Perspectives
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21-Sep-2012
The fables behind any number of familiar comic book figures - from Spiderman and the Flash to Batman and the X-Men - bear strong similarities, not only to Judeo-Christian narratives but to those of other faiths as well. They are often, moreover, deep, complex fictions calculated to convey a multitude of messages to their readers. Whatever else can be said about them, these messages cannot be considered inconsequential, reports the Catholic News Service.
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21-Sep-2012
Mark 9:30-37
He took a little child and put it among them, and taking it in his arms, he said to them: “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.
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21-Sep-2012
It’s good to pause, reflect and celebrate the wisdom and experience older people bring to family, community, Church and society, writes Clare Condon SGS, in The Good Oil.
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21-Sep-2012
“Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a despot whose shooting and shelling of his own people cannot be defended,” wrote the Catholic Register in a recent editorial, “yet he may be the last line of defence for Syria’s Catholics.” This program analyses the situation of the Christians in Syria and other countries affected by the Arab Spring.
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21-Sep-2012
The Rwandan Jesuit moral theologian Elisee Rutagambwa began his reflections at a recent gathering of African theologians on the challenges of reconciliation in Africa with a simple narrative of the recent discovery of his uncle’s and cousin’s bodies, found in a freshly uncovered mass grave. They had been killed during the 1994 genocide but their remains had lain undiscovered with countless others, until now, reports The Tablet.
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21-Sep-2012
The Catholic Church in Victoria has lodged the Church’s submission, titled Facing the Truth, to the Victorian abuse inquiry. Archbishop Denis Hart (pictured) says the Church "will co-operate fully with the Inquiry". In other news, a new book is released on St Mary MacKillop and a much-loved Melbourne priest has a park named after him.
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21-Sep-2012
The Pope appoints 35 clergy to the synod, claims that a Chinese church fire was the work of arsonists, the Archbishop of Canterbury is invited to the Vatican II celebrations, and the official song for WYD 2013 in Rio is released.
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21-Sep-2012
One of the most charismatic figures in the contemporary Church was Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini. But he was also a divisive figure, who managed to stir the pot after his death, saying in his final, post mortem interview that the church was '200 years out of date'. Peter Stanford filed this obituary for The Guardian on the life and times of a man many thought was Papabile.
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21-Sep-2012
Religions that claim universally relevant and abidingly truthful revelations have a clear interest in showing that their history is one of continuity. But all human language does adjust to historical change, even when trying to stay the same. So how do you resolve the question of what is genuinely an "unfolding" of the original vision and what is an arbitrary elaboration that distorts that vision? Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, examines these questions in a review for The Guardian.
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21-Sep-2012
Sr Josapha Lergessner’s heart belongs to India, where she spent more than 40 years as a Holy Spirit Missionary Sister. “It was my life, and I still miss it terribly,” says Sr Josapha, who celebrated her 80th birthday earlier this year, reports The Catholic Weekly.
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