Face to Face with the Archbishop

CANA the Catholic Centre is organising a Face to Face with the Archbishop for young adults aged 25-35. i would not be able to be there... So i decide to write an open letter instead to pen down my thoughts for the Archdiocese of Singapore

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Dear Msgr. Nicholas Chia

As a 27 year old Catholic who has the privilege of working for the Archdiocese’s Family Life Society, teaching Catechism in St. Joseph’s Church (Bukit Timah) for the past six years and being involved in the Legion of Mary I am pleased to offer the following sharing and suggestions which are particularly close to my heart.

The University Chaplaincy

I studied at the National University of Singapore and during this time, many students faced challenges to my faith from a variety of sources. It was not only hostel life or a new found sense of freedom which may provide temptations. It was also ideas coming from the subjects students study which can prove to be a challenge for the faith. I was in the History department as well as in the University Scholars Program, a multi-disciplinary program and very often, various theories and philosophies proposed deny either the existence of objective truth, champion an anarchic concept of freedom without reference to human solidarity, promote a scientisitc and materialistic outlook or suggest that all grand narratives were simply power plays and “truth” is simply a mask for power. One can see quickly that these ideas will inevitably affect the faith of many Catholic students who if already poorly catechized, would not be able to articulate a sensible response to these philosophies and ideas. They either retreat to the realm of private religion i.e. “I have a Jesus experience and that’s enough for me” or they lose their faith altogether. I personally know of at least one student who studied sociology and who began to see the difference between the sexes as purely biological and gender as a social construct, articulating the very error which Pope John Paul II sought to address in his “Letter to the Families”.

My hope is to see the cultivation of a chaplaincy, full time perhaps and staffed with appropriate people and volunteers who not only provide spiritual, emotional support for students but are able to expose students, and not only Catholic ones, to the best of the Catholic intellectual tradition. That I believe is what is unique to the University where students are exposed to a marketplace of ideas. When I was in the University, I did a lot of reading up on my own, especially documents coming form the magisterium of John Paul II as well as from good Catholic authors, Peter Kreeft for Philosophy, Professor Robert George for Law and Politics, Jacuqes Maritain and Alisdair Macintyre for natural law theory, then Cardinal Ratzinger for almost everything else etc. It would have been wonderful and fruitful if there was a formal course i.e. “Catholicism 101” maybe at University standard where Catholics and non Catholics can take and be exposed to the best of Catholic thinking of the issues of the day.

Great spiritual fruit can come forth from such a course. When Catholics are alive to their intellectual heritage, they can make a difference in the world of ideas and offer solutions to pressing problems. Not only that, when they are convinced that they have discovered truth, they would be naturally fervent and would seek to convey this to others. Very often, vocations emerge from these convinced and convicted people who may desire to serve in a priestly or religious life and even also in parish and archdiocesan level settings. Indeed, an article describing the effects this have in Princeton University seems to bear out this fact. See here http://catholiceducation.org/articles/education/ed0277.html
http://catholiceducation.org/articles/sexuality/se0144.htm
Perhaps we can suggest to the Catholic chaplaincy to subscribe to top-notch Catholic journals suitable for the issues discussed at University,
Communio, http://www.communio-icr.com/

Logos (from the University of St. Thomas) http://www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/logos/

and Nova et Vetera (Ave Maria University) http://www.aquinas.avemaria.edu/journal.asp

come to mind

The Hiring of Well Qualified Full-Timers in Parish and Archdiocesan level Settings

In a typical Protestant Church, a 4000-5000 congregation is served by about a staff of 80 full timers. The same cannot be said of course for a typical Catholic parish. While it is not my intention to simply say that as such, there is something “wrong” with the Catholic parish system, it is nevertheless a striking fact. Dedicated and well formed Full-timers, I believe can make a crucial difference in parish life. Indeed, many parishioners are already volunteers doing pretty heroic work, sacrificing their time to teach catechism, lead prayer groups, the choir etc. Would it not be wonderful if the parish/archdiocese offer them a full-time position with reasonable renumeration? I think many of them will be grateful.

