The community or the individual?
The community stagnates with the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.
William James
I like that quote even though I don’t know William James. I should’ve given up by now on the conviction that James wrote down.
The tide has shifted so often on that shore. One decade we’re all for the individual. Next, we’re all for the community.
Yesterday it was civil rights. Today it’s pre-emptive strikes. In the 1970s we told the South Vietnamese to huddle together in 'safe havens'. We would protect them from the 'bad guys'. Didn’t work.
Today we’re advising Iraqis to huddle together in 'safe havens'. We'll protect them from the 'bad guys'. Doesn't work. No one knows anyone who's good or bad or, even, what's good or bad or, worse, does it matter anyway!
Don't think I'll give up just yet. I'm no doubt boring you with my constant appeal for a show of hands and the sound of marching feet. I know none of us has time for anything beyond ourselves. Yet 'the impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community'.
A young woman executive hurried me along the other day. I was yakking away on the phone. She said, without drawing breath, 'Please focus - I'm time hungry.' I guess I have to change, focus more, and stop taking time, like a thief, from peoples' mouths.
Telstra Dome, last weekend, I saw God. A young bloke, paralysed from the neck down, more or less, sat in his mobile life support chair. A bloke, rough looking, popped tomato sauce smeared chips into the paralysed bloke's mouth. The one doted on the other with an angel's care and concern. This was no random act of kindness. This was vocation at large. Other friends came and went with respect and joy. The guardian angel watched over all. I saw God last weekend - in the wheelchair!
'The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual.'

The Friday barbecue in the presbytery backyard has moved into winter mode. That means soup. Thank you Bernard and Angela for your tasty, nutritious contributions.

Next Sunday (the first Sunday of the month) please remember to bring goods for the pantry. Especially welcome are some foods we cannot get from Food Bank: tins of fish and meat, pasta sauces, processed cheese, instant coffee.

Bon Voyage to Gerry Ryan, son of Kate & Peter who is going to Vietnam to work for 18 months and also to Colin & Geraldine Crawford who are heading overseas. We wish them all safe travel and a safe return.

Where's Mum and Dad?
In 1987 a baby was left on my doorstep with a note, "PLEASE, FATHER BOB, LOOK AFTER MY BABY."
The baby, later named Virginia, was a couple of hours old! I brought her in, placed her in a warm room, called the police. Virginia passed into the welfare system. If she survived, she is now 20 years old.
My mate, Melanie La'Brooy, has written well about such a predicament. She allows me to repeat here an article in The Age, 17 May.
A few choice words from a harmful and sexist angle (The Age 17 May 2007)
The PM misjudged the popular response to a mother and child writes Melanie La'Brooy
I said a very bad word on Tuesday and I said it quite loudly.
It was in response to the report that Sydney newspaper 'The Daily Telegraph' had run a front-page photo of baby 'Catherine', the infant left at the entrance to the psychiatric wing of Dandenong Hospital early on Sunday with the headline 'How Could She'.
Sydney has always had a shock-jock tabloid culture that Melbourne has never wholeheartedly embraced. For example, the Telegraph's sister paper, 'The Herald Sun', ran the same photo but chose the caption 'Where's my Mum?' which was simultaneously more sensitive and grammatical.
It would have been easy to write off the offensive headline as just another crudity from the same media culture that generated Alan Jones, but then our Prime Minister, sensing an opportunity to play his favourite game of Battler Empathy, came out with the following extraordinary defence of the newspaper. 'I feel for the mother, I feel for the baby, I feel for the woman's family, but fair go to the Tele. After all, that is the natural reaction. You go out in the street and talk to ordinary people - that's what they would say, 'How could you abandon a little baby?''
Well actually no, John, that's not what they're saying. The ordinary people are too busy ringing up the hospital to donate money and clothes and gifts to Catherine. They're behaving with compassion and generosity instead of casting judgements without having the facts.
Julie Webber, spokeswoman for the Royal Children's Hospital, said: 'We are being inundated with calls from the public wishing to provide clothing and other things . . . We haven't had any calls that are critical of the mother. They have expressed concern over her health and hope she is soon reunited with her baby.'
So let's see. That means the only people publicly criticising the mother are the Prime Minister and an interstate newspaper. At a time when considerable resources are being put into finding the mother, the sort of negative publicity that 'The Daily Telegraph' and the Prime Minister have conspired to create is guaranteed to send her running even further for cover.
The newspaper's editor, David Penberthy, has also rejected the suggestion that his paper's headline targeted the mother. 'I've got kids. The people who are working on it (the newspaper) include a number of women who've got kids. It wasn't like:' What can we do to vilify this woman?'
Oh really? So why didn't the headline read 'How Could They?' Because not once have I heard anyone mention the father.
Leaving aside IVF and allegations involving Boris Becker and a turkey baster, most pregnancies begin with a male and a female having sex. Yet nine months later, when a baby is left at a hospital, barely do we hear the word 'parents' in the media. Instead it's the mother who cops it.
It was understandable that the immediate coverage focused on finding the mother, because there were obvious concerns for her health, both physical and mental. But now that a media and political storm has been generated, where is the father in all this? Re-read John Howard's comment above. He expresses sympathy for the baby, the mother, even the mother's family. But the father?
Not a mention.
This is exactly the same criticism that I make of Tony Abbott when he runs around the country saying things like: 'The problem with the Australian practice of abortion is that an objectively grave matter has been reduced to a question of the mother's convenience.' Once again, no mention of the fathers. No doubt all the men out there who had a little something to do with those unwanted pregnancies will be greatly inconvenienced by not becoming fathers at 15. Penberthy further defended his headline, claiming 'you look at that photograph and instinctively, the first thing that you think of (is) How on earth could you get to a point where you do something that is so massively contrary to human instinct?'
Let's assume that it was the mother and not someone else who left the baby at the hospital door. She wrapped her child in towels, providing the baby with what warmth she could. She left Catherine where she knew she would be found quickly and cared for. Everything she did was in accordance not just with human but maternal instinct.
I hope desperately that the mother is found soon and given the care she needs. I also hope that the father is found or comes forward and is asked his opinion on what role he is to play in his child's life.
One final thing. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Telegraph, has an approximate net worth of $6.7 billion. Ask Rupe to shell out for a sub-editor, will ya, Penberthy? If you must be obnoxious, then at least attempt to be literate. Your stupid headline should have had a question mark.

