Dear Readers,
You can imagine why you haven’t heard a lot from me in recent days – the Parliament of the World’s Religions has hit town. I might get a chance to do a little blogging on this on Monday at some time, but it has all been “go-go-go” since it started. The pity of it all is, that with so much to organise, I have only been able to attend one session (with Gary Bouma and Hass Dellal on “Freedom of Religion and Belief: the Project of the Australian Humn Rights Commission”) aside from the opening ceremony on Thursday night (which in itself was a brilliant experience) at which Archbishop Hart gave a blessing as representative of the Christian world.
We had a well attended Catholic Mass at the Convention Centre on Friday morning celebrated by Bishops Prowse and Putney, and have just completed a great Mass in the Cathedral with Cardinal McCarrick as chief celebrant, Archbishop Hart, Bishops Putney and Finnigan, and a whole bunch of other visiting priests for the Parliament. Our ambassador to the Holy See was present, as was Sir James and Lady Gobbo, and a goodly number of other guests and participants in the Parliament. I should add that our friend, newly ordained Deacon Nick Pearce, served at the altar. See above.
I hope to get down to the Parliament for another session this afternoon – probably for the session “Our Interreligious Future” with Cardinal McCarrick, Rabbi David Rosen, and others. Then my family and I are heading off to a 50th birthday party for our good friend, Fr Greg Pritchard. So, a very full day!
PS. I just noticed that it looks like Archbishop Hart is wearing a blue chasuble. Tis a trick of the Canon camera, for the colour is actually much close to that in the top picture.
The top photo brings to mind a “how many priests does it take…?” joke scenario. :)
And the exact answer in this case was: 1 Cardinal, 3 bishops, 1 deacon and a dozen priests.
This reminds me of what a certain Fr Hart, when M.C. at the Cathedral many years ago, said to one concelebrant in the hearing of a priest I know: “Intend to consecrate THAT ciborium.”
?!
I guess that as MC he felt it was his moral duty to ensure all bases were covered! LOL!