple: Drop the doctrine and focus on feelings.
Read the complete article here.
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SCENE...Coming This July! | | |
SCENE is on again! Last year's WYD anniversary event was such a success that SCENE (Sydney Congress Embracing the New Evangelisation) will be back by popular demand in July of this year. Bishop Julian Porteous, Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney and chair of the Congress said "The Congress will be a great opportunity once again for all ages especially our Youth, to come together and learn about the New Evangelisation, called for by Pope John Paul II. It will draw people from all parishes, communities and groups to show just how vibrant the Church really is and how relevant the Gospel message is for people today!"
The 2010 Congress will run from Monday 12th July till Friday 16th July, with events leading up to the Congress that will help to promote the Congress itself.
The very popular Franciscan Friars of the Renewal from New York will  return to Sydney to perform during Street Evangelisation and to run "Catholic Underground", a powerful night of Adoration and contemporary Catholic Music in St. Mary's Cathedral on the 10 July from 7:30pm.
The program for SCENE is based on similar international Congresses, with Morning Plenary sessions in the Cathedral which consist of a Catechesis by an Australian Bishop, Testimonies and Mass. In the afternoons, delegates are encouraged to take part in Street Evangelisation in the Sydney CBD.
After street evangelisation, Workshops will be held in the Cathedral School which will feature topics such as; missionary spirituality, the theology of evangelisation, The Church and the Media, Music and the New Evangelisation, Youth Ministry. The workshop program will also showcase successful works of evangelisation as models for others to follow.
Following the workshops, delegates attend the Holy Hour which will give people a chance to pray before the Blessed Sacrament and reflect on what they have learnt during the day.
To round off the day, Pub Talks will be held in three separate pub venues in the city from Monday - Thursday night. The Pub Talks offer a chance to eat a cheap meal and chat before the talks.
On Friday 16 July, to finish the Congress, a Mercy Night will be held in St. Mary's Cathedral. This night will provide an opportunity for all people to encounter the mercy of God and to reflect on and respond to the experiences of the week.
A major part of the Congress is the Vocations Expo that will be held in Martin Place from Monday 12th - Wednesday 14th July. Last year, the Vocations Expo was a great success and in 2010, they are expecting more  than 40 stallholders featuring different religious orders, communities, group and Catholic Organisations. A feature of the Expo will be the live performances being staged in Martin Place, led by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.
Also returning will be the highly successful 'Children of Hope' tour which is a program developed by Father Antoine Thomas, Community of St. John which introduces children to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. It is active in many parishes in the USA and other countries and has been in operation since 1994.
The tour will begin on the 28th June, which is the last week of the school term - where the focus will mainly be in Sydney primary schools, and will continue through till the 11th July, the start of the SCENE Congress.
If you would like to find out more about SCENE, register or offer to help, find it all at the website, www.scene.org.au
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The War on Baby Girls | | |
Unbalancing Society
XINRAN XUE, a Chinese writer, describes visiting a peasant family in the Yimeng area of Shandong province. The wife was giving birth. "We had scarcely sat down in the kitchen", she writes, "when we heard a moan of pain from the bedroom next door...The crie s from the inner room grew louder-and abruptly stopped. There was a low sob, and then a man's gruff voice said accusingly: 'Useless thing!'
"Suddenly, I thought I heard a slight movement in the slops pail behind me," Miss Xinran remembers. "To my absolute horror, I saw a tiny foot poking out of the pail. The midwife must have dropped that tiny baby alive into the slops pail! I nearly threw myself at it, but the two policemen [who had accompanied me] held my shoulders in a firm grip. 'Don't move, you can't save it, it's too late.'
"'But that's...murder...and you're the police!' The little foot was still now. The policemen held on to me for a few more minutes. 'Doing a baby girl is not a big thing around here,' [an] older woman said comfortingly. 'That's a living child,' I said in a shaking voice, pointing at the slops pail. 'It's not a child,' she corrected me. 'It's a girl baby, and we can't keep it. Around these parts, you can't get by without a son. Girl babies don't count.'"
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Ten Commandments of a Husband and Father | | |
Becoming the Man You Are Called To Be
While it is one thing to get married and father children, it is quite another  to become a good husband and father. These are vocations that take effort, quality time and an openess to God, the Father of all.
The Ten Commandments of a Husband and Father are ten points to set before yourself as challenges and goals. No one becomes perfect over night, but in the same way one needs training and focus to become better at work, sport etc, training and focus is needed in living out the vocation to be a husband and father.
If you are not a husband and father yourself, print a copy and pass onto someone who is.
Download these Ten Commandments
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The Joys of Having More Than 2.1 Children | | |
Questions to ask about your relationship
Matthew Archbold - A woman said to me recently that my five children were very well behaved. It's one of the best things I can hear so I thanked her. Then she asked me "how do you do it with so many?"
 I told her that I don't think I'd be a very good parent of one child or two. She didn't believe my answer but honest to goodness, I sometimes think that having many children is easier than just one.
Why big families are easier:
Patience. I never have to teach patience. My children know that I can't drop everything for them if I have a baby in my arms.
Work Ethic. My children have learned to work because there are always chores to do in a small house packed with little messy lunatics. And they all learn quickly that sometimes they have to clean up a mess even though they didn't make it.
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Five Years After John Paul II | |
This Good Friday we commemorated five years since the death of Pope John Paul II.
