Bruce Duncan
Bruce Duncan is a Redemptorist priest and lectures in history and social ethics at Yarra Theological Union in Melbourne. He was one of the founders in 2005 of the ecumenical advocacy organisation, Social Policy Connections.
Bruce's recent articles
Plenary Council fails to embrace Pope Francis's social vision
Many Catholics are concerned that the current Plenary Council is overly focused on internal Church matters and neglecting Pope Franciss call to engage more vigorously with pressing social issues in dialogue and collaboration with all people of good will.
Pope Francis apologises for war against Iraq, but will Australia?
During his recent visit to Iraq, Pope Francis revived hopes for deep reconciliation and renewed collaboration among the ancient religious traditions of that land, but he came as a penitent and apologised for the invasion of Iraq and the resulting despoliation over 18 years. Australia was one of the few countries to join the USA and Britain in the illegal invasion. When will Australia apologise for this criminal folly? Has no one been held to account?
The Church and social justice after Trump
Church social teaching is strongly opposed to neoliberalism, so how did this opposition become so muted, with prominent Catholic voices and resources captured by neoliberal ideology and money?
Pope Francis's rejection of 'neoliberal' economics
The new social encyclical of Pope Francis is a cry for those oppressed by poverty, hunger and exclusion, protesting against the injustice in a world with so much wealth. Not surprisingly Francis drew from the parable of the Good Samaritan: will we remain indifferent and pass by, or take the global situation seriously?
Pope Francis's new encyclical On Human Fraternity and Social Friendship
The new social encyclical of Pope Francis not only renews his strong critique of neoliberal forms of capitalism which result in growing and extreme inequality but is a plea for a return to the ideals of fraternity and solidarity, invoking the humanist ideals of Frances liberty, equality and fraternity.
Pope Francis on preparing a better future for humanity and our planet
Pope Francis is sharply challenging powerful sectional interests in his new social manifesto being released on 4 October. The new encyclical, Fratelli Tutti (All Brothers and Sisters), will outline his vision of a more just, peaceful and sustainable world, and call vigorously for a renewed commitment to universal wellbeing and solidarity.
Pope Francis: We need to get serious about climate change and unfair economic systems
Here in Australia, we need to make a bigger contribution to the fight, given our abundant resources and expertise.
BRUCE DUNCAN. Faith and the Triple Crises of Corona Virus, Economic Shutdown and Climate Change.
The photo of Pope Francis speaking on 27 March to the completely empty square in front of St Peters in Rome spoke volumes. Isolated and alone, like so many others because of the corona virus outbreak, he epitomised the dilemmas we face as the crisis spreads everywhere.
BRUCE DUNCAN. Mr Morrison, please do not abandon innocent Aussie children in Syria.(Repost from 1.11.2019)
How will the Morrison government respond to the desperate plight of some 65 women and children detained in a camp in Syria? Relatives are pleading with our government to bring their family members safely home, but it appears immobilised by fear of a political reaction. How good is that?
BRUCE DUNCAN. Mr Morrison, please do not abandon innocent Aussie children in Syria.
How will the Morrison government respond to the desperate plight of some 65 women and children detained in a camp in Syria? Relatives are pleading with our government to bring their family members safely home, but it appears immobilised by fear of a political reaction. How good is that?
No issue matters as much as climate change
What will it take before the Morrison government recognises the great peril from climate change? Is the overwhelming consensus of scientists not enough, as they track the record-breaking heat waves globally? And why are religious leaders not echoing Pope Francis more vigorously about a looming catastrophe from global warming?
Scott Morrison, the 'prosperity gospel' and neoliberalism.
Sounding surprisingly like an evangelical revivalist, Prime Minister Morrison in Albury on 6 September highlighted the need for love in our country, for every Australian, and that this set the value base for his own thinking and presumably for policies of his government. No one in Albury objected to the ideal of love of neighbour, but it sounded a bit odd when people were expecting a significant statement about changed policies of his government after the leadership bloodletting.
BRUCE DUNCAN. A stringent critique of financial abuse.
The Vatican has launched a stringent critique of widespread abuses in global economies, abuses that are driving astonishing inequality, threatening ecological sustainability and unleashing powerful reactionary political forces.
BRUCE DUNCAN. Was God just a spectator at the Crucifixion?
