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The Southern Cross : May 2012
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May 2012 Page 13 www.thesoutherncross.org.au The Southern Cross The Southern Cross opinion | FEEDBACK Being brought up in a football-mad family, I have always been in awe of Aussie Rules legend Kevin Sheedy and so it was with great delight that I accepted an invitation to hear him speak at the Catholic Secondary Principals Australia Conference in Canberra recently. Sheeds did not disappoint. His speaking style was a cross between a punchy pre- game address and an enlightening homily, punctuated with humour and anecdotes. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, considering how much talking he's done over the years as a coach and more recently as an advocate for the game in the rugby strong-hold of Sydney's western suburbs. The theme of his address was how his Catholic upbringing and his schooling at De La Salle Junior School and then St Ignatius College in Melbourne has influenced who he is. "I never had a bad teacher," he proudly declared to the Catholic school principals, and this included his time at trade school where he trained to be a plumber. He described his Catholic conscience as a way of looking at the world and thinking about others. For example, when he drives into Canberra and sees the War Memorial looking straight at Parliament House he thinks about the message this sends to our politicians: "you don't die for 'you people' to make the wrong decisions". And when he looks at a crane in the city skyline of Sydney or Melbourne he ponders over the person in the crane climbing higher and higher into the sky and marvels at his courage. "Do we care about that person?" he asks. "Well I do, and I learnt that from my teachers -- they never ever let me down ... the more I live the more I draw on it." Sheeds also touched on ecumenical matters, in his own inimitable way. He remembered his days working as an apprentice plumber and wandering into St Paul's Anglican Cathedral to pray in his lunch break, much to the disdain of his fellow Irish Catholic workers. They'd say 'you know this is a Protestant church' and Sheeds would say 'yeah, same bloke though!' Not an easy thing to say as an apprentice plumber talking to a 45-year- old Catholic from Dublin. While growing up Catholic helped him to make good decisions along his journey, Sheeds confessed that he wasn't such a good person during the 12 years he played football for Richmond. He referred to his "ugliest period of being a Catholic" when he would run out to the footy field and try to "smash the other players as often as I could". One priest told him he'd say a prayer for him and then added, "keep doing it" -- obviously a Richmond supporter. Becoming a coach is when he really felt like he was moving in a direction where he could develop young people and he said he felt "blessed" to be able to do so. Going to the "back of beyond" to meet the very Catholic Jim and Edna Daniher with their four sons and seven daughters, and the other people he met along the way, were highlights for him, rather than winning or losing (some might find that hard to swallow). He is clearly proud of the part he played in establishing the tradition of Collingwood v Essendon on Anzac Day, despite criticism from his old club Richmond. But Sheeds pointed out that he just didn't hate them enough to play them on this day. Instead, he found another "gold nugget" by coming up with the 'Dreamtime at the G' clash between Maurice Rioli's Richmond and Michael Long's Essendon -- whose team colours happen to make up those of the Indigenous flag. For him, the 85,000 plus crowds at both these games were ample evidence of the virtue of sharing ideas and knowledge. But perhaps his most important message was that having a Christian approach to life can flow through to everything we do. The examples he used were increasing the number of Indigenous players in the AFL and the ground-breaking decision to take $1 from every AFL final series ticket and put it into traineeships for young people. This year will see the 10,000th job created through the scheme, 1000 of which have gone to Aboriginal youth. Judging by the number of autographs signed after the speech, Sheeds made a big impression on plenty of us at the dinner that night. And I'm sure the parents of the young footballers under his leadership at the Giants are extremely grateful that their babies are in his capable hands. So I guess we owe a great deal to the Sisters, Brothers and other teachers who educated Kevin Sheedy -- even Sister Rupert who saw fit to entice a 16-year-old girl to coach the school football team. "I wasn't sure about that decision when I was in grade three," Sheeds dryly recalled. It would appear she didn't do too bad a job. -- Jenny Brinkworth Can't please everyone I know your paper has called for serious input on matters within the Church, for example, the attendance of young people at Mass. There is a critical need to seek an honest assessment of the results being achieved whether good or bad. I am writing regarding Monsignor Cappo's article in The Southern Cross recently. Perhaps dialoguing with young people would be fruitful if the bishops and priests came clean and joyfully and unapologetically presented the teachings of the Church. We have been shilly- shallying around the whole subject of morality and wondering why few young people attend Mass. We have been dialoguing since Vatican II and it seems few know the faith anymore. Nowhere does Jesus dialogue with his disciples, yet he enthralled them, as few have been able to since. Surely it is imperative that bishops, priests and lay people embrace these teachings and extol them to others, taking Jesus at his word. We are in need of quitting the dreaming and getting around to reading the 16 documents, or at least a few, from Vatican II. Many of the clergy and laity are still laboring under ideas from that elusive 'spirit,' expecting the Church to be swayed to eliminate celibacy for priests and even ordain women priests. It is often said that if all else fails read the instructions and surprise, surprise, when we do we find that the past was not severed from us after all. The main thing called for was the participation of the laity in the evangelisation of the world. The secret of Vatican II is yet to be discovered. We are all in need of instruction in the faith and of the challenge and adventure that living that faith entails. After all we are being called to fall in love with Christ, made present to us in His Eucharist, His Church and His Scriptures, the gifts linked to his total self-giving on the cross. We can show we love him by keeping his commandments. Be assured it works, but there will be crosses to bear! The constant temptation in our lives is to think we know better than God when approaching a choice of right or wrong. There is always the tendency to be satisfied with the broad, anything goes road, instead of choosing the straight honest one. Many seem to be very timid when writing about the faith. Surely our fear of triumphalism is overdone, and our fear of God, underdone. It is not our doing that gives us the Church; it can only be the work of Christ inspiring ordinary people to be the (mostly) hidden saints throughout those 20 centuries. No living pope, bishop, priest or parishioner is being lauded when we extol the Church, only Christ. We need to remind ourselves that His Church is quite unique, having out-lived and risen above hundreds of crises, write offs and death sentences since our Lord was on earth. The only explanation of her survival must be the Grace of God. There have always been plenty who want a church that the world always praises but His Church is not of this world, and the occasional unjust brickbat is, in a certain way, a proof that we are being loyal to our founder. Not even God can please everyone. We surely should be proud to proclaim Christ's Church, bought by His unparalleled suffering for each person's sake, proving His great love for us all. Murray Cook Streaky Bay Sheeds on religion, life and footy Photo: AAP
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