News
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09-Jul-2012
Four archbishops, 24 bishops, more than 80 priests and five deacons will participate in the Ordination of Toowoomba Bishop Rev Robert McGuckin tomorrow at St Patrick’s Cathedral, according to a statemednt released by the Toowoomba Diocese.
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09-Jul-2012
Following her quick divorce settlement, Katie Holmes has returned to the Catholic faith, five years after leaving it in favour of Tom Cruise’s Scientology, reports The Inquisitr.
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05-Jul-2012
Sister Annette Cunliffe rsc was elected new president of Catholic Religious Australia at the 36th National Assembly of the CRA last weekend in Adelaide, the organisation has announced in a media statement.
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12-Jul-2012
The Holy See’s spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi (pictured), has expressed "regret" over the "anomalous” detention of the new Auxiliary Bishop of Shanghai, Mgr Thaddeus Ma Daqin, reports the Vatican Insider.
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10-Jul-2012
Cardinal Raymond Burke believes that the “excessive” use of concelebration – the practice of priests saying Mass collectively – can result in their unique role in the sacred liturgy being obscured, reports the Catholic News sagency.
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10-Jul-2012
Chinese Father Joseph Yue Fusheng has been automatically excommunicated for allowing himself to be illicitly ordained a bishop despite repeated warnings from the Vatican, reports the Catholic News Service.
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08-Jul-2012
Catholics in Slovakia have demanded an explanation after their Church's youngest archbishop was dismissed by Pope Benedict XVI after just three years in office, reports The Tablet.
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08-Jul-2012
Shanghai's new bishop, ordained on Saturday with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, has declared he will break with the government-backed Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, reports Vatican Insider.
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08-Jul-2012
While it has no direct bearing on theology or revelation, the scientific discovery hailed by some as the “God particle” is an important achievement, a Vatican astronomer says, reports the Catholic News Agency.
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08-Jul-2012
The Vatican's most senior representative in Australia failed to co-operate with a government inquiry into child sexual abuse in Ireland and once invoked diplomatic immunity in a civil suit in which a victim was suing the church, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
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05-Jul-2012
The Holy See announced a loss of $18 million for 2011 – a sharp contrast to a surplus of $14 million the year before, the Catholic News Agency reports.
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04-Jul-2012
Negotiations between the Vatican and the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) have "come to a standstill", their superior-general said, reports The Tablet.
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11-Jul-2012
In less than a month the saga between Strathfield Council and the Australian Catholic University over student numbers could be settled, reports The Inner-West Courier.
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11-Jul-2012
The well-being of families, the impact of social and economic pressures and the stress of global financial crises on them will be the focus of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference statement for Social Justice Sunday, reports The Catholic Weekly.
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09-Jul-2012
Broadcaster Derryn Hinch yesterday revealed the identity of a priest known as Father F, hours before a fresh allegation of abuse against him was broadcast on television, according to an AAP report in The Daily Telegraph.
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05-Jul-2012
Two congregations of British nuns are among a group of investors who secured an undisclosed out-of-court settlement with international investment bank Morgan Stanley over the alleged mismanagement of their investments, reports The Tablet.
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11-Jul-2012
After more than a year without a leader, the Toowoomba Diocese again has a bishop after yesterday's ordination of Bishop McGuckin, Toowoomba's sixth bishop, reports the Toowoomba Chronicle.
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11-Jul-2012
Increasing vocations to the priesthood in Brisbane archdiocese have been welcomed - but one commentator says "there's a sting in this good news tale", reports The Catholic Leader.
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11-Jul-2012
An American priest who was removed from his parish for improvising some prayers during the celebration of Mass has also been suspended from all other priestly duties, reports the Independent Catholic News.
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10-Jul-2012
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna has barred clergy involved with the pro-reform Priests' Initiative (PI) from travelling to promote their cause, according to a leaked report of a meeting he had with senior priests, reports The Tablet.
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10-Jul-2012
State and territory governments should refer their charitable reporting functions to the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) to avoid the very real possibility of ballooning charity red tape, says Catholic Health Australia in a media statement.
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12-Jul-2012
The Bishop of Armidale, Michael Kennedy (pictured), said the name of the independent person who will investigate the allegations made by Four Corners is expected to be released next week, according to a media statement released yesterday.
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12-Jul-2012
Guidelines for the Victorian inquiry on the handling of clergy child abuse show the emphasis will be on lessons for the future rather than righting particular wrongs from the past or providing the vindication victims have said they need, the Age reports.