Rome Reports News Agency has put together a short tribute video (below). The second video shows the John Paul II Resource Centre in Rome which holds thousands of the pontiffs possessions, writings and the gifts the faithful gave to him.
John Paul II, Servant of God - Pray for Us
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What Should We Do With The Frozen Embryos | |
Fr Tadeusz Pacholczyk - When I give talks on stem cell research or in vitro fertilization, people invariably ask, "What should be done with all the frozen embryos?"
It is usually asked with a sense of urgency, even desperation, as they reflect on the fate of the hundreds of thousands of human embryos cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen at fertility clinics. The simple answer is  that ethically there is very little we can do with the frozen embryos except to keep them frozen for the foreseeable future. No other morally acceptable options seem to exist.
The question of what to do with the frozen embryos, I sometimes remind my audiences, is not in fact the most pressing question we face. A much more urgent issue is how to stop the relentless manufacturing and freezing of new embryos which is occurring each day, with clockwork-like regularity, in every major city in the United States.
The infertility industry has become an embryo mass-production line with virtually no legal oversight or national regulation. Catering to strong parental desires, it is a multibillion dollar business aptly described as the "wild west of infertility." To start to bring this into check, strong laws and regulations like those found in Germany and Italy are urgently needed. In those countries, no more than three embryos may be produced for each infertility treatment, and all three must be implanted into their mother. Extra embryos may not be produced or frozen; as a result, there are essentially no frozen embryos stored in German and Italian fertility clinics. Read the complete article.
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Families Becoming Their Own Censors | | |
What's a Parent To Do?
Has the time come for families to become their own censors -- to take over a task long considered the province of government-backed agencies?  There are two main reasons for raising the question -- first, because these days government bodies seem to be neglecting their duties in this area, and second, because parents (thanks to the age of computerisation) now have the capacity to do the job themselves.
Whatever your opinion, the fact is that more and more parents are taking up the challenge, not only where the films they show their kids are concerned, but in all areas of access to information and entertainment, from news publications and music to internet access.
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Modesty and Romance | |
Building great relationships...
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Healing After Divorce | | |
Loving Beyond Loss
Susan K. Rowland - A few days ago I attended the funeral of a friend's son, 44, who'd battled cancer for years. He left a wife and five children. Hundreds of people came to his Mass of the Resurrection. Devastated as the family was, they knew they were not alone in their grief. People hugged them, wept with them, donated money and cooked food.
I was divorced six years ago. There was no funeral, even though divorce is one of the cruelest deaths there is: the death of a marriage. Most  members of my ex-husband's large family, with whom I had been close for 30 years, disappeared from my life. Some were puzzled, some embarrassed, some downright angry. Fortunately, I had friends who called regularly to see how I was doing and who gave me the hugs I so badly needed. But I wept alone, struggled with money problems and ate alone. Suddenly, I had nowhere to go for holidays. There were times when I felt like an outcast, like one of the lepers of Jesus' time.
Divorce is a death, worse than physical death in some ways. There is no outpouring of support and sympathy that physical death brings. Instead, the divorced person often feels alone and disgraced, especially in the parish community, which (rightfully) is a champion of marriage. Also, the former spouse is still around. The initial pain of divorce is often aggravated by disputes over child support and visitation, adult children's marriages, holidays and remarriage.
Read the complete article here.
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Contraception and the Vocation Crisis | |
Fr Dwight Longenecker - A few weeks ago, a young man I'll call David dropped in to see me. David has been working with me discerning a vocation to the priesthood, so it was with some interest that I heard him announce that he had acquired a girlfriend. We discussed the possibilities and prospects for the future, and I came to realise that his expectation of marriage and family life was very different from my own. As a fairly new convert, and one who has had little experience of large Catholic families,  David had a totally different expectation of what family life would be like.
It has often been observed that Catholics who have used artificial contraception have helped cause the vocations crisis, because there are simply not enough Catholic boys and girls being born to provide the next generation of priests, brothers, nuns, and sisters, but my conversation with David made me realize that the contraceptive culture has affected the vocations question in more subtle and powerful ways.
The first of these is in the Catholic boy's or girl's experience of marriage and family life. Before the sexual revolution, a young man or woman from a Catholic family was likely to have grown up in a large, local extended family. He or she would have been part of a network of brothers and sisters, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents who all lived within visiting distance. Within that context of a large family, the Catholic boy or girl would have seen first hand the joys and sorrows of family life.
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Coming Events |
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There are always plenty of good events happening in and around Sydney.
If your parish, school or group is planning an event for families, couples, singles etc then let us know about it so we can share the news!
Here are some events that we know about...
A Retreat for Women. Talks, Q&A, Spiritual Direction, Holy Hour and Mass. Friday 16 to Sunday 18 April 2010. Find out more here.
Sisterhood Women's Conference. Collaroy Beach. Friday 30 April to Sunday 2 May. See the website here.
Mt Schoenstatt Calendar of Events. All are welcome at this place of pilgrimage and grace. See the calendar here.
National Theology of the Body Congress. July 28-30 in Philadelphia, USA. This congress will be the most expansive gathering of experts and popularists in the history of this extraordinary teaching. Find out more here.
Retreats are essential for those who wish to make real progress in the spiritual life and in learning to love. They are opportunities to step back and listen to what God is saying. The Carmelite Friars at Varoville have 28 different retreats on offer in 2010. See which might be calling you.
Retreats with the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia. These retreat are for single Catholic women ages 18-35 and will be held in May, August and October. Click here for further information.
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