The Antipodean

2005-09-29T14:22:00.000+12:00

You are a
Social Moderate
(56% permissive)

and an...
Economic Moderate
(56% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Centrist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Looks like my predictions were a bit off...

2005-09-20T23:05:00.000+12:00

But so were most of the polls.

I predicted,

ACT: No seats
National: 55 seats
United Future: 3 seats
New Zealand First: 7 seats
Labour: 45 seats
Progressives: 1 seat
Maori Party: 5 seats
Greens: 8 seats

The end result was:

ACT: 2 seats
National: 49 seats
United Future: 3 seats
New Zealand First: 7 seats
Labour: 50 seats
Progressives: 1 seat
Maori Party: 4 seats
Greens: 6 seats

So it appears the country will be subjected to three more years of the same tax and spend government we have endured for the last six. However I can state with a great deal of confidence that in a little over three years we will have a new government of the centre right. National's 49 seats puts them in good stead for the next three years and I think we can took forward to seeing the government strongly challenged on every step they take.

Election 2005

2005-09-14T21:55:00.000+12:00

Firstly, I apologise for failing to update this blog more frequently. In real life I have been very busy with work, and lacking motivation when not at work.
As many of you will be aware (if in fact the number of people reading this could be referred to as “many”), New Zealand will go to the polls on Saturday to decide who will lead us for the next three years. As in any political system, there is no perfect choice, no party which perfectly encapsulates all that I would do were I to be put in charge of our fair land. However one must nonetheless come to a decision as to how one is to cast one’s vote, and I have decided to give two ticks* to National. In previous elections I have cast my party vote for ACT and my electorate vote for National. This time I have abandoned ACT for several reasons. Firstly, unless Rodney Hide wins Epsom (which I consider to be unlikely), any vote for ACT is likely to be wasted as I they don’t have a show of making the 5% threshold. Secondly, I don’t trust Rodney Hide. Thirdly, with Don Brash in charge of the Nats, the difference between the two parties has reduced to the point where I consider it to be inconsequential.
Why have I chosen National:
I believe National’s taxation policy will be fairer, leaving more money in the hands of those who earned it, and will stimulate growth in the economy.
I believe National has a better chance of being able to restore relationships with the United States which have been so strained for the last 20 years.
A National government, while unlikely to undo the morally questionable Acts passed by the (hopefully) outgoing Clark government (e.g. civil unions, legalised prostitution), or affect the longstanding availability of abortion on demand, is less likely to pass any further pieces of social engineering legislation (e.g. euthanasia, decriminalisation of cannabis).
A National government will spend my money more wisely (hopefully on my department) rather than wasting it on needless things as this current government has done again and again.
My hope for the result would be a National party with enough seats to form a majority government unaided by any of the minor parties. This however seems unlikely. Second choice would be a National only minority government supported outside a formal coalition by United Future, or less comfortably, by New Zealand First.
My prediction:
ACT: No seats
National: 55 seats
United Future: 3 seats
New Zealand First: 7 seats
Labour: 45 seats
Progressives: 1 seat
Māori Party: 5 seats
Greens: 8 seats
Total of 124 seats as the Māori party will win more electorate seats than their share of the party vote would have entitled them to, bringing an “overhang”
The majority needed to form a government would be would be 63.
Possibilities on this scenario are:
National/UF coalition supported by NZF – 65 seats
Labour/Progressive/Green/Māori coalition supported by NZF – 66 seats

Neither of these would be terribly stable (nothing involving NZF could be), but I think the National/UF option has a much greater chance of successfully seeing out the next three years than an “all comers” of the left would. These hypotheticals are based purely on my arbitrary guesses as to how my fellow countrymen will vote on the weekend.

* For those who hail from places other than New Zealand: Since 1996 New Zealand has operated an electoral system known as MMP (Mixed Member Proportional). Each voter has two votes to cast, one for person who he wishes to be the local Member of Parliament, and one for the party he wishes to form or assist the government. In terms of deciding who will be the government after the election, it is the party vote which is the most important as this determines how many seats each party will have in Parliament. The party or block of parties with the most seats in parliament then attempts to form a government which will be able to attract and retain majority support in parliament. The leader of the largest party in the block which attains the support of a majority of parliament is normally appointed Prime Minister.

2005-06-26T14:15:00.000+12:00

You scored as Roman Catholic. You are Roman Catholic. Church tradition and ecclesial authority are hugely important, and the most important part of worship for you is mass. As the Mother of God, Mary is important in your theology, and as the communion of saints includes the living and the dead, you can also ask the saints to intercede for you.

Roman Catholic

96%

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

82%

Neo orthodox

79%

Emergent/Postmodern

50%

Classical Liberal

43%

Fundamentalist

36%

Reformed Evangelical

25%

Modern Liberal

21%

Charismatic/Pentecostal

18%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

2005-06-18T21:01:00.000+12:00

My apologies for the paucity of posting recently. I have been rather busy with work and other "real life" stuff. As well I have been spiritually tired and feeling disinclined to blog and read catholic blogs, even when I have had the time. I feel this is passing now, so hopefully I should be able to post a little more over the coming weeks.

2005-06-18T20:56:00.000+12:00

You scored as Fundamentalist. Fundamentalism represents a movement in opposition to Modernism, stressing the highest importance on foundational religious tradition. Science has brought on corruption of society. God is real and is watching. Scripture leaves little room for interpretation; man is God’s creation. About a quarter of the population in the U.S. is classified as Fundamentalist.

Fundamentalist

69%

Cultural Creative

63%

Romanticist

56%

Existentialist

50%

Postmodernist

50%

Idealist

38%

Modernist

13%

Materialist

What is Your World View? (updated)
created with QuizFarm.com

A fairly accurate quiz result

2005-05-17T16:20:00.000+12:00

You scored as Divine Command. Your life is directed by Divine Command: Your god and religion give you meaning and direction.

“Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.”
--King James Version of the Bible

“Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion--human religion--but any number of faiths.”
--Mahatma Gandhi

More info at Arocoun's" Wikipedia User Page...

Divine Command

90%

Utilitarianism

60%

Hedonism

60%

Existentialism

60%

Justice (Fairness)

50%

Kantianism

40%

Apathy

30%

Strong Egoism

25%

Nihilism

What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03)
created with QuizFarm.com

Graduation

2005-05-05T11:26:00.000+12:00

Your humble scribe is now officially The Antipodean, B.A., LL.B.

Der Panzerpabst

2005-04-22T15:19:00.000+12:00

Wow.

I never thought it would actually happen. Not for a moment did I believe that we would be given an uberliberal pope who would issue a bull endorsing the sexual revolution, but I didn't think the outcome would be this good either. In our new Holy Father, Benedict XVI, we have a man who will stand his ground. We have true Fide Defensor, a defender of the faith. We have a pope who will not compromise with evil to satisfy the world, and I couldn't be happier with the choice. Pope Benedict will speak the truth with charity and clarity. His words will be distorted by the press, but this will not stop him.

St Benedict, patron of Europe, pray for him.
St John Paul the Great, pray for him.

Papal commemorations at Auckland's Cathedral

2005-04-15T21:04:00.000+12:00

I went to Confession and Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral today and was pleased to see a good number of large images of the Holy Father around the church. To the sides of the sanctuary were two particularly large banners with bearing photos of John Paul the Great. To the left was a picture of the Pope in his prime, facing us, vested for Mass with a smile, below it was the papal arms of John Paul II. To the right of the sanctuary was a depiction of the pope with his back to us, walking towards a mountain, towards our Lord. Below this image was the arms of the sede vacante. I thought this was an interesting way of depicting his passing.

Still two weeks after the ending of his earthly life, his faithful priests are struggling to not insert his name into the canon. Today Fr B started to pray "together with Jo.., with Patrick, our Bishop". For him, like so many priests, he has before last week never said a Mass without offering a prayer for "John Paul, our Pope". How strange it is to hear the silence where his name should be, how much stranger still it will be to hear the name of another.

Pope predictions

2005-04-15T20:50:00.000+12:00

Who will be the next Pope?

I don't know, only God knows the answer to that question at the moment. Media speculation seems to have swung from Card. Arinze to Card. Ratzinger in the past few days, not that I think media speculation will indicate the result of the conclave. I would be quite happy with either of those two, who I would expect both stand reasonable chances.

My pick for a "surprise" pope would be George Cardinal Pell of Sydney, Austalia. At 64 he is a little on the young side for a papabile, but I think he is worth considering, certainly he is the only native anglophone with any chance (unless the Holy Spirit has a VERY big surprise in store for us). Card. Pell has studied in Cambridge, Oxford, Melbourne (Monash) and Rome (Urbanium). He has been a Cardinal only a short time, but has been a bishop since 1987 and Archbishop since 1996. He was entusted by our late Holy Father to serve as chairman of the Vox Clara commission looking into the English translation of the Mass. He has shown himself to be a man of dignity as when he was (falsely) acused of sexual abuse he stood down as archbishop without delay and waited patiently and prayerfully for the judicial enquiry to clear him.

That's just my five cents worth. We'll have wait till next week to see what the guy upstairs has to say.

Inside "The Passion"

2005-04-15T20:46:00.000+12:00

Fr John Bartunek LC, who spent weeks with Mel Gibson during the filming of The Passion of The Christ will be speaking in Auckland on Thursday 28 April.

For more info click here.

2005-04-12T16:27:00.000+12:00

"Dear Holy Father, now that you are with the Father in heaven, bless your flock in China. May the suffering on your deathbed complete your prayers and obtain the grace that the Chinese people may one day know Jesus Christ and be converted to God."

Bishop Joseph Zen of Hong Kong

Prayer intentions

2005-04-07T15:43:00.000+12:00

With all the prayers flying the way of our late Pope, and the Cardinals who must choose his sucessor. Might I suggest that some of your prayer intentions be directed to Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Pope's personal secretary since he was Archibishop of Krakow, and the group of Polish nuns who have served the Pope since first he went to Rome. They must be feeling the loss of the Holy Father in such an intense way. For them they have lost not only a religious leader, but a man who was to them, in a real sense, a second father. They have also lost their jobs and their homes.

No Kiwi Pope

2005-04-05T22:15:00.000+12:00

At least according to the only New Zealander who will take part in the conclave, Thomas Cardinal Williams. When asked by a TVNZ journalist how he rated his own chances, he replied that he thought it would be impossible for him to become Pope "I simply don't have the qualifications".

Maniple?

2005-04-05T22:13:00.000+12:00

Did I see the Cardinal (Somalo?) who blessed and incensed the Holy Father's body do so while wearing a maniple?

New blog

2005-04-05T22:05:00.000+12:00

I have just found this new blog: Home, Throne and Altar, well to be more accurate, the author of that blog found me.

Anyway, it is a blog by an Evangelical Christian in Christchurch, New Zealand. From reading his comments it is becoming increasingly clear to me that Catholics, Orthodox and Evangelicals are the only Christians who still teach traditional Christian faith and morals. While I'm sure John and I would have many, many disagreements over the contents and practice of the faith, I doubt we would over any of the issues of public morals that are confronting society. For this reason I see it as extremely important that we forge links between our respective churches to preserve what remains of our society. I know the Anglicans won't do it.

Resquiscat in Pace

2005-04-04T23:21:00.000+12:00

The only Pope I have ever known has returned home to his father. I feel no sadness for him, as I am sure (as sure as it is ever possible to be about someone else's salvation) that he is now in the presence of Christ. However I feel great sadness for us, now that we are to be deprived of his great leadership. May the Holy Spririt give us another great leader.

Grant unto him enternal rest O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

A strange Easter.

2005-03-28T11:59:00.000+12:00

It was an unusual Holy Week for me this year. For the first time I can remember I was unable to fully participate in the ceremonies of Holy week due to my work schedule. I worked 12 hour days on Thursday, Friday and Saturday thus precluding my attendance at the Mass of the Lord's Supper, the way of the cross procession through the streets, the Commemoration of the Passion, or the Easter Vigil. On Sunday I went to Mass with my family and a family friend visiting from overseas. We went to the Mass promoted as the "Samoan Mass" which normally means a Mass in English, but with the hymns in Samoan. Instead we were faced with the whole Mass in Samoan, a language none of us understood. However I think we all enjoyed the experience.

As well as the language, some ritual elements of Samoan culture were brought into the mass. E.g. the Lectionary was processed into the Church just before the first reading on a platform carried on the shoulders of four men dressed as Samoan warriors and accompanied by two men also in traditional atire carrying spears who stood guard throughout the readings and the homily.

At the time of the offertory procession as well as the gifts of bread and wine, as is very common in Pacific cultures, leis of flowers were brought forward to be hung round the necks of the priests. More surprising was that on a platform once more carried on the shoulders of four men was ... a pig. Yes a whole cooked pig was brought forward to be blessed and then processed out of the church to be prepared for the feasting after Mass. That was something of a culture shock to my elderly grandmothers!!

It was quite an experience to attend mass celebrated by a priest whom I know very well, but in a language that I don't understand at all. I enjoyed it as one off experience, but wouldn't like to do it too often.

Election day is rapidly approaching

2005-03-14T13:58:00.000+13:00

This year is election year for Kiwis, and it doesn't look good. Mr Tips at The Everlasting Man has posted his thoughts on our political parties and leaders. I would tend to agree with him. Yes Labour is rotten to the core, but is there really a better option.

National is hopelessly disorganised and seems to entirely lack any sense of direction for either the party or the country. Bill English seems sensible to me, and I think would have been a great PM, but has been cast aside in favour of the doctrinaire economist, Don Brash.

United Future stands for nothing and everything at once. A party that campaigned of "common sense" and "family values" which has supported the Labour government as they legalised prostitution, almost legalised Euthanasia (watch this space if they get back in) and created civil unions. I don't trust them.

The Greens are truly insane and need to retreat back to their natural habitat in the mountains somewhere (preferably some mountains outside NZ)

NZ First has some sound ideas, but is essentially a vehicle for the personality of it's leader and has little chance of surviving his eventual retirement. Ron Mark is about the only other MP who is ever heard. I suspect that is because the rest have little to say other than "I'm with Winston".

Jim Anderton's Progressive Coalition: what a name! Jim has had his day, it is time for him to retire and take his remaining lapdog with him.

ACT has had my vote in the last two elections, but I'm not so sure this time. They made a big mistake in chosing Rodney Hide as leader. I don't really trust him. If Stephen Franks was in charge I think they might be able to retain my vote, as it is, I don't think so.

So there we have it, parties which range from evil to mediocre to incompetent. What an enticing menu. I can't wait till September!!

Absence explained.

2005-03-14T13:55:00.000+13:00

Sorry for not posting anything recently, but I have been very busy. My roster at work now is 4 days on 4 days off with 12 hour shifts on my days on. On work days I have no time even to check other blogs, when I get to my days off I am exhausted and in the last few weeks I have had quite a bit of other stuff going on in my life so this blog has suffered. My four days on start again tomorrow so I doubt there will be anything appearing here in the next four days, but after that I hope to be able to post a little more frequently.

Reconciliation Classes

2005-03-14T13:50:00.000+13:00

I am helping with my parish's reconciliation preparation program. My group is composed mostly of 10 and 11 year old children. I was amazed to find that two of the seven children in my group knew neither the Lord's Prayer, nor the Hail Mary. I would have thought those were pretty standard prayers that all Catholic children would know.

Also surprising to me was the fact that none of the children were able to read a short passage of scripture when requested. I know that when I was ten I could read a simple passage aloud without difficulty and recite the Lord's Prayer and Hail Mary by heart. Maybe I was just some sort of freak child.

Please pray for the children in my class.

Lenten Progress

2005-03-14T13:37:00.000+13:00

I posted my goals for Lent a few weeks back and am sorry to say that I have once again failed to live up to my own ideals for Lent. Today was the first time I managed to make it to confession, and my spiritual and physical exercises I had planned haven't exactly panned out either. I do think I have been praying and exercising more than before Lent, but not as much as I would have liked. And at least I made it to confession at least once during Lent, which is a whole lot more than a lot of people manage.

Terri Schiavo

2005-02-25T21:55:00.000+13:00

I have only loosely been following the Terri Schiavo saga unfolding in the United States, but what I have seen appals me as I am sure it appals most of my readers. A severely disabled woman is facing state sanctioned, indeed state ordered death. That this could be happening in a developed country in 2005 would be beyond belief if it weren’t unfolding beyond our eyes. This only serves to highlight the value of the words our Holy Father has given us recently on the need to value life in ALL its forms. We must be able to see the value in human life independent of its usefulness.

This is an important concept that stretches throughout all the life issues which we must face as a society. Abortion and euthanasia both reflect a willingness to see only the utility of a life and not its intrinsic value. If a child would bring inconvenience rather than simple joy then it may be disposed of, if a person lives beyond the point where they become economically useless they can be killed. These are views that are sadly becoming prevalent in western societies around the globe. Abortion is now legal almost everywhere and seems barely threatened as a legal right. Legal euthanasia has reared its ugly head in Belgium and in the Netherlands, the land of my ancestors. Polls repeatedly indicate that 60% of New Zealanders support legal euthanasia and a vote in parliament last year only failed by a few votes.

