Religion and Faith
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Kieran Tapsell. The best drama in town: the Royal Commission on the Ellis Case.
There is a veritable ‘whodunit’ being played out at the Royal Commission into Sex Abuse. The Commission is inquiring into the treatment of John Ellis who lent his name to the so called ‘Ellis defence’, that confirmed that the “Catholic Church”does not exist in law. If the sex abusing priest or the negligent bishop is Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Cardinal Pell at the Royal Commission
Last September I addressed the Canon Law Society of Australia and New Zealand on issues the Catholic Church would need to address with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and in the follow-up to the Victorian Parliament’s Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Organisations. I said: Continue reading »
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Eric Hodgens. Sydney’s next bishop – what sort?
What should we look for in a bishop for Sydney in these changing times? A Christian. One committed to Jesus’ message of love, forgiveness and compassion. One who holds that the Church is not just the hierarchy, but the People of God on a journey. A citizen of the world. One who, while suspicious of Continue reading »
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Eric Hodgens. Where do bishops come from?
Sydney needs a new archbishop who has every chance of becoming a cardinal once Cardinal Pell turns 80. How do we get a new bishop? The pope will appoint one. Since 1917 he has claimed the right to do so. History is not on the side of that claim – but that is another story. Continue reading »
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National Council of Priests – Choosing a successor to Cardinal Pell – a pastor or a prince.
In late February the National Council of Priests met with the Catholic Bishops Commission for Church Ministry. This is an annual dialogue. Fr Ian McGinnity who is the President of the National Council of Priests sent to his colleagues a record of the issues that were raised with the Bishops. The issues raised referred generally Continue reading »
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Chris Geraghty. The Pell Factor
Sydney is vacant again, and many of the faithful are breathing a huge sigh of relief, though at the back of our minds lurks a suspicion mixed with fear that we will be saddled, for a long time to come, with a little repellent clone of the great man. George is off to Rome – Continue reading »
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Kieran Tapsell. The Trickle-down Effect in Toowoomba
Cardinal Francis George, the former President of the United States Bishops Conference has been described as one of the Catholic Church’s most ‘formidable intellectuals’. In the 2003 Ave Maria Law Review he wrote an article entitled, “Law and Culture”, in which he discusses the famous U.S. Supreme Court case of Brown v The Board of Continue reading »
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Kieran Tapsell. Sexual abuse in the Church – the failure of the Vatican and Popes
As with so many other things on the sex abuse issue, the Holy See’s response to the findings of the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child is conspicuous for its failure to acknowledge the central issue raised by that Committee: pontifical secrecy imposed on the Church’s investigations of child sexual abuse by Continue reading »
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Kieran Tapsell. The United Nations and the ‘Warts-and-all’ history.
On 15 October 2013, Francis Sullivan, the CEO of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, the body that speaks on behalf of the Australian Catholic Church at the Royal Commission, wrote an opinion piece for the ABC’s Religion and Ethics page. He claimed that the submission the Council had presented to the Royal Commission on Continue reading »
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Kieran Tapsell: The Inquisition of the Catholic Church at the United Nations.
The Vatican’s former Chief Prosecutor, Bishop Charles Scicluna, found himself before the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child in Geneva on 16 January 2014. He joked that in the past his predecessors may have been on the other side of the table as the “Grand Inquisitor”. The Church signed up to the Continue reading »
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Pope Francis – Message on Migrants and Refugees. January 2014
‘Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity. They are children, women and men who leave or who are forced to leave their homes for various reasons, who share a legitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for being more. Contemporary movements of migration represent the largest movement of Individuals, Continue reading »
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Sex abuse: the de facto privilege of clergy. Kieran Tapsell
On 29 December 1170, four armed knights from the Court of King Henry II of England entered Canterbury Cathedral. They had previously heard the King complain about the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a’Becket, who was in dispute with Henry over “privilege of clergy”, the right of clergy to be tried exclusively in Church or canonical Continue reading »
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Asylum seekers – Tony Abbott and I share a Jesuit education. John O’Mara
Like many Australians, I look on the way the Abbott government is handling the matter of asylum seekers with ever increasing dismay. Tony Abbott’s mantra “stop the boats”, is unprincipled, contrary to signed UN agreements and impractical. It is hard to erase the pre-election memory of the Western Sydney interviewee..”I’m going to vote for Abbott, Continue reading »
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Repost: Don’t tamper with the Refugee Convention. John Menadue
It would be dangerous to open up the pandora’s box of the Refugee Convention. It has served us well. Who would seriously suggest that persons facing persecution should not be protected. Given the world wide agitation against refugees and ‘outsiders’, a review of the Convention would be a great opportunity for extremists to run their Continue reading »
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Is Pope Francis a Marxist?
