| LMF News |  July 2010 | |
Dear friends,
Greetings and thanks for opening another issues of LMF News! A special welcome to new subscribers!
We have a number of events coming up for Young Adults, Mothers and Fathers, so have a look at the first three articles and please spread the word. This month is also Marriage and Family Sunday in the Archdiocese of Sydney so if you attend Mass in the Archdiocese watch out for the new brochures on 25 July. The theme for this year is Grandparents: A Great Gift to Family Life and as readers of LMF News you can be the first to read the brochure right here.
There are some interesting videos in this months newletter as well as a thought provoking article on the chaste love between people of the same sex and how even that has been tainted by a culture that sexualises everything.
Apart from the main articles each month you will find new recommended websites down the left side bar as well as all our publications, videos and podcasts so have a good look through and see what respources interest you. If you know of other websites you think we should know about be sure to send us an email.
And don't forget each article has a 'forward to a friend' link so you can easily send something of interest to someone else, and as we've said before, we really like new subscribers!
Have a wonderful month and if you have any feedback or suggestions for articles feel free to email us at lmfnews@sydneycatholic.org.
God Bless you and your family.
The Life, Marriage and Family Centre Team |
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An Event for Young Adults | | |
Love & Life @ Polding Centre
The Life, Marriage and Family Centre is inviting Young Adults to a series  of DVD and discussion evenings to be held at the Polding Centre, (the Polding Centre is where the offices of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney are located).
We will begin with food and drink at 5:30pm followed by a DVD and a time of discussion. It will be a great way to meet some new people and think about topical issues.
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Annual Mass for Pregnant Women | | |
Are you expecting a baby or know someone who is? Would you like to  express your congratulations, prayers and support for pregnant women and their families?
You and your family and friends are warmly invited to attend the annual Mass for Pregnant women to be held at St Marys Cathedral on Sunday 15 August 2010. The Mass will be celebrated by His Eminence George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney.
The Mass will be followed by morning tea in St Marys Cathedral College Hall.
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A Breakfast for Fathers | | |
Being a father is not an easy task. We live in a world that downplays the role of fathers and fatehrhood. Too many men in the headlines are anything but good examples of what it is to be a husband and a father.
In commemorating Father's Day, the Life, Marriage and Family Centre warmly invite all Fathers and Grandfathers to a morning of prayer, fellowship, formation and food on the morning of Saturday 4 September.
The morning will commence with Mass at All Saints church in Liverpool  before heading over the the Liverpool Catholic Club where a full buffet breakfast will be served.
There will be two talks given over breakfast. The first speaker is Ron Delezio, the father of Sophie Delezio who was involved in a serious accident in 2003 and became a national icon of hope. Ron was named Australian Father of the Year in 2006 and will share with the men his story about overcoming the difficulties and keeping his family together in the difficult times.
The second speaker is Bishop Julian Porteous, auxiliary bishop of Sydney. Bishop Porteous will speak about the Fatherhood of God and what that means for the way fathers look after their own families.
This will be an event that fills quickly, so please see the flyer here for full registration and event details. If you are not a father yourself, give it to your father as a gift for Fathers Day!
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Andrea Bocelli Praises His Mother | | |
Famous Singer could have been Aborted
Italian singer Andrea Bocelli has told the story of his mother's pregnancy, during which doctors suggested that she abort him because he would be born with a disability.
In a new video (below) he praises his mother for making "the right choice," saying other mothers should take encouragement from the story.
He said he hoped the story could encourage many mothers in "difficult situations" but who want to save the life of their baby.
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How to Avoid 'Divorce Flu' | | |
Francine & Byron Pirola - A new study has documented what counsellors have observed for years: divorce is contagious. Just like a virus, divorce spreads among social networks and influences marriages among the divorcing couple's friends,  family and work colleagues.