Also, if we want to ensure that our parish/Church full timers receive the best ongoing formation, the Archdiocese could consider sending them overseas to the best Catholic institutes for training. One thinks of the Franciscan University of Steubenville, the various John Paul II Institutes for Marriage and Family Life, where many graduates go on to work for family ministries at archdiocese and parish level, the Catholic University of America etc. THe President of the Cardinal Newman Society has compiled a list of good Catholic collegues here.
http://www.catholichighered.org/TheNewmanGuide/tabid/356/Default.aspx

Indeed, offering fresh graduates the opportunity to go overseas to study and be bonded later to serve in parish/archdiocese settings may be a worthwhile investment. This will cost a lot of money but then again, the government spends heavily on educating every Singaporean to ensure that we receive a good education so as to contribute to Singapore. Our Church can and should, I believe see this as a wise and prudent investing in human resources.

Beauty in the Liturgy

Modern man may be skeptical of truth and reason but they still cannot help but being moved by beauty. The Church has declared in Sacrosanctum Concilium i that Gregorian Chant should have a pride of place in the liturgy and it is a treasure which should be assiduously cultivated. I am not even talking about Latin or the extraordinary form of the Roman rite. I am talking rather about simple plain chant, which is set in the vernacular. It is easy to sing, and its tunes immediately remind congregations that a sacred action is taking place. This is what makes us uniquely Catholic and we are heirs to this musical heritage. It is a pity that so few parishes actually adopt this.

A young Catholic or a non believer attending mass may not know what is going on consciously, but sub-consicously they cannot help absorbing the beauty of chant and one can only imagine the effects this would have on faith. Our Holy Father in fact has said that "True knowledge is being struck by the arrow of Beauty that wounds man, moved by reality, "how it is Christ himself who is present and in an ineffable way disposes and forms the souls of men"
http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/601/Contemplation_of_Beauty_Cardinal_Joseph_Ratzinger.html

As such, I propose that greater effort be made to cultivate good music in the Archdiocese of Singapore. The Cathedral Choir of the Risen Christ is a fine example. Perhaps effort and money can be spent again by sending people for training in various Church-approved Sacred Music Institutes

The Promotion of the Theology of the Body

I have been involved in the promoting of the Theology of the Body with the Family Life Society as well as helping out with Wonderfully Made!, a group under the Catholic Medical Society and I have been very inspired by the enthusiasm of the members. What was particularly striking was that this was an exciting message for young people who feel strongly that the Pope’s message speaks to their head and heart. They discover who they are as people, what it means to be male and female, what they are called too, and the Church’s teaching on sexual ethics as a liberating message.

It is no surprise then that a part of World Youth Day Catechesis is precisely the promotion of the Theology of the Body. I would not be surprised if even more youth locally and around the world would be inspired by this message after World Youth Day. If we could “catch the wave” so to say, we could again send people overseas for more systematic training. http://www.lovelifelink.org/ll/schedule.html

The Archdiocese of Melbourne is offering a Theology of the Body crash course taught by Fr. Jose Granados, Professor at the John Paul II Institute. Could the Archdiocese sponsor/partially sponsor the relevant people to attend this course? It is held from the 23rd -30th July 08

To speak out in defence of the unborn

The Church is moving to focus on social issues with the formation of the Catholic Social and Community Council. I do hope that this council will consider the unborn child as the most vulnerable of groups which needs to be defended. While the other causes, i.e. migrants, the poor and needy, old people are “politically correct” and socially acceptable, raising our voice in defense of the unborn be in against abortion or against embryonic stem cell research is something not very popular but as Church, we must do it.

Over 10,000 abortions are done annually and our birth rate has been devastated partly because of the high number of abortions. Also, the government has introduced a consultation paper asking if it is ethical to make cybrids (human embryos and animal eggs). Could the Church speak out on in a pastoral letter to all parishes and also to engage in reasoned discourse with the Singapore Bioethics Advisory Committee?

Yours Sincerely in Christ
Nick Chui