Meeking was the seventh bishop of Christchurch.

He was ordained as a priest in 1953 and then as a bishop in 1987. He served as bishop from 1987 until 1996.

Meeking served in a number of parishes in the diocese and held other pastoral appointments such as chaplain to Christchurch Hospital and representing the Catholic Church to the National Council of Churches.

He undertook doctoral studies from 1963-1966 in Rome at the University of St Thomas Angelicum.

In 1969 was appointed to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome where he worked for the next 18 years.

The bishop of Christchurch, Paul Martin said: "Bishop Basil had a great love of priesthood and has left us a legacy of priests who have a strong identity in their priesthood."

Since his retirement as the Bishop of Christchurch, Bishop Basil worked from 1997 to 2006 with the late Cardinal Francis George of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

He then resided in Christchurch and continued giving retreats and talks in New Zealand and overseas.

Click here to read more about Bishop Meeking.

Funeral arrangements

• Monday 15 June: From 10.00 am, Bishop Basil will be at the Carmelite Monastery Chapel (52 Halswell Road). People are welcome to come and pray during this time.
• Monday 15: Rosary will be recited at the Carmelite Chapel at 7.00 pm.
• Tuesday 16 June: a Vigil Mass will be celebrated at the Nazareth House Chapel,220 Brougham Street at 2 pm.
• Tuesday 16 A Vigil Requiem Mass in Extraordinary Form (Latin Mass) will be celebrated at St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, 373 Manchester Street at 7 pm
• Wednesday 17 June: The Requiem Mass for Bishop Basil will be celebrated at 11 am at St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, followed by burial at Bromley Cemetery, corner of Linwood Avenue and Keighleys Road

Source

• chchcatholic.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: twitter.com

Father Paul Martin will be 10th Catholic Bishop of Christchurch. His ordination is expected to be next year, possibly in February.

One of the important issues he will need to address is the restoration of the quake-damaged Blessed Sacrament Cathedral.

As news of his appointment was announced, Martin said "I'd like to express what a privilege it is to be chosen to serve in the Diocese of Christchurch as bishop, following in the footsteps of those before me. I am really looking forward to taking up this ministry and leading the diocese."

Bishop Patrick Dunn, President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference welcomed the appointment.

"We know that he will bring a new voice and a valuable perspective to our discussions," he said.

"It is wonderful for Christchurch that they will receive a bishop who has worked with a range of communities, has extensive pastoral experience and comes to the role with a wealth of knowledge and expertise."

Dunn also took the opportunity to thank Father Rick Loughnan who has been the Diocesan Administrator in Christchurch since the death of Jones.

Loughnan has welcome the appoint of the new bishop too. "We are delighted with the appointment by Pope Francis and look forward to welcoming bishop-elect Paul with open arms," he said.

Provincial of the Society of Mary, Fr David Kennerley said Martin has a broad range of talents. "Administratively very capable, people readily acknowledge his warm pastoral approach", he said.

Martin was born in Hastings in 1967, one of five children. He entered formation for the Society of Mary in February 1985 and studied in theology and arts at Victoria University in Wellington.

He completed a Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology from the Angelicum University in Rome and studied to become a teacher.

Martin taught english and religious education in New Zealand and has held the roles of rector at St Patrick's College in Wellington and Deputy Rector in Pastoral Care at St Bede's College, Christchurch.

Although his main ministry has been in education, after his ordination in 1993 he spent time as part of the Maori pastoral team in the South Hokianga. He was also a chaplain at Hato Paora College in 2002 and 2003.

Read the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference Media release.

Source

• Supplied Amanda Gregan. New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference
• The Press
• Zenit
• The Society of Mary New Zealand
• Image: George Driver Stuff

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith this week issued a new document, Iuvenescit Ecclesia ("The Church Rejuvenates").

This is the first document from the CDF in Pope Francis's pontificate.

The letter stated bishops and new movements should recognise each other as "co-essential".

Bishops must respect "the particularity of individual charismatic groups, avoiding juridical straitjackets that deaden the novelty which is born from the specific experience".

The groups must obey the local bishop and avoid "any danger that the charismatic entities might be considered in some way as running parallel to the ecclesial life".

The 32-page document is addressed to bishops around the world.

It addresses the relationship between hierarchical and charismatic gifts in the life and mission of the Church.

