A reflection from Fr Brendan Byrne SJ
The episode in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus raises of the son of the widow of Nain (7:11–17) is an appropriate choice for the commemoration of ‘All Soul’s’. This scene, unlike so many others in the Gospels, does not begin with someone asking Jesus for help. As he approaches the Galilean village of Nain with his disciples, he simply comes across the funeral procession and, moved with compassion, takes action.
‘Moved with compassion’ translates a Greek word (esplagchnisthe) indicative of strong emotion. The lame translation ‘Jesus felt sorry for her’ (the Jerusalem Bible reading in our Lectionary) is hardly adequate. Luke uses the same Greek expression to convey the response of the Good Samaritan for the wounded man that he sees by the side of the road (10:33); it is also the reaction of the father of the Prodigal Son when, from afar, he catches sight of the young man returning to the family home (15:20). In other words, we have to do here with a great wave of divine compassion welling up in the face of human tragedy – here the death of a young person, and the grief and future desperate situation of his mother. Without a husband and lacking other sons, who will provide for her in her later years?

St Paul of the Cross Feast Day
Last Sunday, October 19th we celebrated the Feast of St Paul
of the Cross and it was great to see so many stay for coffee
and fellowship. We are grateful to Ross and his Coffee Cart
and to our generous benefactor who makes it possible for
whoever is present to have a free coffee.
Chris led Eucharist and gave a helpful reflection on the spirit
of Paul of the Cross which has seeped into the lives of those
who come for Eucharist each week. A spirit of peace and
confidence in God’s love is the entrée for true community.
At the end of Mass, Chris’ 70th birthday was acknowledged
with a large birthday cake which was shared afterwards.
We were joined by Srs Brigid and Karen and by seven members of the Passionist
Retreat Team, led by Luke Bulley CP, with Tri CP among them.

Pope Leo a careful canon lawyer
Thomas Reese SJ (From Flashes of Light 7th October 2025)
When Pope Leo XIV was elected, many people
asked me about him. My response was that we
would have to wait six months to a year before we
really understand who he is. Four months after his
election, in an interview with Elise Ann Allen of
Crux, Leo began to reveal himself. He came across
as a smart but careful canon lawyer who is not going to reject the reforms of Pope
Francis, but neither is he going to quickly move beyond them.
Careful lawyer, cautious voice
Leo revealed himself as much by what he did not say as by what he
did. No memorable quote is in the interview as there was in
Francis’ first interview, when he said, “I am not going to obsess
over abortion.” Nor is there any response like “Who am I to
judge?” which Francis said at a 2013 press conference answering a
question about gay priests.

Pope Leo praises ‘healthy secularism’
CathNews New Zealand, October 3rd, 2025
Pope Leo XIV has expressed support for a “healthy
secularism” which affirms the value of religion while
preserving its distinction from the political sphere.
Source: Crux. The Pope made this point during a
September 29 meeting with a “Working Group on
Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue” sponsored
by the European Parliament. “European institutions need people who know how to
live a healthy secularism, that is, a style of thinking and acting that affirms the value
of religion while preserving the distinction – not separation or confusion – from the
political sphere,” Pope Leo told the group.
Vatican commentator John L. Allen said the reference to “healthy secularism”
echoed the key theme of a sana laicità, first laid out by Benedict XVI in an address
to Italian jurists in December 2006, and further developed thereafter. “The core of
the idea is that a ‘healthy’ secularism is one in
which Church and state are separate, but in which
religious institutions and believers are encouraged
to play important roles in public life, bringing their
values to bear on political choices. That’s as
opposed to an ‘unhealthy’ secularism, in which
religion is regarded as a threat to peaceful coexistence and religious institutions and
leaders are pressured to limit their activities to strictly spiritual and liturgical
matters,”

Br Jerome’s party gate crushed by Vinh and TP:
We celebrated Br Jerome’s birthday last week with plenty
of joy and laughter. Having reached the grand age of 85
and turning 86 this year, Jerome decided it was time to
start counting backwards — which explains why his cake
proudly displayed the number 84! He got a t-shirt as our
typical cheap birthday present, thanks to Brian for getting
it before he left. Tri prepared a delicious fish and chips dinner
for the occasion, and we were joined by Fr TP (far left in the
photo) and Deacon Vinh (on Jerome’s felt), who are currently
serving in Endeavour Hills. Their visit was especially
meaningful, as they were once guided by Br Laurence during
their novitiate years.