Calling all gardeners to a working bee for a general clean up of the parish gardens after the 10 am Mass next Sunday 27 May. Barbeque lunch supplied. Please BYO tools.

Greetings all,
At our last meeting of SPPICC, Fr. Bob took us on an amazing tour of the Docklands development and the ecumenical adventure that is unfolding. He has a wonderful and prophetic vision for this area and so I have asked him to say a bit about this after Evensong at St. Silas Church on Sunday 27 May.
The Service starts at 7 pm and it would give me great joy to be able to welcome and share this offering of praise and thanksgiving with you and members of the local churches as we draw the week of Prayer for Christian Unity to a climax.
Would you kindly advertise this Service as our Ecumenical/Pentecost celebration for 2007 and I hope you can come along as we prayerfully give thanks for all we share, praying for God's guidance as we travel this road as members of our locality.
Every blessing,
Ray Mclnnes, Vicar Anglican Parish of the Parks, 384 Ferrars Street, Albert Park Vic 3206

Napier Street Aged Care, South Melbourne is seeking a volunteer driver to assist with outings once a fortnight for approximately two hours. No special licence is required and staff will be in attendance. If you can offer your time please contact Anne Parsons on 9696 9229.

An Invitation is extended by the ladies of the Uniting Church, 319 Dorcas St., South Melbourne to join with them at a Basket Luncheon on Tuesday 29 May at 1 pm. Entertainment will be provided by Eric Parkin, and the cost is $6.50
The members of the South Melbourne Uniting Church are looking forward to seeing you there.
RSVP to Miss M Horsburgh, 9898 4115

Community Brand values
I just put up a sign outside our Church, 'Eagle has landed. Who throws first stone!' Just concerned about an attitude I honestly believe to be unhealthy, for a society pretending to be a community, that is. I don't know how we'll experience community this side of the grave. Our longest serving religious group, the Jews, try for 'community' status under the brand name 'chosen people'.
Islam is the brand name for all those seeking community status by surrendering to Allah after the style of Prophet Mohammad (different spellings apply, with respect!).
Christians are branded, in house, 'the kingdom', sub-group Catholics recently came up with 'people of God'.
Everyone seems to dream about a utopian community, even if it's myself and my own reflection in a mirror or avatar in Second Life.
To be alone turns too easily into being lonely which turns too easily into being dead in thought, word or deed.
Being old fashioned, born in 1934, I've grown old — waiting for experiences of human family communication, care and concern.
I've even tried to design and test run vehicles to carry that 'better world for all' dream.
So, Benny Cousins is a challenge to this pious dream of one for all and all for one.
If you, dear reader, don't know who Benny Cousins is, please wait until my next blog for something to interest you.
I've got to get this off my chest. I'm a practicing confessor! There. I'm out! Well, not that much these days but on standby, nevertheless.
I know from experience of the catholic practice of 'confession', later known as reconciliation, now in need of re-branding.
My suggestion is REASSURANCE.
Whatever you want to tell me, really or virtually, I want to REASSURE you that everything's OK.
Everyone is entitled to hear a representative of this elusive 'community' pronouncing the reassuring formula, 'Don't be afraid. Everything's going to be alright'
Not the AFL management or Tribunal. Not the WA court or police. Not even all the king's horses and all the king's men can put Ben Cousins together again.
But a REASSURED Ben Cousins can put himself together again, maybe leaving an old bit out, maybe adding a new bit.
Ben, like all of us, is a work in progress. He gives us good footy and REASSURES us. Let's REASSURE Ben by doing him no harm by gossip but, even, a little good by wishing him well.

