Leave the calendar alone
Gary Walker
The message from the people is clear. Leave the Columban calendar alone, it belongs to generations of Catholic people.
COLUMBAN Fr Tony Cox selects the art for the Columban Calendar. He inherited this important task when he became Office Manager in 1996.
The late Fr Eddie Sherry who had a long association with the Columban Calendar used a card index and a notebook to note down suitable paintings for the Columban Calendar. When he travelled to England on home leave he took the opportunity of visiting some of the best art galleries in the world, looking for appropriate art for the Calendar. Fr Tony kept his index cards and the notebook for future reference.
In the past it was a laborious process of writing to curators of museums and art galleries asking for permission to use their paintings. Everything changed with the Internet. The Columban office is now registered with Photo Scala, Florence, which is a distributor for many of the museums and galleries throughout the world.
These days Fr Tony accesses a thumbnail reproduction of the painting over the Internet. He looks for clarity and colour in the paintings and the ‘wow' factor that is hard to define.
He tries to pick a painting that reflects an important feast day occurring during the month.
It's hard to get it right. One person wrote to the office complaining about a painting that showed the baby Jesus as being ‘fat' and thought the Calendar was promoting obesity.
Another unhappy recipient sent the Calendar back shredded so Fr Tony was never sure which painting caused offence.
The Calendar is a religious, liturgical art Calendar. It's a major fundraiser for the Columban Mission. It follows the liturgical norms set down by the Australian and New Zealand Episcopal Conferences.
This year Easter was earlier than usual; thus St Patrick's feast day was in the Calendar as March 14. The phone rang hot with complaints and enquiries. St Patrick's feast day is March 17, the Calendar was seriously incorrect! No mistake, March 17 fell during Holy Week this year and the days of Holy Week took precedence in the liturgical Calendar over St Patrick. Tell that to the Irish!
The Columban Calendar is a part of Catholic cultural history. When the TV series ‘Brides of Christ' was filmed about young women from Catholic families joining the convent, the Columban Calendar was on the wall of the kitchen in a prominent place to illustrate the authentic Catholic home.
The Mission office received 7,000 responses to a survey sent out in the Calendar some years ago about changes for calendar. The basic response was, "Do not touch our Calendar, it is fine as it is." One woman said it was impossible to change the size of the Calendar because it was a perfect fit on the wall beside the fridge.
In 2002, the office held an art competition for Catholic schools. The response was 12,500 individual entries! Seventy paintings were finally selected and exhibited in the Australian Catholic University art gallery in Melbourne. Some of these exhibits were used in the Calendar the following year.
There was a good reaction to the art from Australia's young talent but the message was clear - leave the Calendar alone, stop messing with it! Fr Tony Cox's response is that great art will always hold and challenge the imagination; that will never change.
Fr Tony Cox chooses the art, Ms Michelle Pires designs the calendar.