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11-Jul-2012
Two government-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Church organisations have announced an investigation into the recent ordination of a Vatican-approved bishop in Shanghai for violations of bodies’ regulations, reports Ucanews. A Church source in Shanghai says the five bishops who participated in the ordination ceremony have also been included in the investigation.
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10-Jul-2012
Nigerian Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama is concerned over the seemingly endless violence against Christians that claimed at least 58 lives this past weekend and hundreds of others in recent weeks, reports the Catholic News Agency.
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09-Jul-2012
Abuse victims have rejected prayers for them offered at a Mass in Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral on Sunday as hypocritical and an empty gesture, reports The Age.
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09-Jul-2012
Newly ordained Auxiliary Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin of Shanghai failed to show up for his first Mass on Sunday after telling the congregation at his ordination that he would step down from the local and national offices of the Catholic Patriotic Association, reports Ucanews.
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09-Jul-2012
The Archbishop of Philadelphia has announced the resolution of six cases involving priests who were placed on leave following a grand jury report on sex abuse allegations, removing two of them from ministry permanently, reports the Catholic News Agency.
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08-Jul-2012
A Catholic priest alleged to have abused altar boys in the early 1980s was sent to receive counselling from another cleric, who was also allegedly abusing young boys at the time, reports The Australian.
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05-Jul-2012
A priest in China has gone missing, apparently placed in custody due to his opposition to the ordination of a Chinese bishop, according to an AFP report in The Daily Telegraph.
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05-Jul-2012
Father Brian Lucas, the General Secretary of the Australian Bishops Conference, has rejected media reports that the panel he sat on did not respond to the allegations of abuse against a priest, as was reported on Four Corners this week.
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04-Jul-2012
The Archdiocese of Sydney has rejected allegations that its priests have failed to disclose the existence of crimes committed by a former Armidale priest, it said in a statement released yesterday. Meanwhile, the Bishop of Armidale said he intended to investigate the issues raised by Four Corners.
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12-Jul-2012
A group of over 50 which included rabbis, priests, imams and lay people have lived and talked together for three days at Pallotti College, a Catholic retreat in the Yarra Valley in Victoria, participating in the ninth annual winter conference of the Jewish Christian Muslim Association, reports J-Wire.
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05-Jul-2012
The church prematurely terminated an investigation last year into the alleged failure of a top Catholic education official to take action over the sexual assault of an 11-year-old boy in the 1970s by a lay teacher, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
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10-Jul-2012
A group of 18 Queensland school and medical students, and a bank manager, have begun a 12-day 1200-km relay from Hervey Bay to Townsville to raise money in the fight against poverty, says Caritas Australia in a media statement.
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08-Jul-2012
The Polish and Israeli embassies have jointly held a classical concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre to perpetuate the heroism and memory of Polish Catholic Irena Sendler, who helped save 2,500 Jewish babies during World Warr II, reports J Wire.
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Regulars
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12-Jul-2012
After 17 years at the South Australian Supreme Court bench, Chief Justice John Doyle AC has retired to make room for some change. The St Ignatius’ College old scholar reflects on his Catholic upbringing, good versus evil, faith and law, and his parting wish list for a more modern, open and tech-savvy court facility, reports The Southern Cross.
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11-Jul-2012
Environmental activism is a dangerous vocation in the Philippines, but a Catholic nun in Mindanao is defying those who want her to return to her convent and stop raising her voice in defense of creation, reports the Catholic News Service.
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10-Jul-2012
Lorrain Kirk, a 68-year-old grandmother and Adelaide parishioner, has just returned from two years in Uganda where she worked as a Palms Australia volunteer for a community organisation providing care and support to people living with HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Cancer, reports The Southern Cross.
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09-Jul-2012
John McCarthy QC, the new Ambassador to the Holy See, concedes he can’t compete with his predecessor Tim Fischer when it comes to knowledge about trains and the “range of hats that I possess”, reports The Catholic Weekly.
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08-Jul-2012
Vatican Insider interviews Professor Giovanni Maria Vian, director of Vatican daily broadsheet, L’Osservatore Romano, about the Vatileaks scandal and Benedict XVI’s commitment and actions to restore calm.
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05-Jul-2012
When Paolo Dall’Oglio, an Italian Jesuit working in Syria, invited friends of a murdered oppostion film-maker to pray at an ancient desert monastery, it was the last straw for the government and he was expelled from the country, reports The New York Times.