Br Laurence CP:
Br Laurence’s brief reflection is on the “Antiqua et Nova” Church Document.
As indicated in the previous Newsletter and as Fr Mike noted during Mass on
Sunday, Laurence -often referred to as Larry, is on a visiting trip at Holy Cross until
October 6th. It has been wonderful to have him around especially that Chris and
Brian are away. Here is a bit more about him, in addition to what Brian wrote last
week. Thank you Laurence for kindly accepting my request to share your wisdom
with us.
Born in Sault Ste Marie, Canada, in 1948 and professed as a
Passionist in 1968, Laurence studied at the University of
Kentucky, Jefferson C.C., obtaining the R.N. License in nursing
in 1972, followed by the B.A. degree in Theology in 1975 from
Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. Since 1975, he
has served as a missionary in South Korea, where he has held
many administrative positions. He spent seven years in Rome
from 1989 until 1995, where he served as the personal
secretary of the Passionist Superior General.

Pattern machines…..not AI
Edited article by Nathan Beacom
Chatbots are computer programmes designed to simulate human
conversations. We ask chatbots for help in making decisions, for
advice, for counsel. Companies are making a great deal of money by
replacing therapeutic relationships with ‘therapy chatbots” and are
proposing to offer AI companions to the elderly, so that their faraway
children need not visit so often! Are you lonely? Talk to a machine.
Corporations are happy to endow these programs with human names, like Abbi,
Claude, and Alexa.
This is a disaster. In uncritically letting these machines shape our lives, we become
prey to all kinds of manipulation, we lose sight of reality, and we are induced, in an
important way, to take a reductive view of actual people. Chatbots offer us a form
of relationship without friction, without burden and responsibility. This illusory
kind of relationship hampers our ability to engage in the difficult challenge of real
bonds, which are the only things that can give value to human life. The more we
personify AI, the more we slouch toward lives of isolation and deception.

The need for creeds—reimagining Nicaea
From ‘Flashes of Insight’
September 2, 2025 Thomas OLoughlin (UK priest and theologian)
·
The Council of Nicaea was convened in 325 by the Emperor
Constantine. It remains most famous for producing much of
the creed used in the liturgy, but the need for new statements
of the creed is ever present. If we do not reformulate
expressions of faith, the formulae become empty—if solemn
sounding—words.
One such reformulation was produced by Pope Francis just a
few months after he was elected Bishop of Rome in 2013. It is short and to the
point, and deserves to be better known as a memorial to him.
To believe in the Father who loves all men and women with an infinite love means
realizing that “he thereby confers upon them an infinite dignity.” To believe that
the Son of God assumed our human flesh means that each human person has been
taken up into the very heart of God. To believe that Jesus shed his blood for us
removes any doubt about the boundless love which ennobles each human being.

Nurturing the relationships we have: PFGM in 2025
There are people in Terrey Hills parish, Sydney
who have lived Passionist Family Group life for 50
years. Some of those members were young
parents at the beginning, and many are now in
their 80’s. Life has changed so much in that time,
and so have PFG’s. Back thirty or forty years ago,
nearly every group included our ideal ‘grandparent
to baby’ dynamic. That is no longer the case.
Let’s go back a little further. 74,000 years ago the Mt Toba eruption in Indonesia,
resulted in as few as 3,000-10,000 humans surviving across the entire planet. The
human family had to slowly re-establish and some estimates are that 40,000 years
ago there were between one and six million humans. We know too that 42,000
years ago, there was a reversal and weakening of Earth’s magnetic poles.
5

Author: Anonymous
(Happiness Tips from the Viber app)
“When we think of happiness, we often think of it as a single mental state. This
perspective is confusing because happiness is a term we use to combine entirely
different chemical processes in our bodies. Each process has a different role and
purpose.
To increase long-term happiness, we have to understand the difference between
short-term, medium-term, and long-term happiness chemicals. It’s ok to look for a
short-term happiness boost like ice cream, but we need to consciously realize that
it'll go away quickly and that those dopamine activities
(e.g., social media, junk food, TV shows) are usually
taking up too much time and starve out medium and
long-term happiness chemicals. A medium-term
happiness chemical is serotonin, which we get after
accomplishing a task or being creative. The long-term
happiness chemical is oxytocin which comes from safe
relationships. We should spend most of our time making
sure we have the right skills to be in a safe relationship
and building those relationships”
.