For example, got a divorced sibling? Your chances of divorcing go up by 22%. A divorced friend? Up by 147%. A divorced co-worker? Up by 55%. Got a friend who has a friend who is divorcing? Your chances of divorce go up too.*
In a culture where the 'right' to happiness is seen as a God-given entitlement, it is difficult for couples to see the merit in a relationship that isn't meeting their expectations. As more couples abandon an unsatisfying marriage, the social acceptability of divorce increases and the fear of negative consequences dissipates. Having someone you know go through a divorce and survive it will soften your aversion to divorce and increase your openness to that possibility for your own marriage.
So what's a couple to do?
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IVF & Reproductive Technologies | |
Thinking Morally About Infertility
John M. Hass - It is quite legitimate, indeed praiseworthy, to try to find ways to overcome infertility. The problem causes great pain and anguish for many married couples. Since children are a wonderful gift of marriage, it is a good thing to try to overcome the obstacles that prevent children from being conceived and born.
 In 1987, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document known as Donum Vitae ("The Gift of Life"), which addressed the morality of many modern fertility procedures. The document concluded that some methods are moral, while others - because they do violence to the dignity of the human person and the institution of marriage - are immoral. Without questioning the motives of those using these techniques, Donum Vitae pointed out that people can do harm to themselves and others even as they try to do what is good, that is, overcome infertility.
Donum Vitae teaches that if a given medical intervention helps or assists the marriage act to achieve pregnancy, it may be considered moral; if the intervention replaces the marriage act in order to engender life, it is not moral.
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Food: There's Lots Of It | | |
This is the third episode of the Population Research Institute's POP 101 series on the myth of overpopulation. This video takes a fresh, humorous approach to the demographic issues facing the world today. If you missed the others be sure to have a look at video one and video two.
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Aging Gracefully | | |
Colleen Carroll Campbell - When the first Sex and the City movie debuted two summers ago, the big-screen version of the popular TV series made a splash at the box office and delighted its legions of die-hard fans. This time around, Carrie Bradshaw and her gal pals are having a tougher time.
Sex and City 2 opened last weekend to disappointing box-office receipts and dismal reviews, most of them laced with a recurring complaint:  These women are getting too old to act like superficial, sex-crazed coeds.
It's an intriguing criticism, given that the fictional foursome has been parlaying sex jokes and shoe shopping into a successful franchise since 1998. What finally made the aging sirens cross the line from liberated to pathetic? Was it the sequel's subplot about 50-something sexaholic Samantha trying to stave off menopause with vitamins and lotion? Or 40-something shopaholic Carrie flitting through the desert trapped in the same cartoonish fashions and adolescent romantic conflicts that occupied her a dozen years earlier?
Silly as the show's forever-young shtick may be, there's a reason it has taken so long for viewers to tire of it. Deep down, many of us want to believe the fiction that Sex and the City sells: that looks, libido, health and wealth have no expiration date, and as long as we work hard enough to hold onto them, we can revel in youthful happiness indefinitely.
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Advice for Fathers | | |
Knowing What Not to Do
James Stenson - I used to ask veteran fathers (men whose children had grown and gone) what warnings or other "negative know-how" they'd pass on to younger Dads. In paraphrase, here are some bits of hard-earned fatherly wisdom they shared with me....
Don't neglect your wife. She needs what we all need: understanding, affection, gratitude, support, and appreciation. For sure, she doesn't get these from the kids when they're small. So if she doesn't get them from  her husband either, then she doesn't get them at all. You can tell you're neglecting your wife if she starts complaining about small things around the house, one after another, circling around and around the central problem: your apparent unconcern for her. Wake up. Pay attention. Listen to her opinion, help her out, tell her she's great, hug and kiss her from time to time - all this goes a long way.
Don't underestimate your children. Have high ambitions for their swift, step-by-step growth into maturity. We all tend to become what we think about, and kids tend to become what their parents expect of them. Even when they sometimes let you down and you have to correct them, make them understand that you see this as just a blip along the way. You have no doubt, none whatever, that they'll someday grow into excellent men and women. You're proud of them, confident in them. Always will be.
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The Pill - How It Works | | |
The contraceptive pill is designed to stop pregnancy...but it does more than stop ovulation from occurring...
