Religion and Faith
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Caroline Coggins, Pausing in Advent.
I was on retreat recently in Hong Kong and there was a very small pool with eight turtles in it. It took me some days to notice; you have to slow down to see them. Their water was muddy, there was certainly no vista here, just the close company they kept with each other, and Continue reading »
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John Menadue. What does it mean?
We have all been moved by the outpouring of grief and emotion by the deaths in Martin Place, the school children killed in Peshawar and eight children murdered in Cairns. The flood of floral tributes has been remarkable. We saw it only a few days earlier with the untimely death of Phillip Hughes. There was Continue reading »
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Eric Hodgens. Phillip Hughes – A Christmas Story.
The Phillip Hughes story gripped a nation. So much potential felled in an instant. Grief amplified by promise and love lost. Phillip was a Little Aussie Battler like us. But what promise! Looming all the larger because it is gone. Pup becomes a tower of strength. We see him in a new light. Rival teams Continue reading »
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Is religion the cause of war and violence in the Middle East and elsewhere?
We are consistently seeing the ghastly side of Islam with public beheadings but we also need to keep in mind the ghastly side of Christianity which was so evidence during the Crusades. Many conclude that religion, now and in the past, is the cause of so much violence. Karen Armstrong has just written ‘Fields of Continue reading »
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Brian Johnstone. How to Respond to Terrorism?
How can we make sense of the contemporary situation of increasing violence? Some groups engage in terrorism against other groups and these engage in torture as a means of defeating the terrorism of the others? In liberal states torture is condemned as immoral; some seek to prohibit it by law, others defend it as a Continue reading »
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Kerry Murphy. Intra-religious conflict.
Most violent deaths of Muslims in the world are due to others claiming to be Muslims. The conflicts in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria are all predominantly conflicts within the Islamic community. This is strongly felt within the communities but not usually reported in the mainstream media. This week in Peshawar in north western Pakistan, Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Normalising Crime.
I was astounded when I read what Archbishop Antony Fisher told The Australian last week. The report said ‘Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric has proclaimed that families are more likely than priests to abuse children and rejected a church report that linked celibacy to sexual abuse. Archbishop of Sydney Antony Fisher said that celibacy could Continue reading »
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Eric Hodgens. Celibacy – Icon of Clericalism.
The Catholic Church October synod was surprisingly successful. Unlike previous synods the discussion was open. The focus was pastoral rather than legal. Questions like Communion for divorcees, living together without being married, homosexual relationships, contraception are now on the table. The objective is to seek solutions to complications rather than repeat the rules that most Continue reading »
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Truth, Justice and Healing Council’s challenge of celibacy falls on deaf ears.
In an article on December 16 in the SMH online, former NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally said that the report of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council offered Catholics a wake-up call. She said that many in the Vatican are still asleep. She added ‘I can’t decide whether to scream or cry when I hear a Continue reading »
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Tony Doherty. Remaining balanced in times of tragedy and turmoil.
Our ability to hang on to sanity and some sense of equilibrium this week has been sorely tested. In the face of scarcely imaginable acts of violence – right in the city’s heart, Martin Place, the balance of our emotional lives could be endangered. The press sifts through the many and various reactions – casual Continue reading »
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Kieran Tapsell: More Cracks in the Church Dyke?
In December 2013, I wrote a piece for this blog entitled, Cracks in the Church Dyke at the Royal Commission, which posed the question: the real issue now is whether the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, (TJHC), representing the Church at the Royal Commission, will come clean over canon law, or the dyke will be Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. The Vatican’s Synod Questions for the Australian Catholic Church
Following up on the Relatio Synodi, the Vatican has now released the lineamenta (http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20141209_lineamenta-xiv-assembly_en.html) for next year’s synod on the family. They have appended a list of 46 questions and they want the world’s Catholic bishops’ answers by April. This will be a demanding task for the Australian bishops for three additional reasons. First, they Continue reading »
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Paul Collins. A wake for ABC Religion.
Last week I attended the funeral of long time religious broadcaster and colleague, Ronald Nichols at Sydney’s Christ Church Saint Laurence. It was the day after a broad cross-section of religious leaders had written to the ABC Board and managing director Mark Scott, expressing concern about what was happening to the ABC’s specialist focus on Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. The Cardinal Pell precedent.
Speaking of the financial reforms in the Vatican, Cardinal Pell says: ‘The first principle was that the Vatican should adopt contemporary international standards, much as the rest of the world does. The second principle meant that Vatican policies and procedures would be transparent. The third important principle within the Vatican was that there should be Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Making the world safer for children.
