n - Eureka Street

excess of 40 living-areas. It is likelythat the next major beneficiary was theA. A. Company.Can I therefore ask the followingquestions?As the then Vice-President of theQueensland National Party, Directoron the board of A. A. Company andprincipal of the McDo n ald familycompany, did Don McDonald in factdraft the extension legislation ?Now the Federal President of theNational Party, is h e using the currentWik confusion to secure freehold overthis country, as I heard him suggeston an ABC radio interview on April8?Thus completing the rape of theaspirations of many potential younglandholders.John KershMaxwelton, QLDNo can doFrom Fr JM GeorgeFr J Honner (ES, March, 97) recommendedMichael Winter's article, 'ANew Twist to the Celibacy Debate'.Winter reduces early church motivationfor celibacy to 'morbid attitudesto sex' and 'primitive taboo'. Hisviews are not 'new' but are found inold celibacy studies by J.&. A. Theiner(1828), H. Lea (1867), F.X. Funk (1897),etc.French Jesuit historian, ChristianCochini and oth ers, today, wouldreject Winter's reduction in the lightof mainstream celibacy-doctrine andpraxis within the early church.Many early church married laity aswell as married clerics abstained frommarital acts in penitential preparationfor Eucharist. Moreover, just as abstinencefrom food did not imply thateating was m orbidly dishonourable orprimitive taboo, neither did pre-Eucharisticmarital abstinence imply negativitytowards the conjugal act.Indeed the wider church hadreject ed Manichean , Gnostic,Montanist and Encratite h eresies fordenigrating marriage. True! among the85 eastern and western Church Fatherswere some with negative attitudes tomarriage. However those limitedviews did n ot impact upon the abovementioned motivations for abstinence.The early church regarded marriedlay and clerical pre-eucharistic abstinencefrom food, wine and conjugalacts (totally good in themselves) asincreasing the efficacy of liturgicalprayer ('by penance'). Unlike strictrules of fasting, conjugal pre-eucharisticabstinence was merely a 'counsel'for married laity-a matter of personaldecision.'Efficacy-motivation' stood behindpermanent clerical celibacy. The earlychurch understood priests as incontinual mediation for the people.This 'mediation' was seen as more efficaciouswith permanent celibacy. Later,other motives were underlined, forexample, sacerdotal configuration to thecelibate Christ, 'Apostolic origins', etc.Cochini in his OriginesApostoliques du Celibat Sacerdotal,discusses wider issu es, such as thecontroversial Trillion Canon 13 mentionedby Fr Honner. Cochini exposesthe fictitious 'Paphnutius intervention'at Nicaea (uncritically acceptedby Winter). He distinguishes two categoriesof early celibate priests. He alsoclarifies 'Ritual-purity' terminology inits use for old Levitical priesthood andNew Testament presbyterate.The former professor at InstitutCath olique de Paris, the late Jean CardinalDanielou described Cochini['sinitial research as 'a true service to thechurch'. Henri Cardinal de Lubac,another outstanding scholar, describedthis 'serious and extensive research ...as of the first importance'. (Winter'sviews- popular today in scholarlycircles-need to be challen~ed 1 ).John M GeorgeWaverley, NSWNoWikFrom Michael PolyaFrank Brennan's article on Wik{E ureka Street, April1997) is misleading.Even if Aborigines could claim thevalue of the land in compensation inthe event of Native Title being extinguished,the value of the land wouldnot be too great, partly because itwould be generally unsaleable, or onlyto other Aborigines and thereforecould n ot be used as security for a loanand in any case the value would bediminished by the value of compensationthat would be payable to lesseesfor improvements, which in manyinstances would greatly exceed thevalue of the land itself.Native title does create a system ofland tenure akin to that of entailedestates in Europe, which only benefitsthe m ost parasitic and useless strata ofsociety, to wit the hereditary nobility.Michael PolyaWatson, ACTAustralian Options * *Journal of left discussions fo r * *social justice and political change.Issues I-8 have included themes: Unemployment,Privatisation Plunders, Future of Unions, ElectionQuestions, Green. Issues in a Brown. Land,Rich vs Poor, ABC.With writers: Pat Dodson, Belinda Probert, Mary Kalantzis,Hugh Stretton, Ted Trainer, John Langmore, Eva Cox. JackMundey, Ken Davidson, Meredith Burgmann;Next Issue: The Attack on YouthSubscribe NowName/ : ......................... ........ .. .. .... .... .. ... ............................... .Address: .. .............................................................................. ................................................ State!Postcode: ................. .. .. ..Phone: (H) ................................. (W) .................................. ..Email: ... .. .. .. .......................................................................... .I enclose $15 ($10 cone.) for subscription for one year (four issues p.a.)Cash 0 Cheque 0 Credit Card 0Payment by credit card:Please charge my (circle one). Bankcard Visa MastercardNo.: DODO DODO DODO DODOExpiry date: .................. ............. Amount: $ ..........................Signature: ....................................... .................. .Return to: Australian Options, PO Box 431, Good wood SA 5034,L------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------~§jThe Halifax-Portal LecturesThe Second Series of Ecwnenical LecturesSponsored by the Catholic and Anglican Bishops of NSW6th May 199713th May 199720th May 199727th May 1997"The Orthodox Churchesin Australia in 1997"ARCHBISHOP AGHAN BALI OZIAN,Armenian Apostolic Church"The Anglican Communion onthe Eve of Lambeth"(World Wide Ang li can Communion)REv DR BR UCE KAYEGeneral Sem:tary, the General Synod of Australia''The Uniting Church in Australia in 1997''REv DoROTHY McRAE-McMAHONDirector for Mi ssion for the Uniting Church inAustralia"The Legacy of Halifax and Portal"Ms DENISE SULLI VANSecretary of the Bishops' Committee forEcumeni cal and Interfaith RelationsThesday Nights at 7.30 pm-FREE ENTRYSanta Maria Del Monte School Hall, Strathlield, NSW(cnr Carrington Ave and The Boulevarde)Refreshments served at 7.15 pmAnglicru1 Viscount Charles Halifax ( 1839-1934) was involved in mosl questions facingthe Anglican Church of his day. Abbe Etienne Ponal ( 1855- 1926), a French Yincentian,met !he Viscount in 1889. Their friendship led to dialogue about Church reu nion. TI1eMalines Conversations ( 192 1-1926) between Catholics and Anglicans hosted byCardi nal Mercier was their most notable success. TI1ese two men express the spiritthai these current lectures seek to foster.FOR FliRTH ER INFORMATION CONTACT: SR PATRICIA MADI GAN OP,LI AISON OFFICER FOR I':CUMEN lSM. I' OLOlN(; HO USE