Men and women of my generation were taught to respect police officers: we knew that the police would help if we found ourselves lost or if our homes were broken into. We relied on them to direct traffic after a car accident but we knew we deserved their attention if we drove a little too fast or ran a red light.

Monica Smit has been released from prison after 22 days in isolation. Monica had initially chosen to remain in custody after the courts tried to impose unreasonable bail conditions when she was arrested on charges of incitement. Those charges relate to two anti-lockdown protests which took place in August during Melbourne’s extended lockdown. 

Editor's Note: Full article is forthcoming with more details on the updates below. Many thanks to our Australian correspondent, Kathy Clubb, for her courageous journalism. MJM

Over the last eighteen months, Australia has become a battleground for the opposing forces of freedom and totalitarianism. Some states have endured multiple, ongoing lockdowns and experimental vaccines have been mandated in many industries across the nation. At the Federal level, both the government and opposition are attempting to introduce vaccine passports while our Bishops have openly encouraged Catholics to accept the abortion-tainted vaccines. Add to this a new law that enables police to take control of private social media accounts and electoral changes that could see the end of minor parties, and it becomes obvious that Australia is in quite a mess.

Videns civitatem flevit super illam^[1]

Every serious Catholic on the planet is by now aware of the Pope’s recent Motu Proprio which is designed to severely restrict access to the Latin Mass. For Catholics in Australia, the timing of the document’s release could not have been worse, as many traditionalists were among the 18,000,000 Australians then living under COVID stay-at-home orders and so were unable to access the sacraments or to seek solace in their parishes.

Our distress, like that of traditional Catholics everywhere, has been acute and many have questioned the lack of consultation preceding such an impactful document. This can be contrasted with, say, the 18-month discernment process surrounding as insignificant a change as the rebranding of the Global Catholic Climate Movement^[2] - which has been renamed the Laudato Si’ Movement, in case you were wondering. The authoritarian decree with its harsh and demanding tone left us wondering what could possibly come next.

Most Bishops are irked by their being expected to act as executioners of a Papal decree that seems to many (including fair minded liberals) to be heavy handed and even brutal. - Fr. "X", Australia

Catholic educators should have little excuse to stray from the clear guidelines set forth by the magisterium. For example, Pope Leo XIII wrote that in Catholic schools, the Faith “is to be preserved, whole and entire”.^[1] In this same encyclical, he also asked that parental freedom be respected. Pope Pius XI taught that “ that there can be no true education which is not wholly directed to man’s last end...:”^[2] And it was Pope Paul VI who said that parents are the “primary and principle educators” of children and that teachers are only the “partners” of Catholic parents. ^[3] How disappointing it was, then, to learn of the new curriculum being trialled by Parramatta Diocese in New South Wales, Australia - the content of which poses a significant threat to the faith of its students and which is deliberately being kept from parents.

The draft programme is endorsed by Bishop Vincent Long and was released in a limited fashion in February of this year. Bishop Long gained notoriety during Australia’s 2017 referendum on marriage equality when he voiced his support for same-sex ‘marriage.’ In 2019, Bishop Long’s teachers were given a document on LGBTI resources which lists books by the dissident Fr James Martin and websites such as the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics. As if to confirm the heterodox agenda, the Diocesan Facebook page is littered with posts from Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop Gregory Wilton, calls for ‘integral ecology’ and posts about a recent workshop on Centering prayer.

According to the introductory section of the draft curriculum, it is based on what its creators refer to as a “transformation” model that “puts the personal learning growth of young people at the centre.” This model favours process over content and is Pope Francis’ preferred system of education. It echoes the Pope’s “head, heart and hand” approach to learning, which is a hallmark of his pedagogy and which underpins his Global Education Pact.