What can we do about this? I don’t know. I know we can pray. We can pray for those who are at risk, Terri and people like her. We can pray for those who must decide where the boundaries will lie, Judge Greer and judicial and political leaders everywhere. And most of all we can pray that God will touch and change the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens, for it is only when the public overwhelmingly opposed to these things that our political leaders will make the right decisions.

THE PRESS : OPINION - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website

2005-02-20T12:25:00.000+13:00

The Christchurch Press in an editorial tells the Pope to resign.

"John Paul has repeatedly associated his sickness with the agony of Christ on the Cross, a comparison that is inappropriate even if made by the most powerful man in Christendom."

What a lot of drivell. They obviously understand nothing of the Catholic view of suffering. My own bishop, on returning from his ad limina visit last year, wrote that the Pope was "presiding over the church from the cross". Ignorant media people make me mad.

Christchurch Sacred Music

2005-02-12T14:53:00.000+13:00

I have heard good things about the southern New Zealand diocese of Christchurch. It seems from this article that the music is another thing to add to the list.

"There are still places where you will find the old spiritual cultural drive in full throttle. Christchurch's Catholic and Anglican cathedrals are among them. Both preserve and enhance the great and the good in church music past and present through the work of their clergy and music directors. Here, a balance between the traditional and the contemporary has become an integral part of services where congregations are not treated as simple-minded children but thinking, sensitive individuals who come to tap some quiet, insistent but complex chord of spiritual belief aided by what was once called the seemly beauty of worship."

Russian Spam

2005-02-06T16:26:00.000+13:00

The email address I use for this blog is being inundated with spam in Russian. Why?

Opus Dei in NZ

2005-02-06T12:16:00.000+13:00

The NZ Herald published a full page article on Opus Dei and it's presence in NZ. Have a read.

Out of Place Among my Own

2005-02-03T22:16:00.000+13:00

I had a very strange experience last weekend. I went to the movies with my sister and our parents. The film we saw was a subtitled Dutch language film and thus has not been given general release and we had to go to a small “arty” cinema on the other side of town. One by one each member of my family came to the realisation that not one person in the restaurant next to the cinema, nor in the crowded foyer of the cinema was of other than European extraction. Not one! Most of modern day Auckland is a melting pot of different ethnicities. The primary school I went to was 79% Polynesian, and my High School was probably about 50% non-European. The University of Auckland is increasingly diverse, with large numbers of Asian students and an increasing number of Polynesian and Māori students. Our parish is probably 90% non-European with a mix of Polynesian and Indian people. The world that I live in is filled with non-white people, yet here I was, a mere half hour drive from home, and an entire cinema (indeed seemingly an entire suburb) was entirely white. I don’t recall ever having been in such a situation before. As a white person myself I felt not just strange, but actually uncomfortable, to be in an entirely white group.

Anglican vicar to be Civil Union celebrant

2005-01-31T15:45:00.000+13:00

An Auckland Anglican vicar has been given the permission of his bishop to be a Civil Union celebrant, however he is only to unite homosexual couples "in a private capacity". This man and his bishop have both misunderstood the nature of the priesthood. A priest or minister is no less a priest or minister when he walks out of the doors of his church. If anyone thinks this will be seen as anything less than tacit approval of civil unions by the Anglican church they are sadly mistaken.

Anglican vicar to be Civil Union celebrant

2005-01-31T15:41:00.000+13:00

On Life and Lent.

2005-01-28T21:31:00.000+13:00

Well, the year is off to a rapid start. Now Lent is less than two weeks away!! I have been very busy with my new job in my nameless government department. As a trainee I haven’t had to make any hard decisions for myself yet, but I have seen the depth of thought and consideration that my colleagues put into their work. It is a very difficult thing to have great power coupled with wide discretion placed in your hands. I pray that I may be found worthy of the trust my employer has put in me.

This year I have decided that rather than giving up something for lent I will mark my Lenten observances with action. I want to use this time of preparation for Easter to work on my health, both spiritually and physically. My physical and spiritual health have both been neglected a little of late and I think this is the ideal time to fix that.

I will soon be shifting offices across town and moving onto a rotating roster at work. This change should be within a week or two of Ash Wednesday adding further impetus for change. The change in working hours should make it more convenient for me to attend weekday Masses and to avail myself of the sacrament of Reconciliation.

So, what am I actually going to do??

On the spiritual side I will be endeavouring to say a rosary each evening, attend Mass at least twice a week (more often where possible) and to make a confession fortnightly during the Lenten period. I also want to increase my level of spiritual reading. Obviously this will include scriptures, but I might visit the Catholic Shop by the Cathedral and find a couple of good spiritual works to read too.

As to my physical health I will the trying to limit my intake of the “rubbish” I have been devouring since Christmas and to increase my levels of physical activity. I will be doing a lot more walking and may sign up with a gym. I am a little reluctant to do join a gym as I will probably be moving house soon and don’t want to be tied to a gym in any one area. I might just sign up for a month or two.

Posting here will likely continue to be sporadic for the foreseeable future. I envy those who are able to hold down jobs, raise families and still be able to keep a regular blog. I barely have the energy to do anything when I get home from work these days. This is another reason why I want to work on my physical health. If I can improve my fitness I should find that I will have more energy.

Back to work

2005-01-04T21:11:00.000+13:00

Well, my little Summer break has reached it's conclusion and tomorrow I must return to work. I much prefer the three month break of a student to the 10 day break of a worker, but life goes on! With my return to work you can expect postings here to be intermittent at best.

Liturgical question and answer

2005-01-02T21:45:00.000+13:00

Todd asks and answers a few liturgical questions on his blog today, I thought I would have a go at them.

Holy Days moved to Sundays

NO, I think the days should be returned to their original days and the obligations restored. In New Zealand now there are only two Holy Days of Obligation (Christmas, and the Assumption, our national patronal feast). I think there should be more days when we are encouraged, or even demanded, to come to Mass not just on Sunday.

Leaven or sweetener in hosts

NO! The rules are clear and there is absolutely no compelling reason to break or alter them. Tasty things are to be found at the back of the church at the cake stall, at the front is the body and blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, not a cookie!

Non-Biblical readings at Mass

As a substitute/addition to the readings: absolutely not.
As a component of the homily: I can see times when this would be acceptable. Discretion and common sense is obviously necessary. A reading from the Holy Father, from the Church Fathers, or from an Ecumenical Council could be meritorious. There are of course many things which should not be read at Mass and care must be taken here.

Non-wheat hosts for celiac sufferers

No. As much as this is difficult for some people, this is too important a matter to meddle with. If it isn't wheat it isn't bread. If it isn't bread, it can't become Christ.

Plainsong

Would be nice to have some, but my parish doesn't have a musical director capable of leading such an effort.

Latin in the Mass, 2002 Rite

My parish has none, bar the occaisional hymn led by the choir, but I see no reason why this shouldn't be included more frequently to maintain a connection with the patrimony of our liturgical tradition. I certainly don't advocate a complete return to Latin, but I think a modest amount would be good.

Midnight Mass: when?

Ummmm, Midnight??? My parish has a vigil Mass at 7pm and another at midnight. Except for extraordinary reasons I can't see why most parishes couldn't manage a Mass at midnight.

Holy Water during Lent

Leave it put.

Easter Vigil: four readings or nine?

Nine.

Reconciliation form III

Wartime and natural disaster only. There is no justification for using Rite III without EXTREME circumstances. Rite II should be used more frequently, i.e. not just lent and advent, perhaps 4-5 times per year. Rite I should be offered 2-3 times a week in every parish at varying times to ensure accessibility. E.g. Monday at 8am, Wednesday at 7pm and Saturday at 3pm.

Blue vestments

I've never seen these used in NZ, but they don't seem to be anticipated as a liturgical colour anywhere. I can't see why blue shouldn't be decreed as a liturgical colour, particularly for Marian feasts.

Job update

2005-01-02T18:20:00.000+13:00

Up till the Christmas break I had completed four weeks of employment in the New Zealand public service. This is my first permanent full time job, and indeed only my second job at all. It has certainly been an interesting experience. I have spent much of my time thus far in formal training, but I have also been able to get out and do some field work which has placed me in some rather unusual situations. I don’t want to get too specific about what field of work I am in but I will say it is a non-police law enforcement role where my decisions will be having some pretty drastic effects on people’s lives.

