Religion and Faith
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
Michael Kelly SJ. On being a Priest.
I’ve been a priest for thirty years and for perhaps the past two decades, I have known that when I walk into an unfamiliar setting or join a new group of people and tell them what I am, a goodly number are thinking to themselves: “What sort of a weird, psychologically deficient, sexually repressed and Continue reading »
-
Frank Brennan SJ. The Vatican Synod has let the genie out of the bottle. Deo Gratias
Let there be no doubt. There is change, and a great deal of uncertainty, in the air in Rome. And it is not just coming from Pope Francis. The Catholic Church retaining some of the attributes of a royal court in its mode of governance provides its senior prelates with every opportunity to emulate the Continue reading »
-
Kieran Tapsell: The Catholic Cafeteria
On 29 July 2011, Cardinal George Pell gave a speech in which he accused many Catholics of being “Cafeteria Catholics”, by picking and choosing from the doctrinal menu. Having moved to Rome, he is now attending the Synod of Catholic Chefs de Cuisine to decide what is wrong with the menu at the Catholic Cafeteria, Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Asylum seekers – institutionalised cruelty, the banality of evil and immorality.
You might be interested in this repost. John Menadue The recent statement by the Australian Catholic Bishops on asylum seekers says ‘The current policy has about it a cruelty that does no honour to our nation … Enough of this institutionalised cruelty … We call on the nation as a whole to say no to Continue reading »
-
Michael Kelly SJ. A new magazine – Global Pulse.
Global Pulse Magazine brings together the rich editorial resources of some of the world’s leading independent publishers in the Catholic Church for an international English readership. Global Pulse provides insights into the Church and in the wider world of politics, religion, ethics, society and culture. Visit www.globalpulsemagazine.com In October, access is free so you can Continue reading »
-
Edmund Campion. Australian Catholic Lives.
Fr Edmund Campion has just published a new book. A book review and information about the book can be found on the following link. John Menadue. http://tintean.org.au/2014/10/06/australian-catholics-lives-by-edmund-campion Continue reading »
-
Kieran Tapsell: The Holy See’s Newly Found Sensitivity to National Sovereignty
In January 2014 the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Insiders and Outsiders.
You might be interested in this repost. John Menadue. As social beings, we usually like to be part of the group, an insider. We are cautious about being outsiders, on the periphery. Yet being outsiders has some real advantages. Growing up in country towns in South Australia, I felt what it was like to Continue reading »
-
Robert Mickens. Letter from Rome.
As I was saying last time, before I was interrupted, Pope Francis is facing resistance to the fresh air and change of ethos he’s trying to bring about inside the Church. And those with eyes to see can detect this opposition especially among the current crop of seminarians and younger priests, as well as a Continue reading »
-
Peter Day. The Middle East: it’s important to talk.
David was a good Jewish man: faithful to his God; devoted to his family, and deeply connected to his land. Khalid was a good Palestinian man: faithful to his God; devoted to his family, and deeply connected to his land. Each year, in early spring, David and Khalid would meet for a chat at a Continue reading »