The energies of Catholic Australians in recent years have been absorbed by contradictory approaches to being faithful. The first is the church’s institutional integrity (requirements of obedience, orthodoxy and conformity); the second is its moral
Penola still a hot spot, virus hits students
04-Jun-2011
A week marked by deaths and sickness. Two retired priests, in Brisbane and Sydney, passed away, a viral epidemic laid low a quarter of the students at an Adelaide Catholic school, and police tried to stop the euthanasia of a 100-year-old man. On a
A diverse menu: Malta legalised divorce, the Vatican is studying the impact of outsourcing labor, and spoke out against piracy, while the Pope reiterated the importance of Gregorian chant. In Holland, a modern version of Noah's Ark has been
Bookseller's Marxist Catholic heritage
04-Jun-2011
Founder of the anti-Vietnam War movement in Australia. Lifelong member of the Labor Party and Trotskyist. Bookseller. Bibliophile. Historian. Union agitator. Anti-censorship battler. Bohemian. Irish Catholic. Polemicist. Even Charles Dickens would have had
Explaining Ireland's blessed mess
04-Jun-2011
Gerry O'Hanlon SJ, A New Vision of the Catholic Church: A View from Ireland (Columba Press, 2011) Irish theologian Gerry O’Hanlon SJ analyses the current crisis afflicting the Church in Ireland and identifies the frustrations felt by Irish Catholics who
TV soap selling assisted suicide
04-Jun-2011
The problem with TV dramas is that they make rare events appear common and so distort public opinion on key issues. One serious distortion of the truth involves assisted suicide and the implication that a hugely disproportionate number of people with serious
Aussie WYD pilgrims taste the chorizo
28-May-2011
Students from Australian Catholic University are peppering up the chorizo, clicking the castanets, charging up the mechanical bulls and living with “Alegria”, all before they even arrive in Madrid, reports Beth Doherty on the WYD
If you love me, you will keep my commandments
28-May-2011
John 14:15-21 Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
The past, the present and our true identity
28-May-2011
On the 160th anniversary of my great-grandfather's birth, I stood on the ruined foundation of the small Irish house and mill in which he had been born in Donegal, writes Joan Chittister in NCR. A piece of granite from that foundation now sits on my desk - a
Greetings from Bethlehem university
28-May-2011
Until two years ago, De La Salle Brother Peter Bray's career consisted of teaching and education administration in Australia and New Zealand, doctoral studies in the United States, and some lecturing at university level in a number of countries around the
The death of Osama bin Laden did not end the war against jihadism, a war bin Laden had declared against the United States in a 1996 fatwa that mandated the killing of Americans wherever they could be targeted. But it did take one key leader of jihadist Islam
Education again dominated the agenda. Victorians mourned the untimely passing ofa teacher and student ,and the ACU vocational leadership program inspired students in Sydney's west (pictured).The Sisters of Mercy celebrated 150 years with a big climb in
A mixed week of news: Canadian natives asked Jesuits to help preserve their language, China called for Vatican action to improve relations, and "Priest Prohibited" road signs caused anger in Austria. A documentary found that shopping in Apple stores triggers
Master of mathematics and man of letters
28-May-2011
John O'Callaghan reached his 100th birthday, and a bit more, after a life devoted to teaching mathematics. Born at Stockton near Newcastle in 1910, his family was poor. But John was a good student and won a scholarship to St Patrick's College, Goulburn.
Religions and the rhythm of the universe
28-May-2011
The Rhythm of Being: The Gifford Lecture Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010. pp. 413 This is the final work of Catalan-Indian inter-religious scholar Raimon Panikkar (1918–2010). It represents the fruit of nine decades of life and reflection on the
Investment - not aid - will end poverty
28-May-2011
Vast amounts of state aid, and governments imposing endless regulations, are not the way to solve global poverty. Rather it will be done through trade, private enterprise and helping populations in poor countries to contribute to their own prosperity. This
A three-year international research project, directed by two academics at the University of Oxford, finds that humans have natural tendencies to believe in gods and an afterlife, Health Canal reports. The $2.7 million project involved 57 researchers who
Do not let your hearts be troubled
21-May-2011
John 14:1-14 ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare
I often reflect on the criticism that some Christians are “so heavenly-minded they are no earthly good”. This is a caricature with an element of truth in it, writes Fr Noel Connolly on the St Columbans Mission Society website. It is the criticism
God, sex and Christopher West
21-May-2011
Christopher West was a respected expert on Catholic sexual ethics until 2009, when in a TV interview he compared John Paul II to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner - both were reacting against a negative puritanical view of sexuality and the human body, said
From Parish of Our Lady of The Way, North Sydney & Lavender Bay. The first Mass of the day on YouTube. 
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