In this short time I have already noticed some glaring problems in the public service that nobody from Wellington seems to have noticed, or more likely, that nobody in Wellington cares about.

The biggest problem to me seems to be interdepartmental cooperation. Within the department under which my service falls are a number of other services only tangentially connected with the work I do, yet we are expected to have some sort of common identity. Within the department information and resources are shared freely and computer systems are compatible. However outside the department are a number of other government services which are far more closely related to my work, yet access to their resources and databases is curtailed because someone decided a hundred years ago to place responsibility for that particular task under a different ministry or department from mine! Surely it would make sense to foster cooperation between different services performing functionally similar roles rather than trying to encourage collaboration between service units which while administratively connected are functionally disparate?

I am going to struggle with this sort of nonsense, this I can sense already.

Tsunami

2004-12-28T14:23:00.000+13:00

It seems that hundreds of pilgrims were killed at the Marian shrine of Vailankanni in India. My parishes Indian community has a special devotion to our lady under this title and we have a statue of Our Lady of Vailankanni in our parish church. Please pray for all those affected by this enormous disaster which seems to grow ever more momentous by the hour.

Thanks be to God!

2004-12-27T20:48:00.000+13:00

Before the Christmas Vigil Mass my parish prayed the rosary and then recited the Litany of the Infant Jesus. Leading up to Christmas the novena of the divine infant was prayed. I am so thankful for our current missionary priests who have reintroduced traditional devotions to our parish after so many years of absence. Up till their arrival at Easter 2003 I had never taken part in a novena and had never heard a litany used apart from in the Easter vigil.

Merry Christmas!!

2004-12-26T14:42:00.000+13:00

I wish all of my readers a joyous and blessed Christmas. I hope you all had a great time with family and friends.

I finished work at midday on Friday and went to the vigil Mass with my family that night. The singing was led by a combined choir of our parish children and youth. They did an excellent job with the singing, though some of the song choices left a bit to be desired. The Mass opened with Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly and ended with We Wish You a Merry Christmas, but the Mass itself was well done. Lots of incense was used and the celebration was very reverent. Our Assistant Parish Priest announced at the vigil that he was returning to Samoa, but this morning reassured us that it was only for a holiday! I am relieved. He, along with our Parish Priest, has been a great source of strength for our parish as we have been rebuilding these last two years after several years of a mediocre (at best) priest.

Christmas day for me was spent gorging myself with my family. First we feasted with my mother’s side of the family, and then with my father’s in the evening. I managed to get through the day without exploding so I consider that to be a success!

I am now off work till January 5 so I hope to be able to do a little work on the blog in the next week or so.

St Thomas More

2004-12-14T21:19:00.000+13:00

I think I will adopt St Thomas More as my personal patron saint. I have long been drawn towards this great saint, but just realised how many pointers there are.

1 St Thomas is patron of lawyers, I hold a law degree
2 St Thomas is patron of politicians, I hold a politics degree
3 St Thomas is patron of civil servants, I am now working as a civil servant
4 My confirmation name was Thomas (though not chosen for this Thomas)

Three pieces of news from NZ today

2004-12-09T22:01:00.000+13:00

The Good: Ahmed Zaoui freed on bail to community of Dominican Friars

The Bad: Smoking ban takes effect in all pubs, bars and restaurants

The Ugly: New Zealand's disreputable parliament passes the Civil Union Act

As for me, I'm busy with settling into a new job. Up till Christmas I don't think I'll be posting too much. If it looks like I've disappeared, don't worry, I'm probably just tied up in the real world.

Random observations from Rarotonga

2004-11-27T18:13:00.000+13:00

There are a lot of dogs. They are invariably friendly and spend much of their time at the beach fishing.
There are a lot of roosters. They spend most of the night crowing. Most days they woke me up at about 5.30. One night they started at 11.30PM and continued all night! I am not a farm person so this was most unpleasant.
Their altar servers wear no shoes. They were the first barefoot altar servers I have seen. The architecture of the Cathedral was interesting. The wooden Altar was supported by a carved traditional canoe and the tabernacle was carved in a traditional Cook Islands manner. At the consecration instead of bells they use a Cook Island drum.
There are a lot of churches on the Island. The island is only 32km in circumference but there were about 4 Catholic, 4 LDS, 4 AOG and 7 CICC (Cook Island Christian Church) churches and couple of independent churches.
Everything is closed on Sunday. Our bus driver told us that on Sunday you can go to church, eat and sleep. That’s it! It’s great to see that they haven’t sold out to commercialisation, despite what I presume would be substantial pressure from the tourism industry.
The local beer (Cooks Lager and Vaka) is bottled in old Heineken or Steinlager bottles. Innovative recycling!
The Queen’s Representative is driven in a large car with a large pictorial representative of a crown on the number plate and accompanied by a police escort on motorbikes. In a week these were the only police I saw on the roads. There is no traffic so it is unclear what the role of the police escorts was.
There are lizards everywhere.
Everyone speaks good English.
There are NO Asian tourists. I was glad of this fact. That may sound racist, but Asian tourists generally do things in a particular way which is rather different from the way New Zealanders and Australians travel. Asian tourists travel in LARGE groups on even larger buses and tend to enjoy a more commercialised, almost plastic experience of the local culture. This is at least how they tend to travel in New Zealand. In Raro there is nothing catering for that sort of market. The island is almost entirely set up to deal with the New Zealand/Australian tourists who make up the bulk of the tourist market.

In all I would highly recommend Rarotonga as a location for a short relaxing tropical holiday. It can be reached by air from Auckland and Los Angeles (via Papeete) on Air New Zealand. I believe Pacific Blue (Virgin) is looking at launching flights from Australia in the new year.

I'm back...

2004-11-24T21:16:00.000+13:00

I'm alive, and I'm tired.

I arrived back in the country on Sunday night and started my new job on Monday morning. All has gone well, but I'm too tired to write very much now. Maybe more on the trip on the weekend.

Off on Holiday

2004-11-14T01:33:00.000+13:00

I have just two hours ago completed my employment at my first job. I started as a barely 15 year old high school student checkout operator and leave after eight years as the weekend duty manager. I will miss a lot of the people there, but I must say I am not terribly upset to no longer be a supermarket employee!

I'm off to the isles tomorrow, so don't expect anything from me here for a week or maybe a little more.

Pell says Islam could be the new communism

2004-11-14T00:50:00.000+13:00

The Unknown Warrior, Known unto God

2004-11-11T14:34:00.000+13:00

I have just finished watching the service for the burial of an Unknown Warrior in Wellington. Due to some oversight New Zealand never returned an unknown soldier from the World Wars as did so many other nations. Now that oversight has been remedied. A soldier of the First World War who has lain on the banks of the Somme in France for over eighty years has now been brought home as a symbol of all those who remain where they fell in battlefields far away. We know not his name, nor his rank, nor his age. All we know is that he is one of us, a New Zealander who gave his life fighting for his country all those years ago.

The soldier was disinterred from a French War Cemetery and returned to Wellington yesterday where he lay in state in the Legislative Council Chamber at Parliament. This morning he was carried to the nearby Anglican Cathedral of St Paul where a memorial service was held with involvement from many civic and religious leaders. The Catholic Archbishop of Wellington, Thomas Cardinal Williams gave one of the blessings alongside leaders of the other major Christian churches in New Zealand. The Prime Minister and Governor-General both spoke and the Chief of Defence Force delivered a reading from scripture. The Unknown Soldier was then carried from the Cathedral to an awaiting gun carriage on which he was borne through the streets of the capital to the National War Memorial which is to be his final resting place. At the War Memorial the casket was blessed by a local kaumatua (Māori elder) and by the Principal Chaplain of the New Zealand Defence Force. The casket was then lowered into its tomb and dirt from the cemetery in France where the soldier had lain was placed in the grave by the ambassador of France to Wellington. Then the presidents of each region of the Returned Services Association were called forward to cover the casket with dirt and sand from every corner of New Zealand.

It was an extremely moving ceremony and I will have to go and pay my respects next time I am in Wellington. None of my direct ancestors fought in the World Wars of the last century, but members of my extended family did. It is wonderful that now there is a place to honour those who did not return.

They grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We Shall Remember Them!
We Shall Remember Them!

Not a student any more!

2004-11-10T21:26:00.000+13:00

I am no longer a student. This frightens me a great deal.

I sat my last exam two days ago, and will finish my part-time job on Saturday. Thereafter I'll be lazing on the beach in Rarotonga for a week (so don't expect anything from me here next week). After than I'll be starting my new job as a servant of Her Majesty's Government.

A letter from the Home Office to the people of America

2004-11-09T20:59:00.000+13:00

To the citizens of the United States of America,

In the light of your failure to elect a suitable President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchial duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP (for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium". Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour', skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise". You will learn that the suffix 'burgh is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up "vocabulary". Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up "interspersed". There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English". We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize".

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to Cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents - Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon". If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football". There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders" which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You should declare war on Quebec and France, using nuclear weapons if they give you any merde. The 97.85% of you who were not aware that there is a world outside your borders should count yourselves lucky. The Russians have never been the bad guys. "Merde" is French for "5hit". You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2th will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called "Indecisive Day".

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps". Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer", and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager". The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Knat's Urine", with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Knat's Urine". This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen, Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From December 1st the UK will harmonise petrol (or "Gasoline" as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon - get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your cooperation.

The End of an Era

2004-11-07T22:19:00.000+13:00

In a little under twelve hours from now I will be commencing the last exam of my degree. Then on Saturday I will work my last shift at the only job I have ever had. My student days are almost over! But for now its back to the last minute studying!

Political Colours

2004-11-04T16:20:00.000+13:00

New Zealand:
National (right) = blue
Labour (left) = red

Australia:
Liberal (right) = blue
Labor (left) = red

UK:
Conservatives (right) = blue
Labour (left) = red

Canada:
Conservatives (right) = blue
Liberal (left) = red

BUT

USA:
Republicans (right) = red
Democrats (left) = blue

It's just confusing to have the right wing party in red!!
Red = communists = left wing party!

Four more years

2004-11-04T14:14:00.000+13:00

Well, the US has Bush as it's leader for another four years. As I indicated a few days ago, I don't think he is an ideal choice, but is better than the alernative. I offer my prayers to him and to the people of the United States for the next four years.

I was pleased to see gay marriage was defeated in all 11 states where it was on the ballot, hopefully this will deter the Supreme Court from doing something stupid.

As an aside, while I was checking some of the results ont he CNN website I was looking at the "vote by county" function. I was quite amazed to see how some of the "rectangle" states in the middle are internally divided into little rectangles. But even more interesting, Alaska appears to be made up of a single county. That is one VERY big county!

The New Zealand Bishops Write

2004-11-02T16:56:00.000+13:00

Our Bishops have issued a pastoral letter to mark the year of the Eucharist. I particularly agree with the following paragraph.

Whereas every parish once had Rosary, sermon and Benediction each week, many now do not have those devotions regularly. We are in danger of losing something precious. Devotions are a reminder that Catholic worship involves the whole person, our head as well as our heart, ears as well as eyes. If we wish to respond to Gods love for us, how can we not feel a renewed need to spend time in spiritual conversation, in silent adoration, in heartfelt love before Christs real presence in the Most Holy Sacrament?

US Election

2004-10-31T15:00:00.000+13:00

Well, in not too many days the world will awake to find out who will lead the sole remaining super power for the next four years. I am glad I don’t have a vote in the American election as I would be extremely divided on how to cast it. Americans are faced with two deeply unsatisfactory candidates, the products of a flawed political system.

As a non-American, I have only a superficial interest in and appreciation of the differences between the candidates on domestic policy issues. What affects me more keenly is the difference in the foreign policy positions. The militant unilateralism of the Bush administration in so many aspects of foreign relations has greatly concerned me over the past four years. The war in Iraq was folly. There was no just or legal cause for invading and the country is now embroiled in a turmoil which seems unending. The only way I can see a positive solution to the ongoing crisis in Iraq is for there to be a change in the Oval Office. Only this will allow greater involvement of the international community (no, the United Kingdom and Australia do not count as “the international community”). But while I am certain no positive change in Iraq will occur during a second Bush term, I have no confidence that such a change will be forthcoming during a Kerry administration. The American presence in Iraq needs to be massively scaled back and replaced by forces from countries less hated by the Iraqis. Kerry has given no indication that this would happen were he to be elected on Tuesday. If I was to base my imaginary vote entirely on foreign policy, I would probably give it to Kerry.

If I consider the domestic impact of the candidates, I would however have to reconsider that decision. As a Catholic, respect for human life is of paramount importance. I believe that abortion is the taking of a human life, the destruction of a unique person before he or she is able to take breath. As such I see it a most abominable crime which must be opposed. While I don’t believe that either candidate would be able to abolish abortion, it is clear that the President has a desire to reduce its availability and to limit the most extreme forms of abortion while Kerry has shown no such desire. His willingness to support abortion while still claiming to be a faithful Catholic strikes me as extreme hypocrisy and casts aspersions on his character. To me this intellectual dishonesty overrides the good I believe he is capable of in world affairs. Bush may not strike me as an intelligent man, but he doesn’t strike me as dishonest. Kerry does.

So if I had a vote, I would, with a heavy heart, have to cast it for President Bush.

New role for The Antipodean at Mass last week

2004-10-28T22:52:00.000+13:00

I typically attend the 7pm Sunday Mass at my parish. This is the least well attended Mass of the three regular Sunday Masses, serving often as a “catch up” for those who sleep through the morning may they would usually attend. This past Sunday, as well as the regular three Masses, an additional Mass was celebrated in Samoan for the Samoan Community (my pastor and the assistant priest are both Samoan, the assistant was away on a pilgrimage with the parish youth so the pastor had to say all four Masses, needless to say he was looking forward to a good nights sleep).

Anyway, my point is that due to the transient nature of the congregation at the evening Mass the rostering of readers and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion is often difficult. Readers are always arranged prior to Mass beginning, but for some reason Communion ministers are usually not. During the Agnus Dei those rostered to serve in this ministry will gather in front of the altar. Usually there will be at least three (we need five) and then two others will see there is a shortage and step up to serve. Last Sunday we were deprived of the presence of our Samoan ministers, so at the end of the Agnus Dei there was only one minister standing at the front of the church. Our liturgy committee chairman was wandering up and down the aisle trying to get others to step up. He convinced another two to approach the altar. This left our pastor and three extraordinary ministers to distribute Communion. Seeing the Precious Blood had been consecrated in four chalices, the maths didn’t add up. I could see several people in the pews around me who have served in this role before, but none of them were budging. It got to the point where Father was distributing Communion to the extraordinary ministers and there were still only three of them, so I got up to help. I probably shouldn’t have as I have not been officially designated as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, but nobody else was moving. Even then we were short one on the normal arrangement (two ciboria, four chalices) and Father had to distribute the Body of Christ to both queues. I had been thinking about training as an extraordinary minister, but never thought I would be thrown into the deep end like that. I just don’t understand why those who were regular ministers didn’t go forward when it was obvious that there were insufficient numbers.

Trying to write

2004-10-26T23:28:00.000+13:00

I am trying to write a 5000 word essay on the US and the International Criminal Court for Thursday but it just isn't flowing like I need it to. I just hope I am more inspired tomorrow...

It seems I'm more of a leftie than I thought!!

2004-10-24T16:17:00.000+13:00

1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%)
2. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (51%)
3. Cobb, David - Green Party (50%)
4. Nader, Ralph - Independent (50%)
5. Bush, President George W. - Republican (44%)
6. Badnarik, Michael - Libertarian (43%)
7. Brown, Walt - Socialist Party (40%)
8. Peroutka, Michael - Constitution Party (17%)

from: http://www.selectsmart.com/PRESIDENT

And to think, in NZ I am a right winger! I have voted twice, and both times for the ACT party, the rightest party in the NZ Parliament.

2004-10-23T12:23:00.000+13:00

My official university learning is over. I had my last official class on Thursday, but I skipped out half way through to listen to a lecture by Justice Antonin Scalia. He gave a very good talk on what is wrong with the majority approach on the United States Supreme Court. He criticised the idea that the words of the constitution change their meaning such that what was once constitutional can become unconstitutional without amendment to the constitution. He was unimpressed with the idea that there was such a thing as “the evolving standards of decency which mark the progress of a developing society”. This seems to assume that societies can only progress, and never rot. If it acceptable for today’s judges to meld the constitution into what they think it ought to say, would that not apply equally if public floggings and random, arbitrary extrajudicial killings were to come into vogue. The reason the framers of the bill of rights put those rights there was that they were concerned that future generations would not be as enlightened as they were. To allow judges to “update” the meaning of the constitution seems to be avowedly contrary to the will of the framers, and surely it is the role of any court to give effect to the “will of the legislator”. This seems to be common sense to me, and to Justice Scalia, but not to the majority of his colleagues on the Supreme Court who have been seduced by the ability to do as they please without reference to the text of the document they are supposed to be enforcing.

