Recommended book: I Eat the Stars…. Sarah Wilson
Ray Sanchez CP has highly recommended this book ‘for our times’. Here is a review
and attached in digital form is a more detailed summary that Ray has provided.
It’s hard to escape the feeling that something is deeply wrong . . .
that life has become precariously off-balance. We are hit hourly
with headlines about catastrophic wildfires,
unprecedented flooding, record heat waves,
collapsing democracies, AI and nuclear threat, rising
economic inequality, widespread unrest and more.
In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson argues we are
undergoing what every complex civilisation before us
has – systemic collapse.
So how do we continue to live as sensitive humans amidst such a tumultuous shift?
What does life look like when the systems we rely on deteriorate? Should we be
having kids? How do we make financial decisions? Should we be prepping? And,
most importantly, how do we avoid succumbing to doom and
despair? In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson delves into these
pressing questions. Drawing on many years of research and
wisdom gained from more than 200 conversations with
philosophers, poets, game theorists and spiritual leaders, Wilson
takes readers on an intimate journey as she lays out a path for
living fully, meaningfully and beautifully through these troubled times. Our
predicament, she argues, is ultimately an urgent call to us all to relish what is
valuable to us – to eat the stars – and to return to our humanity once again.

Tagle as dean of cardinals, a powerful symbol for Asia and Africa
Paterno R. Esmaquel 11 (October 20th, 2026)
:The election of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, a 69-year-old Filipino, as dean of the
College of Cardinals has made headlines around the world and drawn cheers,
especially in his native Philippines. He wass elected by the cardinal-bishops and
confirmed by Pope Leo XIV on October 8, 2026. The former Manila archbishop,
after all, is the first Asian to take on this role, replacing 92-year-old Italian prelate
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. He was by the cardinal-bishops and confirmed by
Pope Leo XIV on October 8, 2026.
Concerning Tagle’s new role, one common
question is its impact on the Church, which has 1.4
billion members. If viewed through the lens of day-
to-day governance or policymaking, the role of the
dean carries little weight. The dean of the College
of Cardinals is the primus inter pares — the first
among equals — in this collegial body of 241 cardinals, whose primary task is to
advise the pope and, for those among them below 80 years old, to elect his
successor. The Code of Canon Law states that the dean “presides over the College
of Cardinals,” but “neither the dean nor the assistant dean possesses any power of
governance over the other cardinals.”

The Catholic Church and immigration: Towards a new “Humanae Vitae”?
Massimo Faggioli…..Sept 16th, 2026.
A spectre is haunting Catholicism: the spectre of another informal schism like the
one following Paul VI’s 1968
encyclical Humanae Vitae and the Church’s
teaching on contraception. This time, it would
be about immigration. On September 11,
the Washington Post published an opinion
piece titled “This issue is splitting the Catholic
Church,” by Nathan Pinkoski. The author is a
senior fellow at the Centre for Renewing America (a right-leaning think tank
founded in 2021. Pinkoski states that the Catholic bishops and the laity are drifting
apart over immigration: “Lay Catholic support for a border wall is sharply at odds
with the official views of the hierarchy.”
He says that, given the current demographic trends (more conservative
churchgoing laity ministered by a rising number of foreign-born clergy), this rift is
destined to persist in the Catholic Church. In conclusion, he has a suggestion:
“Catholic bishops hoping to strengthen the church’s witness should consider talking
about immigration in more pragmatic terms — encouraging voters to weigh the
pros and cons for the countries and communities receiving migrants. That stance
might help lower the political temperature and reduce dehumanizing rhetoric in a
fractured nation and church.”

Whose Nostra Aetate? The Church, Judaism, Israel and Leo’s pontificate
At times, separate events, in unexpected ways,
communicate the situation in which a global religious
community and the institution governing its faithful
find themselves. This happened in just eleven days in S
ept. 2026, between Rome and New York. The first
moment: On Sept. 16, three Vatican dicasteries—the
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Dicastery for
Promoting Christian Unity, and the Dicastery for
Interreligious Dialogue—published the 8,600-word
document titled Note. A Journey of Hope. Sixty Years of Interreligious Dialogue and
Fraternity in the Light of the Conciliar Declaration “Nostra Aetate”.
This document is relevant because Leo XIV, as a good American Catholic, has always
been clear about the importance of Nostra Aetate, Vatican II’s 1965 declaration on
the Church’s relationship with non-Christian religions, particularly for its
foundational role in opening a new era in relations with the Jews. This new Vatican
document gestures toward recognizing the importance
of rabbinic Judaism for Jewish-Christian dialogue, not
just biblical Judaism as in Nostra Aetate paragraph 4.

