austraLasia #2598
"Unto thine own self be true": Christian conscience
Three items follow, all with this theme -
(1) MELBOURNE: 19th February 2010 -- A book by prodigious Salesian author, moral philosopher and member of the EAO Region, Fr Norman Ford, may have escaped public attention outside the restricted area of Catholic Health Care in Australia, but it deserves wider readership.
Christian Conscience, with the subtitle taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, is in fact not available in bookshops, but could be ordered directly from the Catholic Health Care site.
While working as Scholar in Residence with CHA, Fr Ford was given the opportunity to study conscience in depth and write on it for those working in the healthcare sector – nurses, physicians, allied health professionals and pastoral care practitioners. It is his hope that this small book will be of benefit to Christian and Catholic lay healthcare professionals and other professionals, e.g., teachers, scientists, etc., in their daily work and lives since they all have a conscience.
Great sacrifices are made by people who live according to their conscience. Throughout the centuries people have died rather than to act against their conscience – think of the martyrs for the Christian faith or Marxists who have died for their conscientious convictions. Such people were prepared to die rather than to live deprived of the freedom to act in accordance with their conscience.
The book begins with a local setting - the restrictions imposed by the State of Victoria's Abortion Law Reform Act to the right of healthcare professionals to follow their conscience in some situations regarding abortion. This serves as a clarion call to consider the importance of conscience for doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, indeed for all professionals, and when necessary to defend the moral rights of conscience.
In Part One Fr Ford presents his own reflections on the nature and meaning of conscience, how we arrive at judgments of conscience, the moral principles of conscience, especially in relation to an erroneous and a doubtful conscience. He gives his own practical exposition of conscience for lay people, with an eye to applications for healthcare professionals involved in hospitals, nursing homes and aged care facilities.
In Part Two, he explores the meanings and usage of the term conscience and its moral principles in the Tradition. He begins with the term used by the ancient Greeks and how their term for conscience made its entry into the New Testament, especially the Letters of St Paul, the champion of conscience. A study is then made of the use of the term conscience and its related moral principles in the writings of St Thomas Aquinas, Cardinal Newman, the Second Vatican Council, Papal teachings and Catholic scholars.
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(2) Rector Major reduced to silence, recounting Haiti experience
ROME: 19th February 2010 -- On the evening of 18th, the Rector Major addressed the Pisana Community after returning from an unscheduled trip to Haiti. He was accompanied by a combined ANS and Missioni Don Bosco, Turin, team who have put together an eloquent video which has almost no words - just some brief comments by Fr Chávez as he moves through the ruins. Last night the Rector Major began to speak of that experience, but was forced to stop for a long period to recompose himself. He spoke not just of the images that everyone by now is familiar with at a distance, but of the close-up impact on the visitors.
While fully acknowledging the debt of gratitude to outside donors of every description and the enormous work being managed by the Congregation in this regard (balanced by the enormity of the work that has to be done even just to still find bodies and provide decent burial, clear rubble, provide basic needs...) he focused on the impact on our Salesians there, the need that he felt to give clear leadership in a context where the fabric of life in the country has come apart, leadership in the political sphere is absent, other political currents in the region are hovering, some with self-interest, and our confreres are stretched to physical but especially psychological limits, many suffering trauma and needing to care for tens of thousands of people who have flocked to our land (one can hardly say 'buildings' ). He also spoke of the extraordinary generosity he has experienced from confreres all over the world, our students even in the poorest places, one agricultural school in Africa selling their prize bull and handing him the money during a recent visit.
His Good Night concluded with a reminder that all of our consciences have to face up to this situation - asking ourselves what God is 'saying' in this 'unspeakable' disaster - '"yet another motive for experiencing Lent this season", he concluded.
(3) Salesian ACRE Project, Celbridge (_A_ _C_ommunity _R_ethinking _E_ducation) on YouTube
CELBRIDGE: 19th February 2010 -- Fr Pat Egan writes from Celbridge, outside Dublin, where the Salesian College there is working at developing a paddock adjoining the school to set up an eco-friendly horticultural alliance between the Salesians and the local Celbridge/straffan community (Co. Kildare). Pat asks us to pass this information (the YouTube link is clickable above) to austraLasia readers to get worldwide support in the 'AIB Better Ireland' competition which began on 15th February and runs until 15th March. To vote by email, after viewing the project "which we want the whole Congregation to do", he says, "and help us win the €5,000 first prize", go to www.betterireland.ie, click on the Celbridge sign and follow the three simple steps to cast a vote for the Salesian ACRE Project.