Professor Francis J Maloney sdb AM will speak 'On writing the Gospel according to Judas; some theological and pastoral reflections' at Catholic theological College, Lansdowne St, East Melbourne at, 7.30 on Thursday, 16 May
To book or for more information: email: ctc@ctc.edu.au or phone 9412 3314

The Christian Brothers offer a warm welcome to families wishing to attend the first Open Evening of the year on Tuesday May 15 at CBC, 11 Westbury Street, St. Kilda East (No appointment is necessary).
Format of Evening:
4.00 pm Principal's Address in the Library - Gerald Bain-king
4.20 pm Tours begin. Should take approx 45 minutes. Conducted by prefects.
5.00 pm Principal's Address in the Library Gerald Bain-King
5.20 pm Tours begin. Should take approx 45 minutes. Conducted by prefects.

A charity screening of the above mystery/fantasy will be held at the Palace Cinemas, Cinema No 4, 233 Whitehorse Road, Balwyn on 18 July commencing at 6.3O pm.
The film will be followed by a Champagne Supper (with fruit juice, sandwiches, tea and coffee) Tickets - $25.00 available from the Don Bosco Centre Tel: 9383 5333 or Sec. 9380 8759.
The showing is within the first week of the worldwide release -so get your tickets early. The will go to the Don Bosco Brunswick Youth Centre and Hostel, 715 Sydney Road, Brunswick.

Dear Father,

With Pleasure I announce to you that Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Monsignor Peter Elliott and Father Timothy Costelloe, S.D.B., Auxiliary Bishops of the Archdiocese of Melbourne as of Monday, 30 April 2007. I know I can join you in expressing congratulations and prayerful good wishes to them for their ministry among us.
It is anticipated that their Episcopal Ordination will take place at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Friday, I5 June, at 7.30 pm.
Bishop-Elect Peter Elliott will assist In the Southern Region and Bishop-Elect Tim Costello in the Northern Region. Bishop Christopher Prowse will transfer to the Western Region.

Yours sincerely in Christ, Denis J Hart
Archbishop of Melbourne

Sufism is the spiritual wing of Islam. Its poets and theologians have an intimate sense of God as powerful as anyone in the Christian tradition. Sufism has frequently been condemned by official Islam. Terry Monagle, in this presentation, traces some of the history of Sufism, its liturgies, and examples of the fiery meditations of its poets, especially Rumi.
At Kilbride Centre. RSVP: Friday 11 May from 7.30 - 8.45 pm, Phone 9690 1076. Entry by donation
Co-incidentally there is an art exhibition: The Dervish Series which explores Sufic mysticism at fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, and runs until May 12. (fortyfivedownstairs.com). At 7 pm on 7 May, there will be a free 45-minute performance of Turkish Sufi music at the exhibition by the Turkish Sufi Music Group of Australia.

'Beyond the ash-heaps: a priest, two Popes and the church'
A free public lecture will be held at 6 pm on Tuesday, 22 May at the Mercy Lecture Theatre, Australian Catholic University, Victoria Pde, East Melbourne.
Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese will deliver the oration at 6.30 pm. His Grace, Archbishop Denis Hart of the Melbourne Archdiocese will preside.
If you are attending, please call pat Heywood on 9459 1798 or email patron2@dodo.com.au

Tuesday 22 May l0 am - 3 pm at Kilbride Centre. Cost $20.00. RSVP to 9690 1076
Come for the day or for the meditation from 2 -3 pm

There is an opportunity for a highly experienced bookkeeper to join the busy retail team at the Central Catholic Bookshop. Responsible for all day- to-day financial activities, including accounts payable and receivable, BAS, GST, payroll, banking, financial reporting and account queries. MYOB experience essential. Full-time position in the Melbourne CBD.
For enquiries and a position description please call Mary Long on 9639 0844 or email manager@cathoIicbookshop.com.au

An opportunity exists for a person with substantial experience within the accounts payable and receivable environment to be employed on a full-time basis to provide support to the Finance team at the Archdiocese. Further details, including a position description, can be found on the Archdiocese website at www.melbourne.catholic.org.au/policies/hr-jobadverts.htm