Is Easter simply a relic from the past and a chance for a holiday break? Why have the dramatic events of Easter been so significant in our cultures, and why is Easter still so central to Christian belief?
BRUCE DUNCAN. What would Jesus make of our Christmas?
The Christmas stories were not written for children but as preludes to the adult message of God in Jesus walking in solidarity with the entire human family.
BRUCE DUNCAN. Did Pope Francis succeed in Myanmar?
Myanmars neighbours were watching closely the Popes visit, worried that the shocking treatment of the Rohingya Muslims could inflame inter-religious conflicts throughout the region. Francis has intervened personally to promote deeper mutual understanding among the major religions, urging them to draw from their traditions to protect those in distress and promote social inclusion and universal human values.
BRUCE DUNCAN. Franciss World Day of the Poor. The poor are our passports to paradise.
Even atheists, agnostics and humanists, as well as people of the great religious traditions, would likely welcome Pope Francis instituting a new World Day of the Poor. While a shallow and at times vulgar commercialism trivialises the profound religious meaning of Christmas, the World Day of the Poor highlights our God-given responsibility for all in distress.
BRUCE DUNCAN. Curious Vatican article challenges right-wing US Catholics
Was Pope Francis aware that the Jesuit periodical, La Civita Cattolica was strongly attacking right-wing US Catholics for abandoning Church social teaching by political alliances with very fundamentalist Christian groups?
BRUCE DUNCAN. A scorecard on Pope Francis
Unexpectedly, Pope Francis has emerged as one of the most significant world leaders. Largely unknown before his election, Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis has assumed the moral stature of a new Mandela, and not just among Catholics.
BRUCE DUNCAN. Dont blame welfare for budget woes
Prime Minister Turnbull promised us more centrist and fairer policies, but the Treasurer Mr Morrison appears to be playing a politics of resentment against people on income supports. On 25 August he declared: There is a new divide the taxed and the taxed-nots. This sounds suspiciously like lifters versus leaners, and implicitly blames those on benefits, particularly the poor, for the countrys debt. Dr Helen Szoke, chief executive of Oxfam Australia, was alarmed that the government seemed to be demonising the poor, while saying nothing about large companies avoiding taxes of billions of dollars.
Bruce Duncan. Julie Bishop cuts Overseas Development Aid to record low.
Despite lobbying from many groups, the May federal budget for 2016-2017 is hacking another $224 million from Australias overseas aid, reducing our aid to $3.8 billion, and as a percentage of our national income to just 0.23%, our lowest level ever. The Coalition had already cut $1.1 billion off our aid, reducing spending in Africa and the Middle East by 63%, and in Asia by 36-38%. According to the national coordinator for Micah Challenge, the coalition of church networks, this latest cut comes on top of $11 billion in cuts to aid over ten years, and is the fourth...
Bruce Duncan. Budget ignores growing inequality
Scott Morrisons Commonwealth budget aims to be politically balanced but, like the Hockey budgets, neglects struggle street. The budget still labours under the neoliberal belief in minimal taxes, small government and maximum freedom for private enterprise. Morrisons mantra is that cutting taxes on businesses and the wealthy will increase investment, growth and jobs. The trouble is, this is not the case, in part because the meagre income of much of the population reduces demand. It appears also that tax cuts for the wealthy make little difference to the growth rate. In addition, the unfairness of the economic system...
Bruce Duncan. Perplexed by Easter
Perplexing and confronting. Whether believers or not, that is how many of us find the events of that first Easter week in Jerusalem. Here are the elements of high drama: betrayal, confrontation with Jewish and Roman authorities, a trial, torture and a cruel death by crucifixion. Even so, Jesus would have disappeared completely from history had it not been for what happened next: Jesus Resurrection, and the appearances which convinced his incredulous followers that he was indeed alive. This did indeed changed everything. The disciples themselves were deeply perplexed, for it was blasphemous for these pious Jews to...
Bruce Duncan. Pope Francis supports social revolution among the Zapatistas in Mexico
The western media largely missed the significance of Pope Franciss visit to the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas in the south of Mexico on the border with Guatemala in February 2016. He not only reiterated the message he bore elsewhere in Mexico, about the Churchs support for a social and cultural revolution in favour of greater equality, social justice and human rights. Francis singled out the indigenous peoples of Chiapas, which had erupted in a short-lived rebellion on 1 January 1994 against the Mexican governments attempt to privatise the communally owned land; this was the very day the...