Busy

2004-10-20T13:42:00.000+13:00

I have the last lectures of my undergraduate education tomorrow and then a couple of weeks of exams, so don’t expect much out of me on the blog. Or maybe you will be pleasantly surprised if I get bored of studying.

John Tamihere

2004-10-20T13:39:00.000+13:00

Mr Tamihere has recently been stood down from cabinet while an investigation is carried out into whether tax was paid on a payment he received a few years back. That is not however what I wish to write about now.

I have been reading his autobiography Black and White and wish to relate a particular anecdote from the book. Mr Tamihere grew up in the same parish that I did, though many years earlier and his book recounts the significance of the long serving Parish Priest, Father McGrath. Father McGrath was the priest who baptised me but died when I was four (see previous post on removal of altar rails).

When Mr Tamihere was at school weekly confession was more or less compulsory and he rarely had any difficulty coming up with a length list of sins to confess. One unusual week however he was unable to think of any so made one up. He told Father McGrath that he had taken a peek up one of the new lay teachers’ skirts. He was expecting to get told off, but got more than he bargained for. The door of the confessional flew open and Father McGrath came in and gave the young John a good whack on the head yelling “you’re lucky I don’t tell your father”. Not quite what you expect, but with Fr McGrath, I don’t think it ever was. I’m sure glad times have changed, I have thankfully never been thumped in confession!

Latin Mass

2004-10-20T13:36:00.000+13:00

Today I attended my first Latin Mass. It was largely as I had expected, though somewhat longer than I had anticipated. It was at 10 am on a Wednesday morning but was slightly over an hour in length, I am used to weekday Masses at the Cathedral or at my home parish which both are typically little more than half an hour.

I didn’t take a missal so I was a bit lost at times, but I didn’t have any trouble following the flow of the Mass. The first thing that struck me as odd was the sprinkling rite at the beginning of Mass (which in my parish is an “Easter and Christmas” thing). Instead of sprinkling water over everyone, Father touched everyone on the hand with the sprinkling thing (sorry, I don’t know its proper name). When sprinkling is done in my parish it our priests tend to sprinkle with a tree branch dunked in a large bowl of holy water!

As I entered the church (which is tiny and not in particularly good shape) I was surprised not to see a presidential chair in the sanctuary, I didn’t realise that in the Traditional Mass the priest doesn’t sit at all. Fr Meuli is the sole priest at the Latin Mass parish, is almost 80 years old, and says something like 17 Masses a week so that must really exhaust him.

Naturally I found it unusual for the Mass to be said (or whispered) in Latin with the priest facing away from me. What frustrated me a little was that much of the Mass which was meant to be said audibly was said with insufficient clarity to understand, but that is probably because I was new to hearing the Latin Mass. I struggle to understand why the reading(s) and the Gospel are read first in Latin at the altar and then in the vernacular from the ambo. It seems to me a needless duplication and complication. It also seemed odd that the responses were made after the Latin readings, but not the English ones. This is one area where I think the new Mass has clearly got it right.

Father Meuli gave what seemed an inordinately long homily for a weekday Mass; this was indeed why the Mass was so long. It was a very good homily, probably one of the best I have heard, but it was I think too long for the circumstances. The homily focussed on reading from James 2:17: “Faith without works is dead”. He took issue with the obscure nature of the translation he was using (something like Faith without works has not the spirit of life in it and offered various ways in which we could conduct works of faith. He also took apart Luther’s views on the matter.

Communion was distributed at the rail with the communicants holding the paten under our own chins. This was the first time I had ever received communion in such a way, in fact the first time within memory that I have been in a church with a rail. My parish took ours down when I was four!

This was a low Mass with no singing and was not a dialogue Mass, i.e. the responses were made by the servers (one boy of five or so and an adult, both clad in cassock and surplice) on behalf of the congregation. I found it very unusual to sit/kneel/stand in almost total silence for the entire Mass.

It was an interesting experience, and one I will likely repeat, but I am glad that this is no longer the only option.

NB: Fr Meuli would certainly disagree with me there, he has written a book arguing the English Mass is invalid!

On Midday Mass and Confession

2004-10-12T16:36:00.000+13:00

Over the last year I have been making fairly regular use of St Patrick’s Cathedral in downtown Auckland. Today I again went to the 12.15pm mass. I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to join in the celebration of the Eucharist so frequently. It really is a great way to recollect oneself and find some peace and guidance in the middle of a hectic week.

The Cathedral is also one of the few places in Auckland where Confessions are heard daily. A priest is available from 11.30 each weekday and often there are still people waiting when he has to leave the confessional to say Mass. I really find it sad that so many parishes confine the opportunities for Reconciliation to half an hour on Saturday. I firmly believe that if there were more frequent times when the priest would be sitting in the confessional waiting, more people would use the sacrament. The crisis in the Sacrament of Reconciliation is to me a crisis of access. For so many people today Saturday morning is just not a convenient time, and few people are willing to make an appointment to see a priest for Confession, always thinking that he must have something better to do.

I know that for me going to Confession has always been a very difficult thing to do. I never really developed a habit of regular Confession growing up as it wasn’t a regular thing in my family. Between my first Confession at age 8 and my return to somewhat regular confession, when I was about 20, I probably only went twice. I suspect this is probably not atypical for New Zealanders of my generation. How much would our teenagers benefit from frequent use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation! I know that it would have helped me greatly. Yet our parishes don’t seem keen to help them to avail themselves of the help of this powerful Sacrament.

As a side note, the Latin Mass parish in our diocese advertised in the New Zealand Catholic newspaper last week with their mass schedule. They celebrate 17 Masses each week, benediction is offered 13 times a week and there is a holy hour every day. They also have perpetual adoration 24 hours 7 days. Confessions are heard before and after every one of their 17 Masses. AND they are served by only one priest. He must be a very busy man! I must make my way up there one day as it isn’t too far from where I live.

Scalia + Auckland =

2004-10-12T16:34:00.000+13:00

I wanted some more information about Justice Scalia’s talk at my university next week so I thought I would see if google would help me. To my great surprise I discovered when one searches for Scalia and Auckland within the top ten sites is a p*rn site. Then I read in the paper that the Chinese government is offering US$240 to anyone who reports a p*rn website. If you stumble across it by looking for Justice Scalia in Auckland, imagine how much money you would be able to claim if you actually went looking for it!!

Job offer

2004-10-12T16:31:00.000+13:00

Following on from my interview last week I received a phone call this morning offering me a job. I’m not sure this is what I want to do for ever, but it is a good job and I think it will challenge me. I don’t want to identify it on this site, but I will say that I will be working for the government. I should be receiving information on the details of when they want me to start etc. tomorrow.

Charismatics

2004-10-11T21:04:00.000+13:00

My parish had the ummm... pleasure (?) of hosting Auckland's Catholic Charismatic Renewal yesterday. I must say that this simply confirmed that this is not where my place in the Church lies. The hand-waving, clapping thing just doesn't do it for me. Nor did I particularly like the call after mass for people to come up and be prayed over, just didn't feel right to me. I recognise that there is a place int he Church for this sort of worship, but I think I'll keep well clear of it where I can.

Torn

2004-10-11T20:48:00.000+13:00

It is my last week of class next week and I am torn. On Thursday afternoon at the same time I have the opportunity to listen to Col. Kevin Riordan, Chief Legal Counsel for the New Zealand Defence Force or Justice Scalia of the US Supreme Court. At present I think I'll be going to the Scalia talk as it is unlikely he'll be returning to NZ anytime soon.

Elections Down Under

2004-10-10T15:13:00.000+13:00

My mayor has been returned comfortably, though not as comfortably as I had expected, on a pathetic 35% turnout. In Auckland City however change is in the wind. Cereal King Dick Hubbard will take over the mayor's office after a fairly dirty campaign. More interestingly a long-haired bearded westie comedian has made it onto our City Council. Ewen Gilmour should provide the entertainment factor for the next three years!

Also of note: The principal of my high school was on the council until his death about five years ago. On his death his wife was elected to his council seat. She has been re-elected and now their daughter has been elected to the community board. I see a political dynasty in the making!

Across the Tasman it appears that John Howard's Liberals have retained their parliamentary majority. Howard's government seems to have got on fairly well with our present insidious labour government, and should get on even better if Brash wins in NZ come next October, so from a kiwi perspective I think this is the best result.

Credo however is unhappy with the results and bemoans the lack of truly pro-life option in the Austrlian political scene, a problem that also blights New Zealand politics.

