Author: cathcomms

200 years ago Fathers John Joseph Therry and Philip Conolly arrived in Sydney as the first official Catholic chaplains to the colony.

All Saints is not really the feast of all saints. It is not a celebration of those ‘living saints’ who are among us, transparent with God’s grace, demonstrating remarkable virtue. Nor is it a celebration of those becoming saints, whom St Paul dared call ‘saints’ already. No, All Saints is not about living saints.

It arrived in Australia in the dying days of the First World War. Ultimately the Spanish Flu would infect a third of the world’s population and kill at least 50 million people. All those docking in Sydney were isolated at North Head, next door to St Patrick’s Seminary.

The first live TV show broadcast globally by satellite was “Our World” in 1967. Artists such as Maria Callas and Pablo Picasso performed for an estimated 400 million people.

Fratelli Tutti, the title of Pope Francis’ latest encyclical, comes from his name-saint, Francis of Assisi, as did the title of his previous encyclical, Laudato Si’. Where the earlier document focussed upon our responsibilities for the natural environment, the new one attends to our human ecosystem.

Jesus’ caustic reproaches today (Lk 11:29-32) are occasioned by people asking for signs, for proof that the outrageous things He said and did were from God. On the face of it, that’s human enough: we all have our doubts about the claims of gurus, theologians and experts, let alone the remorseless critics of religion like the ABC and the SMH.

It’s quite a story (Mt 22:1-14). First we have a wedding – the setting for many a rom-com – think Steel Magnolias, Crazy Rich Asians or My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

On a fertile hillside he dug the soil, cleared the stones, planted the vines, built a tower, dug a wine-press. “What more could I have done for you, my vineyard?” the Divine Vigneron cries out in our first reading (Isa 5:1-7).