On 16 December last year, Eureka Street carried an article by Neil Ormerod about Pope Francis and his economic, social and political message. That article can be found on the link below. John Menadue http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=38645#.Us8a9j0XBt8.email Continue reading »
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A 100 billion dollar tale of piracy in the Timor Sea. Michael Sainsbury
Although it sits on a vast undersea gas reserve, Timor-Leste remains deeply impoverished. Deep under the Timor Sea, there is a huge reserve of gas. Geologists now believe it is worth upwards of US$100 billion; a figure more than twice the amount estimated by Australia as recently as 2006. It is perhaps ironic that the Continue reading »
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The Revival of Misprision of Felony. Guest blogger: Kieran Tapsell
In the days before police forces, the State in the English speaking world relied on citizens to report serious crimes, called “felonies”. The posse in the Western movies is a reflection of the “hue and cry” that citizens were expected to raise. Failing to report a felony was itself a crime, called “misprision of felony”. Continue reading »
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Putting the Jesuitical back into the Jesuit. Guest blogger: Kieran Tapsell
The Vatican has two hats. It is the mini-State of 44 hectares in Rome, and it is the “Holy See”, the governing body of the Catholic Church. When it suits, it puts on one hat and hides the other. At the Murphy Commission in Ireland it relied on its status as a foreign country in Continue reading »
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Repost: Are most asylum seekers and refugees Muslims? John Menadue
Repost for holiday reading. Well, as a matter of fact, they are not. But I am sure that many commentators and a lot of the community believe that most are Muslim. The dog-whistlers like Scott Morrison feed on this assumption .According to Jane Cadzow in the Sun Herald he urged the Coalition parties “to ramp Continue reading »
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A Christmas Message from Sister Joan Chittister.
Two years ago this Christmas message was published by Vision and Viewpoint, an e-newsletter. Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, is prioress of The Benedictine Sisters in Erie, PA. Now and here bells everywhere are ringing again. The gift boxes are heaping up. Everybody’s saying it: “Christmas Blessings… God bless you at Christmas time… Christmas Peace to Continue reading »
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Waiting on Him in Advent for His Birth; His birth in us. Guest Blogger: Caroline Coggins
Is the birth of Jesus a story that can touch us deeply today, does it offer a way for us to know and follow Jesus? Do we get glib with what we know, and skate over the story? The advent story is like a pregnancy, it creates an intimate space to be with Mary, from Continue reading »
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My year of leaning – and leaning into Christmas. Guest Blogger: Patty Fawkner SGS
There are all kinds of years. There’s the year of living dangerously and the annus horribilis. 2013 was the Year of Grace and the Year of the Snake. For me it’s been the year of leaning. Earlier this year I was intrigued by the title and the phenomenal publishing success of Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean Continue reading »
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Cracks in the Church Dyke at the Royal Commission. Guest blogger: Kieran Tapsell
On 19March 2010, after the Murphy Commission in Ireland found that there had been widespread cover up of child sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Dublin, Pope Benedict XVI wrote a “Pastoral Letter to the People of Ireland”. The Murphy Commission had some harsh things to say about canon law and the requirements of secrecy, Continue reading »
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New Vatican Committee on Sexual Abuse – What the Pope and the Bishops should do. Guest blogger: Bishop Geoffrey Robinson
Pope Francis has announced that he is setting up a committee to advise him on how to respond to sexual abuse within the Church. There is a large amount of scepticism in many quarters about such a move, for there have been so many other meetings before this and they have produced so little. So Continue reading »
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Archbishop Coleridge and Canon Law: Humpty Dumpty Rules . Guest blogger Kieran Tapsell
“When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “It means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.” Continue reading »
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Flogging a dead horse at the Royal Commission on Sexual Abuse. Guest blogger: Kieran Tapsell
Whenever there has been an inquiry into the Catholic Church’s handling of child sex abuse by its clergy, the Church has claimed that child sex abuse was some sort of hidden problem that the whole world, including the Church, had only just discovered. It has done this in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and now Continue reading »
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New Vatican Committee on Sexual Abuse and ‘zero tolerance’ of Pope Benedict. Guest blogger: Kieran Tapsell
On 5 December 2013, the Vatican announced that it had set up a new Committee on sex abuse and that the “the initiative was also in line with the zero tolerance approach of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.” Pope John Paul II has rightly been hailed for his contribution to bringing down the Soviet Union. But Continue reading »
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Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. John Menadue
On December 9 the Royal Commission will commence public hearings into the role of the Catholic Church in Australia on this issue. Francis Sullivan the Executive Director of the Truth Justice and Healing Council of the Catholic Church said on 3 December that “Catholics and non-Catholics will be shocked and disillusioned when they hear the Continue reading »
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Bella Figura and the Vatican. Guest blogger: Kieran Tapsell
Bella figura, writes Bishop Geoffrey Robinson in his book, For Christ’s Sake, pervades the Vatican. In Italian, it means putting on a good appearance, and never admitting mistakes – what we might call “spin”. Its opposite, bruta figura means looking dreadful. Bella figura can quickly turn bruta as Sir Walter Scott reminded us: “Oh what Continue reading »
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What a good effort. Guest blogger: Chris Geraghty
This is the best effort at an apology so far and “the leaders of the Catholic Church in Australia” are to be congratulated, finally. They have been dragged, fighting and squealing, to their knees, no, to their bellies, but eventually a thorough and unqualified commitment statement has been published and read to the faithful at Continue reading »