Boring election = low turnout

2004-10-08T16:12:00.000+13:00

The Herald reported yesterday that residents of Waitakere City have so far submitted the smallest percentage of ballot papers. As I mentioned a few days ago, the incumbent mayor will be returned with a 90%+ majority (on less than 35% turnout) and nobody cares about any of the other positions up for election. No competition in the mayoral race means nobody returns their votes (for those non-NZers reading, the local body elections in NZ are conducted by postal ballot with votes due back by tomorrow, 9 October). Compare Manukau City where Sir Barry Curtis is facing the most competition in a long time and turnout has been better than in years gone by. Now if only someone interesting would challenge Bob we might get the westie vote out, but I don't see that happening for another 2-3 terms. But in politics, you never know what will happen.

If I ever move to the US...

2004-10-07T21:04:00.000+13:00

...this might prove useful.

Via CRM is this quiz to find your most suitable locations in the US.

Here is mine:

Seattle, WA
Knoxville TN
Norfolk VA
Cincinatti OH
Tacoma WA
Long Island NY
Kent, WA
Chattanooga TN
Asheville NC
Olympia WA
Carlisle PA
Jacksonville FL
Bellingham WA
Charleston SC
Greenville SC
Nashville TN
Hickory NC
Johnson City-Kingsport TN
Clarksville TN
Louisville KY
Charlotte NC
Richmond VA
Salt Lake City UT
Denver CO

A number of these places I have never even heard of!

New Zealand's contribution to the "war on terror"...

2004-10-06T21:27:00.000+13:00

Last Friday Ahmed Zaoui was victorious before the New Zealand Court of Appeal. What was the issue of the case? Should the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and international human rights law be taken into account when the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security is considering a security risk certificate. It appalls me that my government was willing to appeal to the Court of Appeal on this point. The Refugee Status Appeals Authority (our highest refugee body) has determined that Mr Zaoui faces a well founded fear of persecution (the definition of a refugee) if returned to Algeria. The effect of the security risk certificate being upheld is that a man who has sought the protection of the New Zealand government will be sent back to persecution, indeed possibly even to death. To argue that, where the consequences of upholding the certificate are so serious, Mr Zaoui's human rights are not even worthy of consideration is nothing short of shameful. I expect more from a government which claims to respect the rule of law and I hope the government chooses not to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court.

Template

2004-10-06T15:29:00.000+13:00

I have modified the template so my side bar has returned. Hopefully it will behave itself and stay put for a while!

Politics of the local variety

2004-10-04T22:09:00.000+13:00

Local body politics in New Zealand tends to be an exceedingly boring beast. The Auckland City mayoral campaign has added a bit of spice through its sheer vindictiveness, but I wish they would actually come up with policies to get people excited rather than digging up dirt on each other.

Out west here in Waitakere City the thing is all the more boring for the fact that our mayor will romp home to a huge majority with no effective opposition. There are only two other candidates, one is a tired councilor who always runs for mayor and never gets any traction, the other was a complete unknown at the start of the campaign, and now is ... well he's still a complete unknown and he'll be lucky to get 100 votes.

But even less interesting than that is the election for the District Health Board, the Licencing Trust and the Community Board. I am fairly politically aware (I have a degree in politics after all) yet I know very little of what any of these bodies do or what the candidates' policies are. They just aren't important enough for me to bother finding out. Sure I read the information pack that comes with the voting papers and picked out the candidates that seemed best from their little blurb they could write about themselves. But is that enough? Is it really wise to be electing these bodies when nobody cares? The scary thing is the vast bulk of the electorate knows even less about these issues than I do!

Interview and weather

2004-10-04T22:00:00.000+13:00

After my rambling on about the joys of summer yesterday, the weather had to go and make a fool out of me. What was I faced with today but rain and wind!! With daylight savings (summer time) arriving yesterday however, things should be on the up soon.

I had my job interview tonight and it went pretty well. It was a four hour process involving a roleplay, writing a report, giving a presentation and a formal panel interview. I got some good feedback from the recruitment agency consultant so whether I get the job or not it was a worthwhile experience, though not one I am eager to repeat in the near future. It took quite a bit out of me.

Job?

2004-10-03T16:05:00.000+13:00

I have a job interview tomorrow, my first since I was a 15 year old school boy applying to work at the local supermarket (where I have worked ever since). To make things worse its a four hour assesment process.

I have only three weeks of classes left and two weeks of exams and I am finished by undergrad education. Its all a bit unnerving really. This last semester has left me feeling extremely tired, not just physically, but mentally and spiritually. I have been lacking direction in my life. I hope if I get this job then I will be able to unwind the internal tension a little.

Summer is almost here!!

2004-10-03T15:09:00.000+13:00

It is finally getting to the point when I can once more cast off my shoes and go barefoot. I love summer and this will be my first whole summer in two years as I missed most of last summer by going to Europe (not that that was a chore!) I think I would struggle if I had to spend a summer in Europe where barefootedness is frowned upon! Here it is just intrinsic to the summer experience.

New Zealand summers are truly wonderful things. Temperatures tend to hover in the mid to high 20s with little rain and lots of sunshine. The main drawback comes from that gift which the industrial world has sent our way, the hole in the ozone layer. This means it is very easy to burn in the Kiwi sun and that burning is more likely to lead to melanoma than almost anywhere else in the world. But such is the carefree nature of New Zealanders that most tend to ignore advice to hide in the shade and still we bake ourselves on the beaches.

Angels

2004-09-30T20:51:00.000+12:00

Here you can find a very enlightening and inspiring piece by Fr Jim on angels.

First of all, you will never, ever become an angel. Angels were never human beings, and human beings never become angels. All this nonsense about doing three good deeds after you die so that you can get your wings, become an angel, and some little bell rings -- is precisely that, nonsense.

Now if only someone could convince the TV and film makers!!

The Bible on fools

2004-09-29T20:58:00.000+12:00

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding,
but only in expressing personal opinion.
Prov 18:2

A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey,
and a rod for the back of fools.
Prov 26:3

I mucked up

2004-09-26T17:44:00.000+12:00

I mucked up my template, so here is a new one until I have time to fix the old one

New blogs

2004-09-26T17:29:00.000+12:00

Here are a couple of new Kiwi blogs I have found. They both seem fairly conservative in outlook and also appear Christian.

No.8 Wire

For those who don't know, No.8 fencing wire is a key feature of NZ culture. The myth has it that a kiwi bloke can fix anything from a car to a laptop with a piece of number 8 fencing wire.

The Everlasting Man

Presbyterians make up their mind

2004-09-26T17:26:00.000+12:00

The New Zealand Prebyterians have decided to bar homosexuals and those in "de facto" heterosexual relationships from leadership positions within the church. Unfortunately the position will not be of retrospective effect.

Article here

Ways to Hate Your Neighbour

2004-09-26T15:58:00.000+12:00

What Europeans think of each other. An entertaining table.

Breaking Vows

2004-09-26T15:52:00.000+12:00

Interesting article on divorce among assenting Catholics.

via Dappled Things

New Rector for the National Seminary

2004-09-26T13:15:00.000+12:00

Rev Philip Handforth has beed appointed rector of Holy Cross Seminary after the previous rector was appointed to the see of Dunedin.

Disappearing sidebar

2004-09-24T23:40:00.000+12:00

It seems my sidebar has disappeared down to the bottom of the page. I have tried to pull it back up but nothing has worked. Too tired to keep trying now. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

We don't condone terrorism... Really... why won't you believe us!!

2004-09-24T23:03:00.000+12:00

I was reading the paper yesterday and stumbled across an ad from Saudia Arabia. Yes that's right the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia saw fit to run an ad in a newspaper in a small country on the other side of the world. But why? Why would they do that?

To declare that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia doesn't like terrorists!

Don't just tell me. Show me!

Some good news

2004-09-24T22:45:00.000+12:00

Amongst all the doom and gloom we so often hear about the church, this week I have seen some hope. The Cathedral here in Auckland offers confessions for 40 minutes before the 12.15 daily Mass. This is in itself good news, but the great news is that twice this week I missed out on going.

Before you write me and suggest I wasn't really that keen to go, I was. What was great was that there were queues which extended beyond the apportioned time. Better still, a large part of the queue was made up of teenagers (it is school holiday time here, though not, unfortunately, university holiday time!). Two days I wasn't able to hang around and see if the priest came back after Mass, but yesterday I was able to wait and the priest came back and heard confessions for another half an hour.

To top it off, these young people, mostly of Asian (probably Filipino) extraction seemed not to be accomanied by parents. They weren't being brought to confession, they took it upon themselves to travel to the city centre, find the Cathedral and wait an hour and a half to be reconciled with their God. This fills me with hope.

Busy, busy, busy...

2004-09-23T00:01:00.000+12:00

I am just about finished writing a 4000 word essay for my immigration and refugee law class. It isn't terribly long, but I have had a great deal of difficulty forming an opinion on the matter, and even tonight I was still unsure where I would come out. The main issue is whether a Turkish woman denied access to university in Turkey for wearing a headscarf should be able to count as "being persecuted" when attempting to claim refugee status in New Zealand. Hopefully soon(ish) I should be able to get some sleep and have a fresh look at it in the morning.

I am really tired at the moment. I am studying full time and working part time (20 hours or so) leaving me with very little time to relax. I am actually looking forward to graduating so I can just do one thing and at least (most of the time) have my weekends free to do what I want to do, rather than spending them slaving in a supermarket.

My Bishop Cited by ZENIT

2004-09-22T11:06:00.000+12:00

Bishop Patrick Dunn of Auckland wrote of his experience during the recent ad limina visit to Rome of the New Zealand Bishops.

"Although his eyes are bright and piercing, he is indubitably frail, and has not walked in public for over a year. His condition makes it an effort for him to talk, and at times even to swallow.

During our week in Rome we celebrated the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, which reminds us that we are all called to share both in Christ’s suffering and in His Triumph.

It seems that Pope John Paul II now presides over the Universal Church from his place upon Christ’s Cross."

Full text here. ZENIT article here.

Deputy PM didn't believe the Pope was talking about NZ

2004-09-19T11:04:00.000+12:00

Article here: "Dr Cullen initially thought journalists were teasing him about the Pope having a view on New Zealand society, but when assured it was true said it was not unexpected. "

New Zealand's Bishops make their ad limina visit

2004-09-17T16:15:00.000+12:00

The Holy Father warned our bishops of the dangers of unrestrained secularism in NZ and was particularly concerned about the desacralisation of Sunday, which is at risk of being subjected to the popular concept of the weekend.

Comments from Catholic Communications here. The full text here.

The Herald put this on the front page under the heading "Pope: Too much fun and games in NZ" Unsurprisingly the Holy Father's comments have been lambasted in the editorial pages and letters to the editor of our major papers.

Also take a look at this cartoon from stuff.co.nz.

Spanish Church takes on Socialist government

2004-09-17T15:28:00.000+12:00

Economist.com | Spain: "In July the church struck back, springing an ambush on Mr Zapatero when he accompanied King Juan Carlos at the annual national offering at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Mr Zapatero, whose first overseas visit was to Morocco, stood in the shadow of a statue depicting Spain's patron saint, St James the Moor Slayer, on a white charger, hacking off the heads of Moors. Church officials had just overturned a decision to remove the statue, an 18th-century work by Jos� Gambino, from the cathedral after it was deemed offensive to Muslims.

With 52 clergymen glowering, the archbishop of Santiago, Juli�n Barrio, let loose a point-blank fulmination. He accused Mr Zapatero of perverting the natural order. He declared that marriage is �essentially heterosexual� and that the church had every right to interfere in national politics �in cases of people's fundamental rights or the salvation of souls�. �It is not possible to truly understand or serve Spain without taking into account its Christian roots,� he added. Later the pope, who had praised Mr Aznar for his �loyal collaboration�, reproached Mr Zapatero. Spanish bishops have called for the faithful to demonstrate against the reforms."

The Economist on American elections

2004-09-17T15:15:00.000+12:00

Out of all these creaking bits of machinery, two look particularly deadly. The first is those voting machines (see article). Despite being given a fistful of money by Congress, many American states have opted for dodgy electronic voting machines. Electronic machines generally look a good idea; but they must have a paper back-up, so that voters can check that their votes have been recorded correctly; and, crucially, so that officials can hand-count the ballots if there is a very close result or if a glitch emerges, as it will. In one recent Indiana contest, 5,352 voters somehow produced 144,000 votes.
The Economist (subscription req)

I have long wondered about the American fascination with fancy voting machines. Here we just tick boxes with a felt tip pen then after polling close the votes are sorted into piles and counted. When elections are close there are recounts, but I have never heard of any results being overturned.

Cathedral renovations

2004-09-09T15:03:00.000+12:00

My Cathedral is about to undergo substantial renovations. While they are not entirely as I would have chosen if given absolute discretion, I think they are a change for the better. The current sanctuary dates from 1985 when the High Altar was removed and an island sanctuary installed. The Blessed Sacrament is currently reserved to the side of the sanctuary.

The plans include making a new island sanctuary out of marble (instead of the currenct wooden one) and a new marble altar, ambo and baptismal font. Some of the floor in the nave is also to be set in marble. A new Blessed Sacrament chapel will be constructed directly behind the altar, returning the tabernacle to the centre of the church. I look forward to seeing the results and will post some plans on this site if I find them on the cathedral site.

2004-09-09T13:30:00.000+12:00

You are a... ROYALIST!!You believe in wholesome traditional family values
like the Monarchy, burning witches and fighting
the French. Youre also a snazzy dresser and a
demon in the sack, but watch out - the Puritans
are coming and theyre obviously not getting
enough at home!!

What English Civil War Political Faction would I have supported?
brought to you by

Novena to Our Lady of Good Health

2004-08-30T22:00:00.000+12:00

My parish began today a novena to Our Lady of Good Health (Our Lady of Vailankanni), a devotion brought to our parish by our Indian community, but now embraced by our whole parish. For the first night of the novena tonight the church was full to capacity, and even beyond. We are privileged to have priests from all over Auckland and even a bishop from India joining us over the next nine days. Choirs from our parish as well as neighbouring parishes and organisations will be taking turns to lead the singing. Each evening we will be reciting the rosary and the novena prayer followed by Mass.

If any of my readers are interested and are in Auckland drop me a line and I'll let you know the details.

Novena to Our Lady of Good Health

2004-08-30T21:56:00.000+12:00

Most Holy Virgin! You were chosen by the most Adorable Trinity from all eternity to be the most pure Mother of Jesus.

TENDER Mother of the afflicted, grant me under my present necessities a special protection. Relying on the infinite mercies of your Divine Son, and penetrated with confidence in your powerful intercession, I most humbly entreat you to intercede for me the favours which I petition for in this Novena, if it be the Holy Will of God to grant them, and if not, to ask for me whatever graces I most stand in need of.

(Here specify your intention)

Recite nine times: Hail Mary.

I BESEECH you, O comfortress of the afflicted to obtain for me the favours and graces which I have now implored through your powerful intercession. For this end, I offer you my good works I do and sufferings I endure. I most humbly entreat you for the love of the amiable Heart Of Jesus, with which yours was ever so inflamed, to hear my humble prayers and obtain my requests. Amen.

On religion and politics

2004-08-29T13:20:00.000+12:00

"Not surprisingly, Catholic Republicans remained overwhelmingly antiabortion during the period of the study, voting almost unanimously with the antiabortion position taken by the Vatican and by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, D'Antonio said. "

It's not the position "taken" by the Vatican, or the USCCB, it is the position given to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church by God Almighty. This is not some sort of policy issue on which you are free to agree with Rome, or not, such as the welfare state, or the best way to deal with refugee crises etc. This is a matter of morality in the strict sense and any divergence from this truth is not just error, but also sin.

Add two more to the tally!

2004-08-27T12:40:00.000+12:00

Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty have won gold and silver in the trialthlon. This bring the NZ medal tally to 3 gold and one silver. One medal per million inhabitants isn't too bad eh? And we still have two kayakers in the finals tonight!

New Zealand wins a medal...

2004-08-22T11:20:00.000+12:00

... and its a gold!!!

Well done to the Evers-Swindell twins!

2004-08-12T16:01:00.000+12:00

Know the Word,
live the Word,
love the Word,
give the Word!

ResSacramenti

2004-08-12T12:46:00.000+12:00

A priest of my diocese has written a book which is available online arguing that the mass in English is invalid.

A Rant On The EC

2004-08-08T15:33:00.000+12:00

I disagree with a lot of what you can read on Raw Faith, but these words from Karem struck a chord with me:

Stop trying to be cool. Church isn't supposed to be cool. OK? Christianity is not cool. Jesus wasn't cool. He was a big old radical freak and when he told people that they needed to stop focusing so much on their stupid laws and learn how to love God and love their neighbor they thought he was so uncool that they killed him in a very uncool way.
It's not about you and how clever you are and how creative you are and how much better your church is than all of the other 'boring,' 'spiritually dead,' 'old,' other churches out there. Let Jesus do the new thing - not you.