The transformation model has its basis in the work of the Jesuit Bernard Lonergan, a theologian who was an associate of Karl Rahner. He was known to have disagreed with the Church’s teaching on contraception^[4] and he also promulgated the doctrine of Immanentism.^[5] This is the heresy which teaches that the truth can be found within man, rather than revelation needing to be handed down by the magisterium. It is, as Dr. Dennis Q. McInerny, explained, “recklessly subjective”, replacing the true God with “a fiction of one’s own devising, a pseudo-being having its source nowhere else but in the demands of deep-set emotions.”^[6]

The curriculum was authored mainly by theologian Anthony Maher. Maher is a proud  Modernist who wrote a book defending the excommunicated Jesuit, George Tyrrell, in which he slams Pope Pius X’s encyclical Pascendi for its “vitriolic language, personal threats, and the projected images of narrow-mindedness [which] represent the death rattle of Neo Scholasticism.”^[7] Ironically, Maher’s draft curriculum is promoted as being structured in the tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas, but its contents bear little resemblance to the work of the Angelic Doctor. Rather, it reads more like a litany of the very errors condemned by Pius X.

Maher with brother-in-arms Massimo Faggioli

In praising the new curriculum, Bishop Long says that Catholic schools should provide a Catholic education for all^[8] which explains one of the core principles of this course: it is designed to cater to non-Catholics. Its creators have done an admirable job in that regard, as there is little that would offend a non-Catholic’s sensibilities.

This attempt to placate non-Catholics is known as ‘Receptive Ecumenism” a term that does not exist in pre-conciliar - or even conciliar - documents. It was coined in 2008, in response to the self-confessed ineffectiveness of the ecumenical movement. This updated form of ecumenism dispenses with the idea of evangelisation; Catholics should no longer promulgate Catholic teaching but rather, should “listen to the other”. According to the draft document, the concept of Receptive Ecumenism will be introduced at the Grade 3 level along with the principles of dialogue, encounter and interfaith relations.

The course includes what has sadly become the norm for Diocesan Catholic schools: sloppy catechesis on sin, which has been substituted for the reminder that people sometimes make “wrong choices.” The topic of evil is covered in Grade 6 under the heading of “mystery, myth and metaphor”, a title which does not inspire confidence in its ability to convey the objective reality of satan and his iniquitous works. Liberation theology also makes an appearance in Grade 6, which is somewhat unsurprising given Anthony Maher’s predilection for this heresy.^[9]

Another clear heresy contained in the course is that of indifferentism, which was condemned by Pope Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos.^[10] The outline for Grade 3 states that “in God’s plan of salvation, there are a variety of different beliefs and pathways to God.” This statement, which is the theme for the module, is the very essence of indifferentism; the same module states that “holiness is open to all people of good will.”

The course contains a heavy emphasis on indigenous Australian spirituality. Grade 5 children are to be taught that “the Dreaming”, which is an important part of Aboriginal spirituality, has relevance for their everyday lives. One of the learning outcomes for Grade 6 children is that they will “receive insight from Indigenous Peoples with regard to Spirituality and Care of our Common Home.”                                                

Perhaps the most concerning aspect of the course for parents in our contemporary societal climate is its emphasis on sexuality, specifically in relation to same-sex attraction and transgenderism. In an August 20 newsletter to the Cathedral parish^[11], the Dean and Administrator, Fr Peter Williams, sought to reassure parents that these topics are covered only at the grade 10-11 level, but this is simply not the case.

According to the draft curriculum, children as young as ten are expected to learn that “respect [for] sexual identities is an essential attribute to human flourishing and to “recognise sexuality as an exploration in forming personal identity as a prerequisite for human flourishing”. Children are encouraged to question whether or not sexual identity is a result of nature or nurture and whether sexuality is “optional.” The lesson plans for Grade 6 (eleven year olds) will be discussing how to recognise an authentic life partner - note that this is not restricted to a spouse, much less to a partner of the opposite sex.

Thankfully, some are speaking out publicly against the new curriculum. Latin Mass chaplain for the Wagga diocese, Fr Terence Mary Naughtin OFM,Conv. told LifesiteNews that the word, “inclusion”, which features prominently in the programme, effectively means “compromising the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in order to accommodate sinful lifestyles” and should be rejected.^[12]

Additionally, two priests, Fr John O’Neill and Fr John Rizzo, wrote responses to a Daily Telegraph article, slamming the new programme. Fr O’Neill wrote that the Catholic Education Office has no authority over parish schools and that he has placed a ban on use of the course in his school.

