News
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30-Sep-2009
Vatican UN Observer Archbishop Silvano Tomasi has lashed out at criticism over the Church's handling of the pedophilia crisis saying the Catholic Church is "busy cleaning its own house" and that the problems with clerical sex abuse in other churches are as big, if not bigger.
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30-Sep-2009
Bishop Michael Smith of Meath in Ireland thinks that Pope John Paul II is likely to be made a Doctor of the Church, a higher status than sainthood in the Church.
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28-Sep-2009
Seven primary schools in New South Wales want to participate in a pilot of an ethics course as an alternative to religion classes. The state government's religious education advisory panel is against the pilot altogether.
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28-Sep-2009
Six students at Whitefriars College in Donvale, Victoria, have been suspended over the expellable offense of alleged cannabis sharing and trafficking arrangement, and smoking marijuana.
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01-Oct-2009
The three composers chosen to write music for Pope Benedict's forthcoming album are Briton Simon Boswell, an agnostic; Stefano Mainetti from Italy, who is Catholic and Nour Eddine, from Morocco, who is Muslim.
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News - National
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01-Oct-2009
Structured, regular activities, such as those that give a sense of purpose and belonging, can keep youth away from street crime and violence, said adolescent psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg.
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01-Oct-2009
The National Human Rights Consultation Committee handed over its final assessment about a possible bill of rights for Australia to the Federal Government on Wednesday, after perusal of more than 35,000 public submissions.
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30-Sep-2009
James Stirling Murray, Anglican priest, teacher and a religious editor for The Australian, died yesterday in Sydney. He was 82.
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29-Sep-2009
Same sex marriage and rights proponents are planning ramped up campaigns for their cause in 2010, in Perth, Brisbane, Canberra, Lismore, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.
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28-Sep-2009
Former federal MP and ABC presenter Eoin Cameron spoke publicly for the first time about sexual abuse he had suffered at the Marist Brothers College in Mount Gambier, South Australia in the 1960s.
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28-Sep-2009
Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls has approved a plan that will allow Church run organisations to refuse employment to anyone who undermines their beliefs.
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28-Sep-2009
South Melbourne parish priest Fr Bob Maguire will continue in his position until 2012 but hand over the financial reins of the parish to a Melbourne Archdiocese appointed administrator, in a compromise solution.
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30-Sep-2009
Parent groups at seven NSW primary schools, including Rozelle Public in Education Minister Verity Firth's electorate, want to operate the ethics pilot program being devised by the St James Ethics Centre.
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29-Sep-2009
The Latin Vulgate Bible aged more than half a millenium and one of the first books printed by the Gutenberg Press is on display as part of a Bible Society exhibition in Coffs Harbour, NSW.
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02-Oct-2009
Toowoomba Bishop William Morris said investigations cleared Catholic education office staff of any cover up over sex abuse allegations at a Darling Downs school in southern Queensland, and that preventive action is being taken.
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01-Oct-2009
A Centacare drop-in centre in Maryborough, Qld, that has been closed since March will reopen and stay open until the end of the year, and so would the Centacare office that was scheduled to close and move to Hervey Bay.
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30-Sep-2009
Jenny Bill, a counsellor, says she was asked to remove two crosses from around her neck while working at Centacare Fraser Coast in Queensland, and her refusal to comply led to her being ignored at work and feeling ridiculed.
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29-Sep-2009
Western Australia's government is "appalled" at the level of binge drinking among teenagers, with the worst being 17 year old girls, found by the Australian School Students Alcohol and Drug survey, the state's biggest survey of student drug and alcohol use.
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30-Sep-2009
The Northern Territory Police Association commemorated eight Territory officers who have been killed on duty, to mark National Police Remembrance Day yesterday.
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02-Oct-2009
The ACT Government is offering $77m to the Church's Little Company of Mary Health Care for the Calvary Public Hospital in Canberra's north.
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News - International
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02-Oct-2009
Alicia Torres has raised $30,000 in her bid to become a Franciscan sister after running 13.1 miles in the Chicago Half Marathon.