The new document insisted that both the hierarchical and charismatic gifts are given by God in order to build up the Church.

Therefore, they always must be in harmony and complement one another.

The bishop, "he who has received the gift to lead in the Church, has also the responsibility of keeping watch over the good exercise of the other charisms, in such a manner that all contribute to the good of the Church and to its evangelising mission," the document said.

Speaking at the release of the letter, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, noted difficulties that can arise.

He said that "there have been some problems" with some of the lay movement groups setting themselves up as a sort of "counter-power to the bishops".

At the same time, CDF prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller said that a vision of the Church in which the bishops control everything "is not our vision".

"Bishops are not the superiors, the commandants of the gifts of the Holy Spirit - the Holy Spirit is," Cardinal Müller said.

The letter affirmed that the "Holy Spirit distributes the charismatic gifts to whomever he desires".

"The same Spirit gives to the hierarchy of the Church the capacity to discern the authenticity of the charisms," the letter added.

The document provided eight criteria that bishops can use in discerning whether a certain group's charism can be properly inserted in the wider Church.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Catholic News Service
• Iuvenescit Ecclesia
• Image: Catholic Herald

It was attended by A crowd of several hundred people - many of whom spilled out into the foyer.

Clergy from throughout Southland, Otago, New Zealand and Australia were in attendance at the mass, as was Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt and students from several Southland Catholic schools.

Boyle was the parish priest at St Mary's Basilica from 1972 until he became a bishop in 1983.

The mass began with a rendition of "Lift High The Cross," with accompaniment by organist Dr Raymond White. Later, soloist Rebecca Ryan sang part of "Pie Jesu" from Faure's Requiem.

In his homily Bishop Dennis Brown said Boyle's Southland charm had a way of rubbing off on others.

He said he fondly remembered the time Boyle patted Pope John Paul II on the back as a gesture of support.

"That made him eligible for excommunication, because he had struck the Holy Father," he joked.

"He was outstanding. A humble, beautiful man who had a deep appreciation for everybody."

Boyle's niece, Catherine Morrision, also spoke at the mass.

"He was a wonderful storyteller, and could captivate an audience," she said.

"He had a remarkable memory. He was so proud of being brought up in Nightcaps and Winton."

Following the service, students from Invercargill's Verdon College performed a haka outside the basilica.

Boyle's casket was then taken to the Ascot Park Hotel for a reception, and then to Wreys Bush Cemetery where he was buried next to other members of his family.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to release Iuvenescit Ecclesia ("the Church grows young") on June 14.

It will be the CDF's first major document issued during the pontificate of Pope Francis.

Continue reading

So great was his joy that, like David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant, Bishop Fernand broke out into a song and dance act.

The best part comes near the end of the video.

Watch on Youtube

A large number of people attended the requiem mass on Friday.

The Sacred Heart Cathedral in Suva was packed out and the congregation spilled out onto the surrounding streets which had been closed off to traffic.

Archbishops and bishops from around the region were among the guests who were part of the service.

Prime Minister Rear Admiral (Ret) Voreqe Bainimarama, members of the diplomatic corps, cabinet ministers, the Roko Tui Dreketi Ro Teimumu Kepa, the President of Fiji Ratu Epeli Nailatikau and First Lady Adi Koila Nailatikau, close friends of the fallen leader, were among those who received Holy Communion.

In his homily Archbishop Peter Loy Chong said that during his last moments, Mataca shared some of his concerns for the church.

He assured Chong that he always prayed for him and the church.

"Archbishop Mataca had the church embedded in his heart and soul. This was reflected in how he envisioned his funeral," Chong said.

"He had initially requested to be buried in the bishop's tomb at Cawaci, Ovalau, and then thought of being buried with diocesan priests in Vatuwaqa cemetery and finally he decided to be buried next to Father John Clerkin at the Suva Old Cemetery as he was his mentor and he had groomed him.

"Archbishop Mataca's plans for his funeral reflect his desire to be close to his brother priests and the church. Despite all his funeral wishes, he said "Au tu ga e na vakarorogo (I will listen)"."

Pope Francis sent a condolence message to Archbishop Peter Loy Chong and the whole archdiocese of Suva.

The message, sent through the Nuncio's office in Wellington, stated that the Holy Father was saddened to hear of the death of Archbishop Mataca and he wished Archbishop Chong well as the church gathered to celebrate his life and his commitment and service to the church.

