Writer
Michael Kelly
Father Michael Kelly is an Australian Jesuit who directed the Catholic Church's news feature and commentary service, UCA News, 2008-2018. He is the publisher of the English editions of La Croix International and La Civilta Cattolica, the 170 year old Jesuit publication of the Italian Jesuits.
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Michael Kelly SJ. Australians as the ‘white trash of Asia’ reaches new depth.
It is now over thirty years since the then Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew described Australians as the “white trash of Asia”. The barb stung and is still recalled with shame and hurt by Australian politicians as then Prime Minister Julia Gillard did in 2012. But the term has reached a new level Continue reading »
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Michael Kelly SJ: Chaos reigns in Bangkok
The fear of many Thais is that the country will end up like the Philippines – so laid back that nothing gets done, so corrupt that everyone stops trying, so mismanaged that there is misery for many just around the corner. While things may not have reached the depths of Marcos era chaos, there are Continue reading »
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Bangkok is bubbling. Will it blow? It’s looking increasingly like it will. Guest blogger: Michael Kelly SJ
In recent months, most independent observers have admitted to complete uncertainty about the outcome of the demonstrations and disturbances that for months have plagued Bangkok with its metropolitan area population of some 15 million. But now there is a date with fate. Organizers of the demonstrations and their leader, Suthep Thaugsuban, have set Jan 13 Continue reading »
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Sexual abuse: two Popes late on the scene. Guest blogger: Michael Kelly SJ
Early in the 20th Century, the French Catholic poet and writer Charles Peguy observed that, at the turn of each age, the Catholic Church arrives a little late and a little breathless. It was not till the 1960s, at Vatican II, that the Church absorbed and authorized the major influence of the French Revolution – Continue reading »
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The end of an era. Guest blogger: Michael Kelly SJ
It may be because I’ve been in Ireland and dealing with people who are the heirs of those responsible for most of the heritage and works of the Australian Jesuits. But I don’t think so. What struck me most deeply after a month or more among European Jesuits, and registering the scale of challenge to Continue reading »
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The Catholic Church is in for a shake-up. Guest blogger: Michael Kelly SJ
Pope Francis has pressed all the hot buttons that get Catholic and other tongues wagging- a pastoral response to divorced and remarried Catholics, homosexuality, the place of women in the Church, the excessively centralized nature of management in the Church, liturgical adaptation to local pastoral circumstances and wealth and triumphalism as the all too frequent Continue reading »
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Commodifying and dehumanising asylum seekers. Guest blogger Michael Kelly SJ
The rejection by the Indonesian foreign minister of Tony Abbott’s suggested ways of “stopping the boats” is only the latest assertion of how the Coalition’s policy on asylum seekers was never going to work. It might have made political sense at election time, allegedly in marginal seats though the results in western Sydney throw some Continue reading »
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Clericalism and the inability to recognise one’s own shortcomings. Guest Blogger: Michael Kelly SJ
But what was the question? For a very long time I have puzzled over what fanatics, bigots, sundry village idiots and fundamentalists have in common. I used to think it was fear – the fear of losing control. So, all manner of extreme positions, programs and political strategies are worked out to keep control. It’s Continue reading »
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Fear and Trust. Guest blogger: Michael Kelly SJ
It was Arthur Augustus Calwell, Federal Leader of the Australian Labor Party before Gough Whitlam, who believed that fear was the most potent political weapon. He ought to know: he lost three elections because of it. The political correlative to fear is another emotion – the appeal to “trust me”. Creating or eroding trust is Continue reading »
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Next step for Pope Francis. Guest blogger: Michael Kelly SJ
So Pope Francis said to himself when he was elected Bishop of Rome, as he told journalists in Rome on last Saturday, what about the poor? Bishop of Rome means Pope and his question was what does it mean to take the poor seriously as Bishop of Rome? That’s Pope Francis’s question. But it’s far Continue reading »
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Francis I. An unpredicted but not unpredictable result. Guest blogger Michael Kelly SJ
While everyone agrees that the election of Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis is unprecedented in many ways, it is not entirely a surprise. He was runner up to Joseph Ratzinger in the 2005 Conclave that saw him elected as Pope Benedict XVI. Bergoglio is the first Jesuit, first Latin American and first Pope from the Continue reading »
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It happens every day (Guest blogger: Fr Michael Kelly S.J.)
It happens every day. People in public life try to grab hold of and change the public narrative about themselves, those they represent or lead. For most of the second half of last year, the Prime Minister had charge of the public narrative, leaving the Opposition Leader flat footed as he tried to capitalize on Continue reading »