The United Nations has developed an elaborate system of committees to oversee compliance by nation states with a broad range of international human rights instruments. These committee processes are sometimes used by nongovernmental organizations pushing their own particular causes. Of late, a group called SNAP — the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — Continue reading »
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Kieran Tapsell: The Holy See, Torture and the UN
On 26 September 2014, the Holy See rejected the demand of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child for it to impose through canon law mandatory reporting of all allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy. The Holy See said its only responsibility under the Convention was for the handful of children Continue reading »
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Michael Kelly SJ. Phillip Hughes: reality bites
Seeing Australia from outside the island continent offers some very strange views from time to time. The outpouring of grief over the tragic accident that took the talented life of cricketer Phillip Hughes went global within a very short time. The home of cricket – England – was profuse in the time devoted to this Continue reading »
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Hugh Mackay. The Art of Belonging.
We need communities to sustain us, but if those communities are to survive and prosper, we must engage with them and nurture them, writes Hugh Mackay. Aren’t you tired of being told that the deepest truth about human beings is that we are hopelessly selfish by nature? That even acts of apparent altruism are really Continue reading »
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Eric Hodgens. Archbishop Fisher’s Vision.
Archbishop Fisher introduced himself to his Sydney flock at his installation on 12th November 2014. He knows the Sydney Church and its history from personal experience. He is, after all, a born Sydney native whose early years inculturated him into that city and church. He was always a leading student at Catholic primary and secondary Continue reading »
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Is capitalism redeemable? Part 9: Restoring a moral voice
It is easy to allocate blame for our apparent entrapment in bad public policy. Tony Abbott’s truculence, disregard for reason, inflexibility and broken promises all come to mind. As does the blatant partisan stance of the Murdoch media. Those who look for more general causes draw attention to dysfunctional party structures, an adversarial parliamentary system Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Women Priests in the Catholic Church – Can we at least talk about it?
There was an interesting exchange on CBS 60 Minutes here in the USA on Sunday night between Cardinal O’Malley and Norah O’Donnell (See http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cardinal-sean-omalley-works-with-pope-francis-to-reform-catholic-church/). Here is part of the interview: Norah O’Donnell: The church says it’s not open to the discussion about ordaining women. Why not? Cardinal Seán O’Malley: Not everyone needs to be ordained Continue reading »
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Michael Kelly and Michael Sainsbury on The Pope and the President.
When the Chinese government confirmed Xi Jingpin as the country’s president in March 2013, among the congratulatory letters received in Beijing was one from the newly elected Pope Francis. It was a nice touch from the leader of one “regime” to another, since the two have been at odds for decades over religious freedom. Over Continue reading »
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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 Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. The G20 Agenda and Pope Francis
The leaders of the world’s 19 largest economies (together with the EU) are meeting in Brisbane this weekend at the annual G20 meeting. Australia is the host and Prime Minister Tony Abbott is the president this year. The host country gets to put its stamp on the agenda. Last year at St Petersburg, the G20 Continue reading »
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Global Pulse Magazine
You can now subscribe to Global Pulse Magazine. Global Pulse Magazine which you can view at www.globalpulsemagazine.com was launched on September 29 and for the last month has been free to visit. We invite you to subscribe at and receive daily newsletter. Just go to the homepage of www.globalpulsemagazine.com and at the top right hand Continue reading »
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Patty Fawkner SGS. Betty has dementia.
Grief is a constant companion when a loved one has dementia. And so, too, is grace, writes Good Samaritan Sister Patty Fawkner. Betty has dementia. Betty has had dementia for over eight years. Betty is my mother. “Mum will know when it’s time to go into care,” I would confidently say to my five siblings Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. The genie may be out of the bottle but it is still in the ecclesiastical kitchen.
The Vatican has now released the official English translation of the “relatio synodi”, the concluding document from the Synod of Bishops convened by Pope Francis to consider “pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelisation”. (http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/10/18/0770/03044.html) In my last post (https://johnmenadue.com/blog/?p=2565), I dealt with an earlier document, the “relation post disceptationem” which was Continue reading »
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Kelvin Canavan. Gough Whitlam: a tribute to an education visionary.
I first met E. G. Whitlam when he spoke at a series of ‘State Aid’ rallies in Sydney prior to the 1969 federal election. He was in full voice before a Catholic community that had packed halls and cinemas on eight Sunday evenings, demanding financial support for their schools from federal and state governments. The Continue reading »
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Robert Mickens. An exercise in keeping friends close and enemies closer.
No Australian bishop has ever assumed such high rank in the Catholic Church as Cardinal George Pell, who eight months ago became head of the Vatican’s newly created “finance ministry” or Secretariat for the Economy. For the 73-year-old native of Ballarat, a city about 100 kms west of Melbourne, this is but the latest rung Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. My tribute to Gough
Gough Whitlam once asked me why there were so many social reformers to emerge from Queensland in the early 1970s. I told him it was simple. We had someone to whom we could react: Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen; and we had someone to inspire us: him. I have written elsewhere about his contribution to Aboriginal Continue reading »