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12-Jul-2012
The Independent Catholic News has listed a range of sites that offer ethical gifts for anyone needing to buy presents which won't break your conscience.
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11-Jul-2012
A virtual tour of the Church of the Nativity, the birthplace of Jesus that was recently given heritage status by UNESCO, features all the major attractions: the churches, culture and history of Bethlehem.
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10-Jul-2012
The Catholic Women’s League of Australia website highlights the significant work being done by League members locally, nationally and internationally. It also includes a comprehensive bioethics section.
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09-Jul-2012
Caritas Australia has a moving photo-essay to celebrate the first anniversary of the independence of South Sudan. It also has details of the preventative effort by Caritas India to establish 12 medical camps over the next 15 days in Bangladesh as concerns rise over disease outbreaks and the lack of medical assistance available.
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08-Jul-2012
Hawkstone Hall is an early 18th-century Georgian mansion set in extensive parkland in Shropshire, England. It now serves the church as an international centre for spiritual renewal, offering sabbaticals, retreats and other programs.
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05-Jul-2012
Catholics Come Home is an American organisation that aims to present the truth about even very difficult subjects. It has launched a new advertising campaign to bring Catholics back to church. The ads can be seen on its website.
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12-Jul-2012
This French, subtitled comedy is based on the 2005 best-selling, autobiographical novel by the French philosopher, Eliette Abecassis. It tells the story of a young couple whose lifestyle is changed dramatically by the birth of their first child. The new arrival changes their world in ways they never expected.
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11-Jul-2012
This is the question raised at the end of the film as the people of a Lebanese village, part Muslim, part Catholic, attend the funeral of one of the young people who has been killed in sectarian crossfire. It is a film that combines the serious with a lot of humour (and some moments of romantic fantasy).
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10-Jul-2012
For many children in the 1950s, going to the pictures on Saturday afternoon was ruined by the interminable violence masquerading as humour of The Three Stooges. More than fifty years later, Moe, Larry and Curly have been reprised and return to the screen in a well-scripted, affectionate homage, which may force some critics to re-evaluate the trio’s worth.
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09-Jul-2012
This fourth Spiderman film could have gone wrong for so many reasons, but instead it stands as one of the best made to date. Its plot does not allow its special effects to dominate. Though terrific as its action shots are, it is the relationship drama of the interactions among its characters which gives the movie its coherence.
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08-Jul-2012
Concerned loved ones noticed a difference in me in recent weeks. We had all been watching The Voice (pictured), along with nearly four million other Australians. During other shows like this, I would normally be raging at the TV. The Voice didn’t make me do any of the usual.
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05-Jul-2012
This edition of Encounter looks at the challenges facing Christianity, and offers some lateral thinking about the solutions. American theologian James Smith says that marketing is the answer to Christianity’s decline.
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12-Jul-2012
What qualities do we look for in a good leader? How can we become better leaders ourselves? Thinking Faith invited Thomas Shufflebotham SJ to guide us in a prayerful reflection on just three of the innumerable qualities of Jesus that any good Christian leader should seek to emulate.
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11-Jul-2012
One year after South Sudan gained its independence, you can book yourself into a hotel in the capital, Juba, take a shower, get a meal and go to sleep, relatively safely. Mary Wachira, Africa Programs Coordinator for Caritas Australia, reflects on the steps this new nation has made in one year.
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10-Jul-2012
Pope Benedict has appointed a man very like himself to the key position in the Vatican he occupied for 25 years, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), reports The Tablet in an editorial. Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller is a prolific theologian and champion of conservative orthodoxy. Yet similarities with his close friend the Pope exist alongside significant differences.
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09-Jul-2012
Compulsory celibacy is the common denominator underlying the twin crises afflicting the church: reputation loss and a lack of priests, writes Adele Horin in The Sydney Morning Herald.
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08-Jul-2012
The place in which we live deeply affects consciousness and therefore the context in which we live shapes particular spiritual expression. Our sense of country also grounds our perception of what, and who, bears holiness for us. It is only in relatively recent times, however, that we have begun to talk about Australian spirituality, writes Rev David Ranson in Aurora.
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05-Jul-2012
Some religious believers are against all tattooing per se. This is because tattoos are condemned in the Bible at Leviticus 19:28. The Catholic view of tattoos is surely more nuanced, as no Catholic moralist argues, as far as I am aware, that tattoos are per se immoral, writes Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith in the Catholic Herald.
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