At the end of the funeral rites, the slight drizzle stopped and the sun broke through the clouds, a reflection of assurance and hope for the church as it moves forward without the man who led it for about four decades.

Source

• The Fiji Times
• The Fiji Times
• The Fiji Times
• The Fiji Times
• Image: media.fbc.com.fj

In any society, organization or Church community, it is important to know who is ultimately responsible in decision making; otherwise, chaos or worse would prevail.

In an unprecedented (for a cardinal) cross examination in court last week, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney seemed confused about responsibility in the Sydney Church.

He was speaking for the Archdiocese of Sydney which he led from 2001 until his transfer to a job at the Vatican, appearing before the Royal Commission into child sex abuse in institutions, including the Church's, across Australia.

The Cardinal blamed various mistakes on his hand-picked lieutenants, "couldn't recall" the details of instructions being given on his behalf to his lawyers and claimed his legal representatives had gone beyond what was acceptable to any Christian in defending a case brought against the archdiocese by a child abuse victim, John Ellis.

The same was true at a global level in February when the Vatican's chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, ducked criticism from the United Nations committee investigating the Church's compliance with a UN protocol it signed on the rights of children.

No, the Vatican wasn't responsible for the oversight of the Church's 'best practice' in child protection. It was only responsible for the 32 children of employees in the Vatican City State. Accountability for the Church doesn't reside in Rome.

Loyalty to HQ: Rome

Cardinal Pell's confusions and the Vatican's dodges with the UN notwithstanding, accountability for the Church throughout the world has always belonged with Rome - despite attempted reforms at Vatican II. It is from Rome that the authority devolves to any bishop in the rest of the Catholic world. Every bishop on ordination makes a personal oath of loyalty to the Pope.

That reality has intensified in the last 30 years, disempowering local bishops who have become branch managers of a multinational enterprise, charged with repeating whatever the line from HQ happens to be.

And it has neutralized dioceses and groups of dioceses in bishops' conferences from assuming the authority and responsibility called for in Vatican II.

Perhaps the confusion at the Vatican reflects something - this way of organizing things doesn't work. The chaos that such a 'command and control' system of administration for a multinational community stretching across all the continents of the world and their diverse cultures reached the high point of its dysfunction with Benedict XVI.

The well documented chaos and mismanagement of that period underlines something well known outside the Church: Imperial government is unsustainable and has been for a century.

But the efforts of Rome to control all Catholic activities from headquarters, particularly while Joseph Ratzinger was cardinal prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and as reiterated by the current prefect, Cardinal Mueller, extended to the neutralizing of regional groups of bishops conferences.

In Asia as in the Americas - North and South - that meant that continental aggregations of bishops' conferences were told that their groups had no doctrinal footing and therefore little significance for anything but convening occasional topical meetings.

Decentralisation, consultation, synods

The situation appears to be changing with the emphasis of Pope Francis on decentralization, consultation and synods. He wants participation, consultation, devolution and decentralization.

As well, what the pope wants of bishops - or any pastor in the Church - points to deep cultural change as well: shepherds who have the smell of the sheep they tend to, who know and feel with their people rather than look over their shoulders to Rome.

But the desire for inclusiveness and participation runs into a very thick brick wall. At the moment, on most important matters, the pope takes full responsibility.

The overwhelming power of the pope reached its high point in Vatican I's 1870 definition of papal infallibility.

Not only did the council decree that the pope would be "free from error" in defining faith and morals. It also held that the pope had "primacy and immediacy of jurisdiction" in the Church.

The universal jurisdiction of the pope not only doesn't work, as displayed especially in the confused mismanagement of Benedict XVI's time as pontiff. It also represents a major obstacle to promoting Church unity.

Pope: Obstacle to unity

Both Paul VI and Blessed John Paul admitted that the biggest obstacle to building Church unity was in fact the pope.

Reform of his office is what Blessed John Paul sought in his 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint. While some responses followed, there was little substantial reaction.

The main sticking point for Orthodox Christians in their dealings with the papacy is their rejection of an overriding submission to the Bishop of Rome, not so much in doctrinal areas about which they mostly agree with the Romans.

It is more Rome's presumption of moral and disciplinary authority and the differing cultures and histories of theological emphasis that divide the Romans and the Orthodox.

