News - National
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09-Feb-2012
Parliament will see a total of four gay marriage bills up for consideration on Monday, said a news.com.au report in The Courier Mail.
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09-Feb-2012
Proposed federal anti-discrimination laws are a threat to fundamental freedoms and could trigger a huge increase in complaints of bias, driving up costs for business and government, NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith has warned, reports The Australian.
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08-Feb-2012
The Chair of the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) has welcomed the Coalition's announcement of its ten principles for funding school students, the organisation said in a statement.
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07-Feb-2012
Labor and Coalition MPs have been given a few months for a conscience vote on same-sex marriage, which is now unlikely until the findings of a Senate committee inquiry are released mid-year, reports The Australian.
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06-Feb-2012
Cardinal George Pell was among Australian politicians and church leaders who offered their praise for Queen Elizabeth II yesterday, marking the 60th anniversary of her ascension to the British throne, reports The Australian.
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05-Feb-2012
The executive director of the Catholic Education Commission of NSW, Brian Croke, said it was unfair to compare school fee increases with inflation, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
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08-Feb-2012
Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Victoria and others will form a coalition today to campaign for a royal commission on the abuse and the Church's response, reports The Age.
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07-Feb-2012
On the third anniversary of the Victorian bushfires, the community of Callignee in Gippsland has unveiled a memorial wall, supported by Centacare, in tribute to the survivors and the future, reports the ABC.
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05-Feb-2012
Parents in Victoria are increasing pressure on the Education Department to end religious education in state schools amid claims it is making children isolated and fearful, reports The Herald Sun.
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05-Feb-2012
Bishop Les Tomlinson has been appointed as the seventh Bishop of Sandhurst, The Bendigo Advertiser and various news media reports said.
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09-Feb-2012
A retired priest has been acquitted of charges that he molested a 12-year-old boy in the late 1980s in a suburb of Newcastle in NSW, reports The Newcastle Herald.
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08-Feb-2012
The former Bishop of Armidale Luc Matthys will officiate at the ordination of his successor at St Mary and St Joseph's Cathedral in Armidale today, reports The Armidale Express.
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06-Feb-2012
Bishop Bill Wright has decided to take up residency at the Bishop's House in Free Church Street, Maitland, re-establishing the city's long-standing tradition in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese, reports The Maitland Mercury.
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06-Feb-2012
Archaeologists from Flinders University will descend on Penola again next week to look for the school Saint Mary of the Cross founded in the South Australian town, reports news.com.au.
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07-Feb-2012
The Dominc College in Hobart has suspended students on the first day of term for dyeing their hair, sending them home with the instruction to reflect and to fix their hair, which included rat's tails and colour, said a report from The Mercury in The Daily Telegraph.
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News - International
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08-Feb-2012
The Vatican's top sex abuse investigator has called for greater accountability under church law of bishops who shield or fail to discipline pedophile priests, said a Religion News Service report on the Catholic News Service.
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08-Feb-2012
The Church in the US has strongly criticised President Barack Obama's healthcare reform, under which employers must offer insurance that includes access to contraception.
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07-Feb-2012
Pope Benedict has called upon bishops to respond in a "Christ-like" manner to clerical abuse as part of a "profound renewal" of the Church, reports the Catholic News Agency.
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07-Feb-2012
Pope Benedict has called on the faithful to be concerned for one another and "not to remain isolated and indifferent" to the fate of others, in his Lenten message, reports the Catholic News Service.
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06-Feb-2012
Bishops and religious from around the world have gathered at the Vatican for an unprecedented anti-abuse summit intended to find ways to stamp out pedophilia, reports news.com.au.
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05-Feb-2012
The Vatican's top anti-abuse prosecutor has warned that the Church in Asia is falling behind in the fight against paedophilia because of cultural differences over what constitutes child abuse, said an AFP report in The Sydney Morning Herald.
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05-Feb-2012
In an unusually public rebuke of a high-ranking colleague, Vatican officials have dismissed the accusations of "corruption and abuse of power" made in letters by an archbishop who is now apostolic nuncio to the US, reports the Catholic News Service.
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05-Feb-2012
Pope Benedict would visit Ireland "soon rather than later" and was "actively considering" an invitation from the Irish Catholic Church, the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said, reports The Irish Times.
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09-Feb-2012
One of US President Barack Obama's top advisers has signalled that the White House may be willing to compromise on its controversial decision to require the Church to offer employees access to contraception, reports The New York Daily News.
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09-Feb-2012
An appeals court in the US will decide whether what is said in confession can be used against a person in a court of law, said a Detroit Free Press report on USA Today.
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08-Feb-2012
Students at a public university in Pennsylvania in the US can buy the "morning after" pill from a campus vending machine - but the school's minister is working to get the dispenser off school grounds, said a report from News Core and FOX News on AdelaideNow.
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09-Feb-2012
The archbishops of Canterbury and York suffered a humiliating defeat yesterday when the Church of England's governing body rejected moves to create male "co-bishops" to work alongside female bishops, said a report from The Times in The Australian.
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07-Feb-2012
If the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime falls then thousands of Christians in the country may be killed, a Catholic MP in the UK has said, reports The Catholic Herald.
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06-Feb-2012
Two priests have been killed in Mexico and Guatemala, highlighting the a strong climate of violence against Christians in those countries, said a report on the Vatican Insider.
