So the seminary has a new rector.
‘From which diocese?’, Marty hears you ask. And you may well ask. Not a diocese immediately connected with New Zealand, to be fair. Yes, that’s right, our new seminary rector is not from these fair shores. In fact, he’s from Australia; a country, if Vizzini from the Princess Bride is to be believed, which is entirely peopled with criminals. But I digress.
Monsignor Peter Jeffrey is his name. He is in his 70′s and was ordained, according to NZ Catholic, in 1963. Within a decade of his ordination he was appointed to the seminary staff at Corpus Christi seminary (1972-1977) before becoming rector (1978-1984).
It seems he was given a chance when young and raw – what a pity that the opportunity extended to him when young is not been extended to younger, more energetic, newer clergy in New Zealand. I can only imagine the surprise in Rome when our bishops asked for someone not from New Zealand. Rather unusual, to say the least.
As an observation, it seems that our older bishops seem only to want to appoint from those within their own age cohort. The little coterie still runs the show, it seems.
Something that many, many (if not all in a sense) young Catholics and Christians battle with is the living of a “double life”. At some point, one has to decide on what path they will follow, how they are going to live their life.
Hearts Aflame has come up a few times in the last week. As you should know, I am a big HA fan, it is a fantastic place in which the truths of the Catholic faith are taught and lived. But HA is only ten days long. After that it is up to the individual to live their lives.
I have seen people attend HA and come away seemingly on fire for the faith, then bumped into them a couple of years later and they are living with the boyfriend, living a life that is in the world and very much of the world. They have chosen their path. Others I have seen come away, change their life, and grow in their their relationship with Christ.
Then there are the 99% inbetween. But ultimately, “the double life will self destruct.”
That is why it is so crucial that parishes and church organisations make provision to support young people. Well done to those parishes that do, and shame on those parishes that don’t!!
In the Herald yesterday was an article on infidelity. Apparently most NZ’ers who admit to having affairs support National (those dirty capitalists), own a PC (what neaderthals), drink Coke (coke heads), eat meat (lousy cannibals), smoke (polluters) have tattos (must be criminals), and are Christian. Wait what? Christian?
These figures were collected by an infidelity website called Ashley Madison where I gather you sign up and search for other like minded people in the same area. This site has 54,000 members in New Zealand which is quite staggering. Imagine how many members there would be in the States. So basically 54,000 people who are currently in a relationship of some description are looking or thinking of looking outside thaat relationship for a bit of fun. I guess what the stats don’t tell us is how successful these people are who sign up and try finding a partner in infidelity. I mean not all of these 54,000 people will be good looking.
Apparently these stats show that “infidelity is part of human nature”. Well when you put it like that I guess it’s ok. I meam every other mammal or higher life form has multiple partners. Is marriage and monogamy just a human construct then?
I can accept that the search for something new / curiosity / looking to better your situation is part of human nature. But infidelity? It’s probably the same part of human nature that sees us lie, steal, and cheat. Or take part in the Occupy movement.
Well I see we have no Thursday post yet. In fact the posts over January so far have been quite sporadic and I have probably been the worst offender. However, I will know start using ‘empty’ days as my opportunity to rant about any topic I choose.
Today I shall be ranting about the Occupy thing that’s going on down at Aotea Square. I wandered past there a couple of months ago and they had a banner up that went something along the lines of ‘Insantiy is doing the same thing and expecting a different result’. Hello – how long have you been occupying the Square for now expecting a different result? I’m not sure what these protestors want. Equality? Corporate responsibility? The so called 1% to give up their hard earned wealth in order to feed the hippies camped out in the Square? Oh there are probably people down there who are truly concerned about social justice, but I love my generalisations so I will say that most of them are possibly no good spongers soking up whatever they can from the general populace who decide to, you know, actually work for a living.
What do they really expect to achieve? This so-called protest is not getting them anyway, nor will it get them close to what they are after. And to top it off, they are befouling a perfectly plesant and agreeable Square.
WWJD? Well Jesus wouldn’t be camping out down nothing for over a 100 days would he. Did Jesus camp out around the temple in protest while the money lenders were money lending in the temple? No – he went there to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And he was all out of bubblegum.
So if you’re really concerned about the inequality in society, please find a better platform for your outrage and displeasure instead of wasting away in your tents.
Perhaps I’m just too much of a capitalist to understand.
Rant over.
The latest craze video on youtube, ‘Why I hate religion, but love Jesus’, is a semi-rapped poem by a young man clearly searching for truth in his life, though he is sadly misinformed. Nevertheless, reflective of our godless age, the video has managed to attract over 16 million views almost overnight.
Of the many responses it has spawned, here are a couple of good ones – their hit count doesn’t number anything like the original video – as the priest in the first one below says, “the teacher will teach when the students are ready to listen”, and few want to listen to both sides of the argument. Fr Barron, in the second video, says, “what should a Catholic make of this? Not very much.” It’s not a threat – but it needs our response.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru_tC4fv6FE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLta2b9zQ64
Now I don’t know how effective a priest rapping in front of the altar is in terms of a response, but at least these people and others have made a quick response to the challenge to our religion. And at least people are intrigued by the issue of religion, and are having the debate. Youtube is such an easy and effective way of putting your views forward online; and especially with regards to questions over religion and Christianity, where there is so much misinformation floating around, the more voices there are online the better.
How many Catholics in New Zealand, and youth in particular, have a presence on youtube, in these international debates on religion? Shouldn’t we here in New Zealand be more proactive when it comes to defending our religion?
Marty’s back, after a summer hiatus and, naturally, an explosion of emails from concerned contributors that he had given his last post. Fear not.
Just a quick post today. I have seen the awesome effects of another Hearts Aflame summer school in my parish and in conversations with a number of young people. You know, we can complain about the rubbish courses on offer out there, masquerading as Catholic, or quasi-catholic…but this Hearts Aflame is the real deal.
A hundred and fifty young people, who without exception are drawn closer to Christ through the ten days of Hearts Aflame. It is predominantly through this apostolate that the church in New Zealand is garnering vocations. Through the imperfect vessels that are the planning team and assistant clergy, this movement does so much for the church in this country.
Please pray for its continuance and, if you are able to contribute anything to its financial outlay, I encourage you to do so.
Good news!
The number of seminarians in New Zealand has dramatically risen over the last few years! So much so, that the seminary is pretty much full.
I also just read on the NZ Catholic website that a new rector for the seminary has just been appointed.
Interestingly enough, Christchurch seems to be one of the dioceses with the largest numbers of seminarians. With eight guys currently at Holy Cross and four rumoured to be entering Christchurch’s pre-seminary this year, my diocese seems to be reaping the fruit of the Thursday-pray for priests day that Bishop Barry Jones initiated a couple of years ago.
NZ Catholic also reported in December on the increased number. Bishop Pat Dunne in the article reported that Hearts Aflame has been a big contributing factor to the increased number. Well done Hearts Aflame!!!
Thank you Jesus for continuing to call men to serve the Church.
And thank you seminarians for answering this call!!
(any seminarians reading this blog?)
Check this out for a list of seminarians enrolled last year…
On a related note, Father Michael Gielen is set to be the new formator for the seminary after he completes his training in Rome. A good move I think!
Who knows, they might be extending the seminary in a few years. A priest friend of mine thinks they never should have moved it from Mosgiel. With Christchurch’s growing numbers, maybe a second seminary could be built here!!
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