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2009 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
"Unto thine own self be true": Christian conscience
Three items follow, all with this theme -
(1) MELBOURNE: 19th February 2010 -- A book by prodigious Salesian author, moral philosopher and member of the EAO Region, Fr Norman Ford, may have escaped public attention outside the restricted area of Catholic Health Care in Australia, but it deserves wider readership.
Christian Conscience, with the subtitle taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, is in fact not available in bookshops, but could be ordered directly from the Catholic Health Care site.
While working as Scholar in Residence with CHA, Fr Ford was given the opportunity to study conscience in depth and write on it for those working in the healthcare sector – nurses, physicians, allied health professionals and pastoral care practitioners. It is his hope that this small book will be of benefit to Christian and Catholic lay healthcare professionals and other professionals, e.g., teachers, scientists, etc., in their daily work and lives since they all have a conscience.
Great sacrifices are made by people who live according to their conscience. Throughout the centuries people have died rather than to act against their conscience – think of the martyrs for the Christian faith or Marxists who have died for their conscientious convictions. Such people were prepared to die rather than to live deprived of the freedom to act in accordance with their conscience.
The book begins with a local setting - the restrictions imposed by the State of Victoria's Abortion Law Reform Act to the right of healthcare professionals to follow their conscience in some situations regarding abortion. This serves as a clarion call to consider the importance of conscience for doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, indeed for all professionals, and when necessary to defend the moral rights of conscience.
In Part One Fr Ford presents his own reflections on the nature and meaning of conscience, how we arrive at judgments of conscience, the moral principles of conscience, especially in relation to an erroneous and a doubtful conscience. He gives his own practical exposition of conscience for lay people, with an eye to applications for healthcare professionals involved in hospitals, nursing homes and aged care facilities.
In Part Two, he explores the meanings and usage of the term conscience and its moral principles in the Tradition. He begins with the term used by the ancient Greeks and how their term for conscience made its entry into the New Testament, especially the Letters of St Paul, the champion of conscience. A study is then made of the use of the term conscience and its related moral principles in the writings of St Thomas Aquinas, Cardinal Newman, the Second Vatican Council, Papal teachings and Catholic scholars.
-------
(2) Rector Major reduced to silence, recounting Haiti experience
ROME: 19th February 2010 -- On the evening of 18th, the Rector Major addressed the Pisana Community after returning from an unscheduled trip to Haiti. He was accompanied by a combined ANS and Missioni Don Bosco, Turin, team who have put together an eloquent video which has almost no words - just some brief comments by Fr Chávez as he moves through the ruins. Last night the Rector Major began to speak of that experience, but was forced to stop for a long period to recompose himself. He spoke not just of the images that everyone by now is familiar with at a distance, but of the close-up impact on the visitors.
While fully acknowledging the debt of gratitude to outside donors of every description and the enormous work being managed by the Congregation in this regard (balanced by the enormity of the work that has to be done even just to still find bodies and provide decent burial, clear rubble, provide basic needs...) he focused on the impact on our Salesians there, the need that he felt to give clear leadership in a context where the fabric of life in the country has come apart, leadership in the political sphere is absent, other political currents in the region are hovering, some with self-interest, and our confreres are stretched to physical but especially psychological limits, many suffering trauma and needing to care for tens of thousands of people who have flocked to our land (one can hardly say 'buildings' ). He also spoke of the extraordinary generosity he has experienced from confreres all over the world, our students even in the poorest places, one agricultural school in Africa selling their prize bull and handing him the money during a recent visit.
His Good Night concluded with a reminder that all of our consciences have to face up to this situation - asking ourselves what God is 'saying' in this 'unspeakable' disaster - '"yet another motive for experiencing Lent this season", he concluded.
(3) Salesian ACRE Project, Celbridge (_A_ _C_ommunity _R_ethinking _E_ducation) on YouTube
CELBRIDGE: 19th February 2010 -- Fr Pat Egan writes from Celbridge, outside Dublin, where the Salesian College there is working at developing a paddock adjoining the school to set up an eco-friendly horticultural alliance between the Salesians and the local Celbridge/straffan community (Co. Kildare). Pat asks us to pass this information (the YouTube link is clickable above) to austraLasia readers to get worldwide support in the 'AIB Better Ireland' competition which began on 15th February and runs until 15th March. To vote by email, after viewing the project "which we want the whole Congregation to do", he says, "and help us win the €5,000 first prize", go to www.betterireland.ie, click on the Celbridge sign and follow the three simple steps to cast a vote for the Salesian ACRE Project.
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2009 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