This is a disciplinary requirement to which the Orthodox will never submit.

Having ultimate responsibility remain with the Vatican doesn't work for the good governance for a Church that stretches worldwide. And it actually works against something every Christian should know was Jesus Christ's hope - unity among his followers.

The Holy See hires and fires bishops and sets the general terms for the operations of the Catholic Church through various instruments - papal directives, administrative decrees for dioceses and religious congregations, and the code of Canon Law.

The Vatican and the pope can't have it both ways. It either has the authority that carries responsibility and liability or it doesn't. At the moment, by its own rules, it does; and that isn't working.

In fact it works against one of the main emphases of the post Vatican II Church. If it wants to change that and delegate authority and responsibility, it will need to revise Vatican I's decree.

Fr Michael Kelly SJ is the executive director www.ucanews.com.

Source: UCA News

Image: UCA News

The story focuses on Ronald Plishka, who was admitted to MedStar Washington Hospital Center after a heart attack and asked for a priest when — after 24 hours — he became concerned that he might not make it.

Plishka, 63, said he was an altar boy when he was young and now regularly attends Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

He said he believes in the sacraments and asked for the anointing of the sick, including Communion.

A priest named Fr. Brian Coelho responded to his request, and when they engaged in conversation, Plishka revealed that he is gay. In fact, he had started to talk about Pope Francis and how his "who am I to judge?" attitude toward LGBT people heartened him. Continue reading.

The report of what the Pope told leaders of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Men and Women Religious was originally published on a website in Chile and has not been denied by anyone who was there.

A subsequent statement from the confederation described the leaked account of the meeting as a "summary based on the memories of the participants" and a reliable record of the Pope's "general meaning", though not a verbatim transcript.

A Catholic News Service report said Pope Francis urged his fellow Latin American religious to "put all your commitment into dialogue with the bishops," even though "there are some [bishops] who have another idea of communion" from that held by many religious.

He also counselled his visitors to take a constructive attitude toward criticism and discipline from the Vatican.

"Maybe you will get a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine [of the Faith] saying that you said this or that," the Pope reportedly said. "But don't worry. Explain what you have to explain, but keep going."

While affirming the reality of error and the hierarchy's responsibility to correct it, his emphasis was on forgiveness.

"You are going to make mistakes, you are going to put your foot in it. That happens!" he said. "I prefer a Church that makes mistakes because it is doing something to one that sickens because it stays shut in."

Nevertheless, Pope Francis did not hesitate to classify certain trends in the contemporary Church as manifestations of ancient heresies. As an example of Gnosticism, he cited the case of an unnamed superior general of a congregation of women religious who encouraged members to "take a spiritual bath in the cosmos" in lieu of morning prayer.

Such expressions of "pantheism" worry him, the Pope is quoted as saying, "because they skip the Incarnation!"

Sources:

Catholic News Service

Catholic News Agency

Image: Catholic News Agency

I sigh. When I turn to my daily newspapers, I sigh further, at the stereotyping, the false assumptions, the hostility in some quarters, the focus upon protocol rather than substance, the obsession with fiscal laxities at the Vatican rather than the proclaimed mission of Christ. Much of this criticism is boringly predictable; I may be wrong, but I suspect it might be hard to find a month, for example, when New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd does not launch an attack upon the papacy and the Catholic Church. And when the College of Cardinals announces the successor to Benedict, there will be fervid speculation about the new pope's attitude toward divorce, abortion, the Jews, secularism in Italy, and so on.

That is one view of the Catholic Church, the church of hierarchy, tradition, formalism, its bursts of reform soon restrained by a return to conservatism. It is the church so familiar to the minds of secularists, pagans and anti-Catholics everywhere. It is the church of the 19th-century popes. It is the church of infallibility, incense, candles, and of Latin masses. Pushing it further, it is the church of financial corruption and sexual abuse. It is the church of stereotype, which is not wise.

In the early 1790s, as Europe reeled under the shock of the French Revolution, the great English politician and philosopher Edmund Burke warned against condemning an entire nation, a France of about 30 million souls, for the troubles and wars. Shouldn't we be wary of condemning a church of roughly 1 billion believers? Continue reading

Sources

• Paul Kennedy in The New York Times
• Image: Stuff

Paul Kennedy is Dilworth Professor of History and director of International Security Studies at Yale University.