Catholic Melbourne - same as Catholic Westminster

It may seem presumptive to have been in Australia for only 9 days and to be offering a view on what's what as far as the Faith is concerned.

But, on reflection, I find that church affairs are really just as they are in the UK.
On the surface, at any rate, and that is all that I am qualified to comment on.

The city Church of St Francis - the oldest Church in the State of Victoria -
but why the empty cross? How sad.

There is a dearth of Latin Masses in and around Melbourne (a la Westminster) and even St Patrick's Cathedral only offers an EF Mass on Wednesdays at 5.30pm.

The Church of St Francis, right in the city centre and surrounded by high rise office blocks, has no Latin Masses on offer which is a great pity as it is a beautiful church that appears to be busy with the faithful coming and going throughout the day.

There is a lack of statues in the Cathedral which always makes me feel a shade uncomfortable but then, St David's in Cardiff (Old South Wales) is also imageless, more or less.

One difference that is noticeable is that the wearing of the mantilla seems much more the custom here, even by the non traditional faithful.

The mainstay of traditionalism in Melbourne is the Church of St Aloysius, in the suburb of Caulfield North.

Here the altar is ad orientum and I found myself wondering if the Ordinary Form of Mass was also celebrated in this way. I was enlightened after the 8am EF Mass when a modern altar was wheeled in from the wings - a complete reversal of how it is in England and Wales, and a welcome one at that.

But I do have one grouse (and that applies also to churches in Great Britain).
It is the issue of being acoustically challenged when the sound system is so basic and pitched at high volume that good sermons literally fall on deaf ears. Or deafened ears.

Does the parish priest ever sit in a pew and listen to one of his brother priests preach?
They must not. If they did so they would surely make haste to employ the services of a professional sound engineer to put in a decent system.
How sad it is for wise words to be so unintelligible that, instead of uplifting the soul a thin red mist is engendered.
Older churches were designed and built with the natural amplification of the human voice in mind; they cannot easily take a modern speaker system that bounces the sound waves off a thousand surfaces.

SSPX priests, if I remember correctly, tend to despise sound systems and use their voices to effect, the way that God intended perhaps. It adDs a lot to a sermon if the deliverer has to inject intonations and volume at varying pitches. It makes it hard to deliver monosyllabic homilies.

Please accept these comments as a shallow view on Catholic life here in the Diocese of Melbourne; for a really in depth appreciation please watch out for a post from Kate Edwards (Australia Incognita) as I believe she is working on a report.

It is almost six years since we were last in Melbourne and the number of EF Masses and churches that offered them has shrunk.
Not a point for the brick by brick file I'm afraid; but it does go to show that the battle for the reform of the reform must go on and that the pace should, if anything, be increased.

St Francis Clothed Himself in Christ

A young man called Francis, before the town of Assisi, threw off his clothes, renounced riches and the paternity of his earthly father and entrusted himself to his Bishop, to whom he presented himself naked.

Nowadays, sorrowfully, it is Bishops who are naked, and men and women, young and old, who must remind them to clothe themselves in Christ.

Enjoy the Feast of St Francis of Assisi.

The Feast of St Francis of Assisi!

No, this is not some obscure traditionalist grace before meals but a meal involving French people enjoying one of their greatest delicacies, Ortolan, a small finch like bird that, to my certain knowledge does not provide a pandemic threat of crop destruction or  disease carrying world population decimation.

It is, allegedly, scrumptious delicious and this is the time of year when, in one or two places in France, they still eat the little bird.
Ahem, pause while we all ritualise the phrase 'garlic eating etc'.

So delicious is this little bundle of feathers that the French eat it with napkins over their heads (not serviettes, please note, they are all busy on the sanctuary).

This may strike you as an unusually obsessive anti-social way of carrying on but then, I can recall some dinner parties when such a disguise would have provided light relief from chatting to one's neighbour!

However, back to the point. Here we are on the feast of this great saint, lover of all things four footed, feathered, finned or furry, and we are all (or a large proportion of us) going to tuck into steaks, chops, lamb shanks, sausages, liver, chitterlings (don't ask), sweetbreads (definitely don't ask) and other choice cuts of various types of animals. And you call yourselves Catholics?

The answer is, of course, each to his own. Almighty God gave us the world that we live in and its creatures for us to decently manage as best we can.
If you wish to eat parsnips for the rest of your life - fine. Equally, if you wish to dine on anything that kicks and squeals (with the exception of the poor ortolan) then that is fine also.

I am sure that St Francis, while sticking to his frugal repast of roots and leaves, would not begrudge his fellow man a few mouthfuls of mammal or fish, even if he had just held an intelligent conversation with one!

So - a Happy Feastday to one and all and here is the prayer attributed to St Francis............................

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

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