Fr Rizzo, who was subsequently summoned to the Parramatta Chancery, wrote to “ …  remind the Catholic Education Office of Parramatta of their crucial responsibility in teaching their students of the importance of the 10 Commandments; likewise the Catholic teachings of morality, especially in regards to the Church’s teachings on proper relationships, marriage between a man and a woman; abstinence before marriage; the evils of pornography; the love of purity; the avoidance of homosexuality…”

The Diocese of Parramatta would be wise to put the breaks on this draft curriculum which is causing so much consternation. It contains outright heresy, as well as enough ambiguity to make the authors of the conciliar documents blush. In promulgating indifferentism, liberation theology, indigenous spirituality, sexual deviance and gender theory, this programme will feed some of the worst aspects of Modernism to our most vulnerable minds whilst simultaneously denying them the fullness of the beauty of our Catholic Faith.

^[1] http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_27111885_spectata-fides.html

^[2] http://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_31121929_divini-illius-magistri.html

^[3] http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_gravissimum-educationis_en.html

^[4] http://farfromrome.blogspot.com/2005/07/lonergan-on-contraception-part-i.html

^[5] https://www.traditioninaction.org/ProgressivistDoc/A_022_LonerganTheolInduct.htm

^[6] https://fssp.com/immanentism-catholicism-and-religious-experience-by-d-q-mcinerny-ph-d/

^[7] https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/a-long-forgotten--misunderstood-jesuit

^[8] https://www.parra.catholic.edu.au/en/News%20and%20Events/Latest%20News/2020/08/03/21/27/Bold%20new%20approach%20to%20Religious%20Education%20approved%20for%20study?fbclid=IwAR1WEvAZCUQz6kLUrWbHJCJY8M73qs7be9KfBxQAKHFRF48r4h6BeR6wr8I

^[9] http://www.apto.asn.au/template/75a635e1/pdf/1367449011058-7368.pdf

^[10] https://catholicism.org/indifferentism-is-a-condemned-heresy-gregory-xvis-mirari-vos.html

^[11] https://stpatscathedral.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Twenty-Second-Sunday-in-Ordinary-Time.pdf

^[12] https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/australian-diocese-to-teach-kids-lgbt-studies-gender-fluidity-atheism-in-new-religion-class

TRANSLATIONS:
Portuguese

20% of the nation’s population is now under virtual house arrest...

Melbourne, Australia is enduring an iron-fisted lockdown, due to the government’s decision to move from management to elimination of the coronavirus and due also to its spectacular mishandling of active cases.

Stage 3 restrictions came back into force only weeks after the state had slowly begun to reawaken from an initial coronavirus lockdown, which was undertaken despite there being very few cases in the community at that time.

Holy Week stopped at 10, resumed at midnight. There were even a few ‘Alleluia’s’ doing the rounds.

Last Tuesday, our highest-ranking Australian prelate was released from a maximum-security prison amid cheers from the other inmates. Cardinal George Pell had spent more than four hundred days behind bars for the ignominious crime of child sexual abuse. The evidence against him had been flimsy at best, but that hadn’t stopped a barrage of hatred from being piled on Pell and the Catholic Church for the past four years by the public, egged on by a coordinated media campaign run by amoral progressives.

It’s refreshing to be able to present an article about something positive happening in the Church, as a change from exposing dissent and heresy. Last weekend, Australia’s largest traditional Catholic event was held in honour of Christ the King. The annual Christus Rex pilgrimage is our answer to the Paris to Chartres pilgrimage and encouragingly, is growing in popularity, especially among young people.

The Christus Rex Pilgrimage (CREX) was established 29 years ago to honour the feast of Christ the King, as promulgated by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Quas Primas. Pilgrims walk 90 kilometres over three days, finishing at the Bendigo Cathedral on the Feast of Christ the King. The walk is physically demanding, but pilgrims are joyful, offering their pains for the good of Holy Mother Church and their own intentions. This year, in accordance with an appeal from Bishop Schneider, the last leg of the trip was offered as reparation for the sins of idolatry committed in Rome during the Amazon synod.