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Try a Little Kindness in Your Marriage | | |
Dan Mulhall - Michelle hates to make decisions. Her husband, Craig, enjoys it. Over the years of their marriage Craig has learned that Michelle doesn't like having decision made for her either, so how he makes a decision is very important. He has learned to ask for her opinion and to offer his in return. He takes her feelings into consideration; he knows what she likes and dislikes, and respects that. Craig loves Michelle and one way he demonstrates his love by making decisions with kindness and consideration, and Michelle loves him all the more for that.
Kindness is a difficult attribute to define, but not to illustrate. Each of us, if asked, could tell personal stories about when we have been treated kindly and when we have been treated unkindly. We know it when we experience it, and we recognize when it isn't there.
A kind person acts in benevolent, gentle, and loving ways. In marriage, kindness is demonstrated through generous acts, considerate behavior, and comforting words. A kind person usually has a mild and pleasant disposition and acts with tenderness and concern for others. A man who brings his wife flowers as a sign of his love and a woman who strokes her husband's arm as they watch a movie are acting with kindness.
Read the complete article here.
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The Sad Demise of Celibate Love | | |
To the Pure, all Things are Pure (Titus 1:15)
Jack Valero - In October 2008 there was excitement over the exhumation, in the outskirts of Birmingham, of an eminent Victorian. The remains of Cardinal John Henry Newman were being dug up as part of the process towards declaring him a saint - Pope Benedict XVI will declare him  "blessed" (the first stage) during his September visit to the UK - but the move disturbed more than the ground.
The controversy turned on the curious fact that Newman was not alone in his tomb, having asked to be buried in the same plot as another priest he was very close to. "He loved me with an intensity of love, which was unaccountable," Newman wrote after the death of Father Ambrose St John, 15 years before his own.
The object of the exhumation was to transfer Newman's remains to a marble sarcophagus in the Birmingham Oratory, giving people who wanted to pay their respects easy access to this revered English Catholic and major Christian thinker. But a well-known gay rights activist objected. "The reburial has only one aim in mind: to cover up Newman's homosexuality and to disavow his love for another man," Peter Tatchell noisily alleged.
As it turned out, there were no remains to transfer. The coffin, not being lead-lined, had decomposed. But the controversy left two ideas stuck in the minds of many: that Newman was "gay", and that the Catholic church wished to suppress the fact.
Read the complete article here.
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A Humourous Lesson in Leadership | | |
There are two sorts of people in this world: those who lead and those who follow. Whatever sort of person you are, you should find something of value in this little video...
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Do Donor-Conceived Children have Rights? | | |
For whose benefit are these children created?
Margaret Somerville - Two stories concerning the donation of gametes - sperm and ova - appeared recently in the media.
One related that a "virtual" sperm and egg bank is being established that will only accept offers to donate from "beautiful" people. Internet polling will determine who is beautiful enough to do so. The goal - informed by the principle that "everyone deserves a beautiful child" - is to enable  "ugly" people to have beautiful children.
The other story was that New Zealand will possibly allow "double donation"; that is, would-be parents would be able to use both donated ova and sperm to create embryos (a practice that is not legally prohibited, although still fairly uncommon, in Canada). As Diane Allen of the Infertility Network argues, this "cannot be construed as any form of infertility 'treatment,' but, rather, the deliberate manufacture of babies to meet consumer demand."
What do we, as a society, owe to the resulting children, especially when we are complicit in their coming into being, by approving and funding the technologies used to create them? They are the people most profoundly and directly affected. They will live their lives as "donor-conceived adults," "genetic orphans," as many of them call themselves.
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Coming Events | |
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...
Annual Mass for Pregnant Women, Sunday 15 August, 10:30am at St Mary's Cathedarl. Come to pray and show your support for pregnant women.
A Breakfast for Fathers, Saturday 4 September in Liverpool. Mass, breakfast and talks by Ron Delezio and Bishop Julian Porteous.
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 retreats are for single Catholic women ages 18-35 and will be held in August and October. Click here for further information.
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