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01-Oct-2009
Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno told youth and parishioners at a confirmation Mass he presided at in Medjugorje not to behave as if the alleged Marian apparitions reported in the parish were real, the Catholic News Service reports.
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28-Sep-2009
Pope Benedict told some 120,000 gathered to meet him in the Czech city of Brno that spiritual renewal and an acknowledgement of the region's Christian heritage is needed to meet modern and cultural challenges.
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29-Sep-2009
Caritas Australia said its local partners in the Philippines are assessing the needs of Manila's slum dwellers affected by the tropical storm Ketsana that has caused massive floods, fatalities and displacement.
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29-Sep-2009
Islam's growing influence in Lebanon is prompting even more of its Christians to emigrate, Beirut's Centre for Arab Christian Research and Documentation (CEDRAC) founder Jesuit Father Samir Khalil said.
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02-Oct-2009
Pope Benedict in his meeting with visiting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, raised the issues of attacks by Muslim extremists in the province of Punjab.
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02-Oct-2009
One time football hero and current Argentine soccer coach Maradona is hoping for divine intervention into his team's bid for a spot in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
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29-Sep-2009
Marauding bands of guerrillas have "crucified" seven Christians during a series of raids on villages in Sudan, with one man tied to a tree and mutilated while six other victims were nailed to pieces of wood and killed.
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01-Oct-2009
Caritas said its local partner is assessing the areas in Western Samoa worst affected by the 8.3 magnitude earthquake and the tsunami waves that followed, to begin relief work.
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Religion
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02-Oct-2009
Christopher Hitchens, who will speak at the Opera House about "How Religion Poisons Everything", says it does so by making "us all into serfs" who think without God, no moral decision can be made, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
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Regulars
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02-Oct-2009
I wonder whether Jesus' audience ever got tired of listening to Him. I wonder whether He ever got tired of preaching? No doubt he got physically and mentally tired, but did He ever tire of the subject? Did He ever wake up of a morning and think to Himself, I'd rather talk about something else today; I don't feel like talking about God? - Bill Farrelly, Marist Messenger
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01-Oct-2009
Telling a church or a mosque it can't employ people who share its ethos is a bit like telling the Labor Party it must employ Liberals. It is good to see the Victorian Government, in its recent review of equal opportunity laws, attempt to strike the right balance between addressing unjustified discrimination and allowing religious organisations the freedom to remain true to their faith. - Rob Ward, National Times
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30-Sep-2009
St Therese of Lisieux appeared to live an ordinary life, but appearances can be deceptive. Life in a monastery is difficult. She dedicated herself to the daily practice of sacrificial love toward those around her, perfecting the art of responding to coldness, rudeness, gossip, and insults with active loving kindness and inner compassion. She aimed these small acts of unconditional love at Christ in the other person and for the redemption of the human race, a spirituality she called her "little way." - Fr John Dear, National Catholic Reporter
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29-Sep-2009
A new survey shows 34 million Americans, or 15 percent of the population, say they have no religion.
Even more significant is that one-third of those, about 11 million people, are Irish Americans. Why are so many Irish Catholics leaving the faith? - Niall O'Dowd, Irish Central
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28-Sep-2009
Tegan Leach has become the unwitting "it" girl for abortion reform in Queensland. Unwitting, because who would have knowingly decided to sign up for the sort of exposure that has been thrust on this Cairns teenager, all because she made a choice thousands of women have made before her to abort a baby she knew she was not ready to care for. - Margo Zlotkowski, The Punch
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02-Oct-2009
Campion College in Sydney's west is Australia's first Catholic Liberal Arts College of Higher Education having opened in 2006. It has made quite an impression in both Catholic and tertiary education circles since it commenced.
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01-Oct-2009
Flame Youth and Young Adult Ministry is an outreach work of Flame Ministries International which is active in the Archdiocese of Perth. The youth ministry is a Catholic pentecostal work with weekly praise, worship, bible teaching, outreach and fellowship.