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06-Feb-2012
Hong Kong's Cardinal-elect John Tong Hon has asked Catholics to pray for the intercession of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta for the restart of China-Vatican dialogue during a Mass yesterday to welcome her relic to the island, reports ucanews.com.
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Regulars
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09-Feb-2012
Carlo Ravasio, “Runner for Christ”, has already crossed half of Europe covering more than 6 thousand kilometers, relying on the strength of his legs and his faith alone. “It will be the last trip I make to thank God for my extraordinary life," he tells Vatican Insider.
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08-Feb-2012
Last year was the 25th anniversary of the passing of one of the most outspoken and well-known activists within the Catholic Church during the turbulent 1960s. Corita Kent, once known as Sister Mary Corita, never backed down from her desire to call people to the simplicity of the Gospel through revolutionary art, despite enormous pressure from within and without the church, reports America magaziine.
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07-Feb-2012
In January 1962, the papers wrote that Fidel Castro had been excommunicated by the Holy See and since then everyone has the attributed the decision to John XXIII, who knew nothing about it. In the lead-up to the Pope's visit to Cuba, Vatican Insider reports on a mysterious chapter of history.
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06-Feb-2012
When Marie Collins (pictured) first found the strength to tell an archbishop that a hospital chaplain had sexually abused her at the age of 13 years, she was racked with trepidation. This week, at the invitation of the Vatican, she will stand up in Rome and address some of the world’s most senior bishops, reports The Catholic Herald.
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05-Feb-2012
The Promoter of Justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Mgr Charles Scicluna (pictured with Fr Lombardi) talks to Vatican Insider about the objectives of the conference against paedophilia which opens in Rome today.
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09-Feb-2012
The Diocese of Parramatta is about to embark on a two-year diocesan-wide consultation process to plan for its future. The process will be launched this weekend in parishes. A website has been developed that has information about the process and the facility for people to have their say online.
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08-Feb-2012
Religion News Blog (RNB) provides busy religion professionals, academics, reporters and others with a daily round-up of religion news. It has a particular focus on issues dealing with ‘cults,’ ‘sects,’ ‘abusive churches,’ and related issues - including religious persecution and human rights.
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07-Feb-2012
This website has all the details of the new iphone application that makes confession easier. With password protected profiles and a step-by-step guide to the Sacrament, the site invites Catholics to prepare for the Rite of Penance.
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06-Feb-2012
Towards Healing and Renewal is being offered by the Gregorian University in Rome and consists of the current summit by the launch of a multi-institution e-learning centre which will run for the next three years – the Centre for the Protection of Children based in Munich, Germany.
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05-Feb-2012
Catholics in Coalition for Justice and Peace is a coalition of individuals and groups, working for the emergence of just social structures in Australia and overseas. The website carries details of campaigns, letters and other activities.
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09-Feb-2012
This is a home-grown Australian comedy about 27-year old Ben (Josh Lawson), who comes to the realisation that life for him is very empty. The insight comes to him when he is invited back to a reunion at his old high school to speak with his ex-class mates, who are seen as much more successful than he is.
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07-Feb-2012
This film captured Best Actor Award, for Michael Fassbender, at the 2011 Venice Film Festival. It is the story of a man addicted compulsively to sex. It is entirely deserving of its awards, but it is also a movie no child or young person should see.
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06-Feb-2012
The tongue-twisting alliterative title is an indicator of the identity problems that Martha is having. Many commentators have brought up Charles Manson and his family as a reference but the writer-director says he was more interested in the story of someone who had escaped from an enclosed group .
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05-Feb-2012
This is not a film for the fastidious. It is for those who like a yarn that is funny but not afraid to be crude as well.
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08-Feb-2012
Charles Dickens was not a 'religious writer' but his novels expressed his Christian beliefs, which he hoped would result in the upliftment of society. Grace Moore (pictured), a specialist in Dickens and the Victorian Era, reveals the complexity of Dickens' religion as portrayed in his characters and novels.
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09-Feb-2012
It is time for the Obama administration to admit it overstepped a boundary when it issued a mandate requiring coverage for contraceptives under its health care reform measures with only a narrow exception granted for religious institutions, writes NCR in an editorial.
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08-Feb-2012
There are many good arguments against quickly convening a Third Vatican Council - a notion beloved of Catholics who occupy the portside cabins on the Barque of Peter, writes George Weigel in ABC Religion and Ethics Online.
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07-Feb-2012
The problem of evil has always been with us. The monstrous evil that people do are a problem because the challenge the belief that life has a higher meaning. They are particularly corrosive of belief in a loving God. But the problem of goodness is rarely spoken of, writes Andrew Hamilton in Eureka Street.
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06-Feb-2012
The latest accusations of corruption within the Vatican demonstrate the adage that Christians must own up to, and not suppress or be surprised by, the legacy of sin, wrtites Father Michael Kelly SJ in Ucanews.
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05-Feb-2012
For many of us, aged care is a topic we think we can place in the "not now" basket. We're not in need of care now, and won't be for some time yet. Our parents might not yet need it or might have passed away. "It'll be there for us when the time comes," we reason, write Rod Young, Martin Laverty (pictured) and Rob Hankins in The Australian.
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