St. Gemma’s Senta Bilong Helpim (Care Centre) in Vanimo, PNG is for children with
disabilities was established in Waromo in 1994. The goal has been o provide relief
for vulnerable children with physical and mental disabilities. Prior to SBH being
established children with significant disabilities would be ostracised by their
communities and not receive medical treatment or even basic human compassion.
Through the care and compassion offered at SBH hundreds of
children have experienced a significantly improved quality of life
and dignity. Some, who in the past would have been excluded
from their communities, have gone on to lead fulfilling and
productive lives. In addition to providing care at SBH there have
been occasions where pro bono surgery has been organised
through Australian surgeons to assist,

What AI is doing to the way we think
Tom Kea%ng (Eureka Street) 2nd September, 2026
Debate about ar%ficial intelligence has, by
now, se`led into two established grooves. The
first is economic, concerning which jobs will
go, which will change, and what the
produc%vity dividend might be. The second is
environmental, concerning the electricity that
7
data centres draw, the water that cools them, and the minerals dug up to build them.
Both of these ma`er, and both deserve the scru%ny they receive. But they share an
assump%on: each approach treats ar%ficial intelligence as a new input into a world
whose purposes are already fixed, and considers only what it will cost us to run.
There is a third ques%on, which is harder to see and, I believe, more consequen%al
than either. It is not what these systems will do to the labour
market or the power grid, but what they will do to us as knowers:
to how we come to believe things, what we accept as
understanding, whom we trust, and whether we keep the habits
of mind on which a thinking society depends. Call it the
epistemological ques%on. A society can restructure employment
and can, with effort, find the energy. A society that loses its grip
on the difference between informa%on and understanding has
lost something far harder to recover, not least because it may lose the very means of
no%cing the loss.

Tim Horlock
Last Saturday night, Tim was a
guest in Sydney of ‘Invocare,’
the company who owns and
operates La Pine funerals for
whom Tim has worked for 26
years. Tim was awarded
recognition for his 25 years of
service. Tim has been able to
assist so many people as a funeral director and/or as a celebrant, and this has been
a gift to so many people who appreciate his genuine pastoral care. Congratulations,
Tim. It seems they did not offer Tim a warm jumper. Perhaps they had heard he
does not need one!

Province Assembly
There have been two gatherings of professed Passionists over the past two weeks,
both with over 30 participants. Thirty-one of us gathered at Holy Cross last week to
explore our life and mission, as a step in preparation for our Provincial Chapter in
July next year.
Provincial, Denis Travers gave an extensive report that highlighted the development
and growth over the past few years and the
projected growth over the coming five years.
It was recognised by the Assembly, that one
need as a result of this group will be effective
mentoring of our young Vietnamese and
Papua New Guinean men as they move into
full-time ministry. Possibilities of new ministries, not bound by tradition but shaped
by it, and responding to ‘the signs of the times’ were central in our sharing. Already
our communities are multi-cultural, but there remains much to learn about one
another’s cultures so as to live and minister together with respect and appreciation,
not as seniors and juniors.

Province Assembly
Thirty-two professed Passionists gathered at Holy Cross this week to explore
our life and mission, and look ahead to our Provincial Chapter in July next
year. In 2027. These Chapters are held every four years to make decisions
around the issues we face, and to elect a Provincial and Council to respond
to initiatives mandated or advised by the Chapter.
There have been massive changes in recent years, and this is highlighted by
the fact that there are 22 ordained Australian Passionists and 20 (plus one
deacon) ordained Vietnamese Passionists. This is not to mention the number
of Vietnamese in formation. Any projection of five years from the time of 2031
Chapter will see a very different make up of our membership. To achieve
what is required will involve suitable mentoring, financial resources that at
this stage beyond what we at this stage, as well as brave thinking, planning
and action.

Words of encouragement
Pope Francis offered words of encouragement in November 2013 in his Apostolic
Exhortation, ‘The Joy of the Gospel’. There are many laity who are in a position to
encourage family members and friends with this instruction.
“Pastors and the lay faithful who accompany their
brothers and sisters in faith or on a journey of openness
to God must always re-member what the Catechism of
the Catholic Church teaches quite clearly: 'Imputability
and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even
nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit,
inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social
factors'. Consequently, without detracting from the
evangelical ideal, they need to accompany with mercy
and patience the eventual stages of personal growth as
these progressively occur.