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30-Sep-2009
Real Choices Australia is a website committed to ensuring that women and men have access to accurate information, with the former receiving the support they require to make an informed choice, when pregnant.
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29-Sep-2009
Inside Catholic bills itself as the voice of authentic Catholicism in the public square online. The website is focused on faith, culture and politics and the articles and blogs attached to the site are "fully compatible with orthodox Catholicism".
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28-Sep-2009
The Priestly Fraternity of St Peter was founded in 1988 with the approval of Pope John Paul II. It has over 180 priests working in a dozen countries as well as a novitiate in Australia. The Fraternity came to Australia in March 2000 and has been invited by the bishops to work in their dioceses of Canberra, Parramatta, and Sydney and provides daily Latin Mass and pastoral care for the faithful centred upon the traditional prayers and sacramental forms.
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01-Oct-2009
Here is a film for the Masterchef era if ever there was one. Lashings of sublime tucker are so prominent that the diet conscious among us are likely to put on a couple of kilos just from watching it. - Jim Murphy, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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29-Sep-2009
It is clear that this is not a screenplay that cares much for conventional morality. But it is typical Woody Allen fare, poking sly fun at the human condition and enjoyable in its own quirky fashion. The script is liberally sprinkled with witty Woodyisms. - Jim Murphy, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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02-Oct-2009
Join Late Night Live host Phillip Adams for a discussion with three of the contributors to a new encyclopedia documenting the sources and development of religion in Australia since European settlement. It looks at religion in a wide variety of contexts, including traditional Indigenous religions.
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28-Sep-2009
In a lighter passage of Guardian of the Light, Paddy Kearney's splendid biography of Archbishop Denis Hurley, we encounter the usually reserved archbishop being taught by his nieces to "jive" to the music of The Beatles. The terminology suggests that this episode was set in the Fab Four's early period. A mid-period Beatles song title serves well to encapsulate Hurley's Christian mentality: "All You Need Is Love". - Günther Simmermacher, The Southern Cross (South Africa)
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02-Oct-2009
I worked as a Columban missionary in Japan for 30 years. Each Sunday when I looked down at my congregation in Shingu and began to preach I could see one lady up front who looked up with great expectations in her eyes, waiting for my words... Then as I went on and on... I noticed a body change. She began to list to one side, like a sinking ship with both her eyes closed. - Fr Paddy Clarke, The Far East
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01-Oct-2009
There seems to be some confusion regarding what the Catholic Church believes about abortion and what individual "Catholics" do and believe. A Catholic who holds that abortion is simply a "woman's choice" is to that extent not in communion with the Catholic Church, and to that extent is not speaking "as a Catholic". - Ray Campbell, The Catholic Leader
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30-Sep-2009
Our daily lives are full of activity and noise. We use many words to express our ideas and thoughts. During the day one needs to ponder the many words and interpretations that one hears. These words and thoughts can distract me from the reality and the presence of God in my life. I can become absorbed by the words and begin to analyse and interpret which takes me deeper into a fest of words and language. I ask the question what am I missing or avoiding. Words can clatter my mind. - Br Chris Meehl, Edmund Rice Oceania
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29-Sep-2009
Unless you have sent a child to a public school in New South Wales, you won't have come face-to-face with the madness that is known as "non-scripture". For one hour each week every public primary school in the state must divide its students into different faiths to receive "special religious education" (SRE) from a wide assortment of adults, known collectively as "scripture teachers". - Teresa Russell, Eureka Street
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28-Sep-2009
One of the challenges for the Archdiocese is changing perceptions of the Church as an extremely wealthy institution. The person in the street sees the Catholic Church as the holder of expensive real estate and closely connected to the "riches" of the Vatican but this couldn't be further from the truth. - Jenny Brinkworth, The Southern Cross
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30-Sep-2009
The Justice Literary Event provides a forum where outstanding writers and leaders in the field present how themes of social justice, eco justice and human rights are featured in literature for children and young adults.
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