Bruce Duncan. Australias moral crisis: shipping babies and families off to Nauru
How has it come to this, that the Australian government is poised to send back 37 babies, 54 children and their families 267 in all - into the traumatic conditions of Nauru? Only a few years ago many Australians would have considered it inconceivable that our governments should have imposed such shocking treatment on people who fled to our country seeking asylum as refugees. What has brought matters to a head is the governments cynical manipulation of the law to prevent the High Court of Australia ruling in favour of a Bangladeshi woman who had been brought...
Bruce Duncan. Pope Francis calls for a global economy with a conscience
In his July trip to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, some of the poorest countries in Latin America, Pope Francis has voiced the anguish and concerns of millions of people struggling to rise out of severe poverty and marginalisation, yet are exploited like slaves. Speaking to a crowd of two million people in Santa Cruz on 9 July, Francis attacked a mentality that has room only for a select few, while it discards all those who are unproductive, unsuitable or unworthy, since clearly those people dont add up. It is a world Francis knows well from his own extensive...
Bruce Duncan. Pope Francis on avoiding environmental catastrophe
Current Affairs Popes write social encyclicals in times of social crisis or at great turning points in history. Pope Franciss Laudato Si is no exception. He sees the world facing unprecedented twin crises: from climate change; and unresolved issues of global hunger and poverty, resulting in growing conflict, violence and displacement of peoples. Peace, justice and the preservation of creation are three absolutely interconnected themes (# 92). We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather one complex crisis which is both social and environmental, and we need to combat poverty, restore...
Bruce Duncan. Pope Francis and the Abbott government
Current Affairs Pope Francis has repeatedly called for greater social and economic equity in the world, and reiterated the critique of neoliberal economics very strongly. Now he is about to issue an encyclical, the highest form of Church teaching, on the need to reduce carbon emissions and global warming. What will our pollies make of this, especially Catholics in the Coalition government? Many observers are deeply puzzled by Abbotts metamorphosis from being lampooned as Captain Catholic into an advocate of neoliberal policies. What has happened to the man who called BA Santamaria one of his mentors? Whatever about...
Bruce Duncan. Pope runs moral template over G20.
Pope France outlined a sharp moral template for world leaders at the G20 meeting in Brisbane. In a letter on 6 November to the current chair of the G20, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the Pope warned that many lives are at stake, including from severe malnutrition, as he highlighted the values and policy priorities needed for the global economy. Francis regarded the Global Financial Crisis as a form of aggression equally serious and real as the extremist attacks in the Middle East. He specifically condemned abuses in unconstrained speculation and maximising profits as the final criterion of all economic...
Bruce Duncan. Iraq: where to now?
Threats from the self-styled Islamic State to kill Australians randomly on the street or wherever by any means possible have shocked us all. The threats were not just against Australians, nor only against westerners, but against other Muslims, even Sunnis who refused to bow to the IS, and especially against the modernising Muslims and the political elites in Muslim countries. It appears that Islamic State is trying to unleash a global war between Muslims and non-Muslims, believing that the final apocalyptic battle against the crusaders or Romans to be fought at Dabiq in northern Iraq will usher in a...
Bruce Duncan. Pope Francis: economic system is failing millions.
A blog in the Economist accused Pope Francis of following the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, in adopting an ultra-radical line on capitalism. The blog, Francis, capitalism and war: the Popes divisions, was reacting to the Popes interview on 9 June in the Spanish journal, La Vanguardia, in which he linked an earlier form of capitalism with imperialism as the main causes of the First World War. In response the Pope said the Communists have stolen the flag. The flag of the poor is Christian The poor are at the centre of the gospel. He pointed to...
Bruce Duncan. The Coalition: how to lose friends and alienate people
Mr Abbott in his 2013 book, Battlelines, wrote that in government he would balance social values with pragmatic policy for the common good of the country. Yet one could be forgiven for thinking government policy is being driven by neoliberal ideologues, with a very heavy stress on policies of privatisation of public assets, further deregulation (including in banking and finance), expanding free trade agreements, and creating more flexible labour markets (reducing wages and conditions). Mr Hockeys budget has created a toxic reaction for its astonishing unfairness to the most vulnerable groups, most notably the 600,000 unemployed, while doing...