Greetings from Sydney, City of the Future!

Last updated on: December 31, 2014 at 3:48 pm by Mark Shea

Greetings from Sydney, City of the Future! 2014-12-31T15:48:32-07:00 Mark Shea

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

G’day! I’m writing you from Tuesday, February 2, to let you know that the future is fine! We in Australia scout out tomorrow so that you guys in the US will have an idea of what to anticipate. Turns out the world will not be ending on February 1 (cuz it’s already tomorrow here). So that’s a relief and you can all breathe easier.

Yesterday began my running around Sydney (fun fact: “Sydney” is actually a contraction of “Sainte Denis”: so I’m in a city named for a saint. Who knew?). I bopped down to Notre Dame downtown and visited with the theology faculty there (including an American Sister of Mercy named Moira who was from the Bronx. Very nice to hear an American accent, especially one as pungent as that. We all had a good long chat about things ranging from Mary, to Joel Osteen, to Tim Powers novels and I had a lovely time. Then my handler for that day, a lovely young woman named Katrina, took me off to lunch and we chatted. Turns out she came to the US last October to visit an Aussie friend name Patrick Langrell who started the Theology on Tap here in Sydney and then got tapped (nyuk nyuk) by the Archdiocese of New York to do the same thing in the States.

So off she goes to see him. And when it’s time to enter the US and go through customs and all that they look at her passport and eye here warily, because her name is “Katrina” and her birthdate is September 11. Awkward! She was a lovely young woman with a great sense of humor.

After that, I came home and crashed for a bit, then it was off to Theology on Tap at PJ Gallaghers, a pub somewhere out west of Sydney. Sydney, like LA, more or less goes on and on, like a huge urban “blob” as Elise, the driver who took me to the pub, explained. People keep moving further away in order to afford housing and the city is gobbling up smaller towns around it. We drove a fur piece before we got to the pub, but that didn’t dissuade a huge crowd from turning up. Like nothing I’ve ever seen at a ToT. They were great and I came away thinking “The future looks very bright for the Church in Sydney” with a crowd (several hundred strong) of engaged and intelligent young adults who are very serious about their faith. So: Cheers, Sydney!

Today, I’ve got a couple of media interviews (one on the phone, one for a local Italian TV thing called “Telepace” (Tell A Pa Chay). Then, this evening, I’m giving a talk at the Mustard Seed bookshop about Mary, Mother of the Son.

I’ve still got stuff to work on so I have to keep this short, but I wanted to mention a couple of things.

First, a reader writes:

My wife and I went to our first ultrasound today and are pretty sure we just experienced our third miscarriage in the past year and a half. Please pray for a miracle or barring that, healing for our wounded hearts.

Father, hear our prayer for this family and grant them the gift of a child or, if that not be your will, that they would have the strength and consolation of your Spirit in this time of loss. We ask this through your Son Jesus Christ. Mother Mary, pray for them! Amen.

Second, another reader who has asked for prayer in adopting a Haitian child ponders:

Thank you for posting the prayer request…we are still pushing through bureacracy. It is a challenge.

One other thought…and maybe you could help and respond if I am off base…but I have just reflected on the common sermon theme in which we are reminded we never know when Christ will come. Often, the direct allusion is to the fact we will never know when we will die and hopefully meet Christ in mercy, however, occasionally, when offered at the end of the liturgical year, one is given references to the coming of Christ in glory, with soft allusions to the “I told you so” nature of the apocalyptic descriptions of the “Left Behind” series.

Maybe there is another option.

We should think of Haiti as Christ come to us again. The question is, and the feeling is universally trepidatious on this matter: we are not ready. Indulging in two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and coming off a spend and borrowing spree with an economic hangover likely to persist years, we are not ready to meet Christ. We are beyond our ability to assist in this as we fully should. We cannot fully be committed, with our military or our economic assistance.

When we reflect on the “we will never know when Christ will come,” maybe we (I) need to be ready for the Christ who will come to me in the poor. Which is a common reference to how he will come to us in the Gospels anyway.

What do you think of these thoughts?

I think you are pretty much on the money. God have mercy on us.

Another reader notes: “You know your cause is sinking when the headline reads: “Bin Laden Blasts U.S. for Climate Change”.” What’s next? “Bin Laden: “Grammy should have gone to Backstreet Boys!” Vows vengeance.”

Speaking of our Civilizational Struggle: here’s a prescient piece on how we have, quite needlessly, tossed our own civilization in the crapper in our Generation Narcissus cowardice. In six short years we have passed from embracing torture “only in desperate situations like ticking time bombs” to torture even when the guy is already spilling the beans. Why? Because torture was *never* about getting information. It’s about taking vengeance. Proof? When you point out that the most efficient way of getting information is to torture, not the suspect, but his family, the torture advocate say, “But they are innocent!” In short, torture is for punishment of people we are pretty sure are bad.

The thing is, we’ve already tortured plenty of innocents because torture is typically done, not to people we know are guilty, but to people we suspect might be guilty. And the thing also is, once Americans (filled with the desire for vengeance for 9/11) establish torture as policy in order to slake that anger, the time will come when some soulless bureaucrat will take that policy and start to use it “efficiently” and not merely as a sop for our temporary culture of rage at jihadis. Then indeed we shall see women and children hauled into the Interrogation Facilities in order to “motivate” suspected miscreants of all shapes and sizes—not merely jihadis and not merely criminals, but anti-socials like, oh, “conservative Christians” and “prolifers” and all manner of dangers to the comfort of Caesar.

Which reminds me, Tom Kreitzberg has a special post For Adults Only (wink wink) over on his site.

In other news, farewell to Ralph McInerny. He was a good man and a fine Catholic and scholar (and a dab hand at the mystery genre). He will be sorely missed.

Finally, I’m blogging a bit about my trip Down Under over at the Register. Also, I’m starting a little series about the Hail Mary (the prayer, not the football strategy) over at Inside Catholic. Sorry I can’t do more but they are keeping me hopping down here.

Gotta jet!

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 31, 2010

Uh Oh

Next Post

February 1, 2010 Ronald Reagan, Radical Leftist Kook

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 September 2006 June 2006 July 2005 April 2005 May 2002 April 2002 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz