News
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27-Nov-2012
A man who burgled dozens of Catholic churches across suburban Melbourne in revenge for being abused by a priest as a child has been jailed for up to four years, reports The Age.
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25-Nov-2012
Pope Benedict XVI created six new cardinals from four different continents at the Vatican on Saturday, representing the Latin rite of the Catholic Church as well as two Eastern Catholic Churches, reports the Catholic News Service. They included Filipino archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle (pictured), an emerging figure in the Asian Episcopate and seen as a potential future Pope, reports Vatican Insider.
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22-Nov-2012
Tomorrow Benedict XVI will create six new cardinals. Even though there are only six of them, Rome’s ecclesiastical tailors started work immediately on the vestments for the Church’s newly elected “princes” when they were announced, reports Vatican Insider.
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29-Nov-2012
A former councillor who voted to name a Melbourne street after a priest later found to be a pedophile says the name must be changed and he is confident it will be, reports The Australian
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27-Nov-2012
The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has rejected criticism by local residents of its plans to develop 300 hectares of land on the western fringe of Newcastle in the Hunter region in NSW, reports the Newcastle Herald.
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27-Nov-2012
The Popemobile that ferried John Paul II around Ireland in 1979 is now up for hire in Dublin, for stag parties and hen nights, reports Vatican Insider.
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28-Nov-2012
The British government has opened an independent inquiry into allegations that an end-of-life protocol is operating as a euthanasia pathway, reports the Catholic News Service.
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27-Nov-2012
A prominent South Australian bishop has defended the Catholic Church in relation to child sexual abuse, saying individuals should not be mistaken for a whole organisation, reports the ABC.
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25-Nov-2012
Ireland’s Catholic bishops have said pregnant women must receive all treatment to save their lives, even if it results in the unintended death of an unborn child, the Catholic Herald reports. Their statement comes as the government opens a new investigation into the death of the Indian woman denied an abortion of her dying foetus, reports Reuters on Yahoo7.
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29-Nov-2012
The peak body representing 69,000 lawyers across the nation has raised alarm bells at the rushed nature of the the royal commission into child sex abuse, saying Julia Gillard should consider taking extra time to properly establish it, reports The Australian.
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28-Nov-2012
The Christian Churches in Egypt are deeply concerned at President Mohamed Morsi’s edict to take absolute powers and exempt his decisions from judicial scrutiny until a constitution is approved for the country. The decision has resulted in widespread protests, tensions and clashes, reports Vatican Insider.
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28-Nov-2012
The Church is set to make significant changes to the way it handles its response to the issue of sexual abuse, Sister Annette Cunliffe (pictured), the president of Catholic Religious Australia, told the ABC yesterday. Sr Cunliffe said the church hierarchy has been defensive and perhaps too close to the problem of abuse.
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27-Nov-2012
A South Korean church group has scrapped plans to display Christmas lights near the border with North Korea after residents voiced fears Pyongyang might shell the illuminations, according to an AFP report on Ucanews.
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26-Nov-2012
The head of Australia's Catholic bishops says alleged child sexual abuse offenders, including members of the clergy, should be barred from using statutory limitation restrictions to escape justice, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
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26-Nov-2012
A Victorian parliamentary inquiry has been urged to question Catholic Church employees about the whereabouts of documents that might show sexual abuse being covered up, according to an ABC report on Yahoo7.
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26-Nov-2012
“No child should be detained indefinitely in any onshore or offshore facility. No person should be detained indefinitely in an environment we know causes long-term harm”, the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council said in a statement released yesterday.
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26-Nov-2012
A high-ranking Vatican official from China says he doesn't expect much to change in church-state relations with the new Chinese government, reports the Cartholic News Service.
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26-Nov-2012
Nigeria's new cardinal has spoken of his dismay following a deadly attack on a church inside a major military establishment, saying that after the incident nowhere is safe, reports the Independent Catholic News.
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26-Nov-2012
Catholics in Scotland are victims of more religious hate crime than any other group in the country, according to a recently released report, says The Tablet.
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25-Nov-2012
Cardinal George Pell showed a ‘‘lack of empathy" to parents whose daughters were raped by a priest, the parents alleged at the Victorian inquiry into child abuse on Friday, reports The Age.
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25-Nov-2012
The Catholic Church in Victoria is calling for the implementation of its proposals for mandatory reporting by ministers of religion, and for a new protocol for reporting offenders to police that protects the privacy of victims who want anonymity, the Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, said in a media release yesterday.
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22-Nov-2012
The Catholic Church's treatment clinic for clergy with psychosexual problems harboured known paedophiles and shielded them from police scrutiny, reports The Age.
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29-Nov-2012
The New York Archdiocese has announced that 26 of its 159 regional, parish and archdiocesan elementary schools are at risk of closing next June, reports the Catholic News Service.
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29-Nov-2012
“The legislation introduced into Parliament yesterday by the Prime Minister charts an ambitious course for school reform”, said Mrs Therese Temby, Chair of the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC), it said in a statement.
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28-Nov-2012
Queensland Catholic teachers have accepted a wage deal, but their union says it is a "mean" one, reports the Courier Mail.
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28-Nov-2012
The executive director of Catholic Schools in the Sydney archdiocese has rejected calls for the NAPLAN program to be reviewed or reassessed despite a University of Melbourne report highly critical of its testing regime, reports The Catholic Weekly.
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25-Nov-2012
Prominent Catholic women's leader Therese Vassarotti has died in Canberra, aged 62, after losing a battle with cancer, reports the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.
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27-Nov-2012
Catholic clergy in the Philippines are strongly campaigning against political candidates who back a controversial “reproductive health” bill, helping stall its progress because politicians fear a backlash from Catholic voters, reports the Catholic News Agency.
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25-Nov-2012
Traditional Catholic and Anglican churches are changing the way they practise the communion ritual, using gluten-free and low-gluten altar bread to meet the dietary requirements of parishioners, and also taking health precautions to stop the spread of infection, reports news.com.au.
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28-Nov-2012
An upcoming conference hosted by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross will examine father figures and their portrayal in TV, including Lord Grantham from the British series Downton Abbey, reports the Catholic News Agency.
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Regulars
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29-Nov-2012
“God is the ultimate poet,” says Sally Read, a convert whose elegance and fearlessness have placed her high in the ranks of contemporary British poets. The Catholic Herald talks to her about how her poetry draws on her experiences as a psychiatric nurse in London.
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28-Nov-2012
On December 19, 107 students from Notre Dame University's Medical School will graduate as Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery. The Dean of Medicine says: "We are looking to produce excellence in doctors in terms of knowledge and skill. But beyond this, we also want to produce good medicine in relation to ethical practice and a real sense of vocation," reports the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.
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27-Nov-2012
Slum children in India will benefit from a "chain of miracles" experienced by a Brisbane Catholic school staff member. Guidance counsellor at a Brisbane school, Maria-Rosa Mallardo said her mother Renee, returned to India on November 2 with an extra $650 for the running of the New Horizons Day Care Centre in Calangute, Goa, India, thanks to those miracles, reports The Catholic Leader.
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26-Nov-2012
The recent relocation of the mortal remains of the Venerable Marie Madeleine de Bengy de Bonnault d’Houët, the foundress of the Society of the Sisters Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ from Kent to Paris, was an event that joyfully united FCJ communities all over the world, writes Ann Rennie in Catholic Religious Australia.
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25-Nov-2012
Bern Nicholls can identify many people and experiences that have influenced her as an educational consultant. But she recognises two “defining” influences: her animals and the Good Samaritan Sisters. That might seem an odd combination, but for Bern, they’re not dissimilar. “They represent the presence of soul and authenticity,” she says in a story published by The Good Oil.
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29-Nov-2012
The Brigidine Sisters have a Kildare Ministries that will eventually take responsibility for the educational services and community works they currently sponsor. The website has details of the Sisters' activities here and overseas.
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28-Nov-2012
For more than nine centuries, Trappist monks and nuns have witnessed to the gospel of Jesus Christ through a cloistered, communal life wholly ordered to contemplation. The Trappists have developed creative online resources. Here is a video interview with some monks about their life and values.
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27-Nov-2012
Jubilee Debt Campaign is demanding an end to the scandal of poor countries paying money to the rich world. It is calling for 100% cancellation of unpayable and unjust poor country debts. The website has full details of its stance, policies and activities, in particular on the current Euro debt crisis.
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26-Nov-2012
American theologian Fr Joseph Komonchak may be best known as co-editor of a multi-volume history of Vatican II. Now retired, he continues to reflect on the Council.
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25-Nov-2012
The MacKillop Family Services website has easy navigation, a new suite of drop-down menus and a broader range of events, news and other information.
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29-Nov-2012
Christos Tsiolkas has become one of Australia’s celebrated novelists. There was a 1999 film version of his novel, Loaded, called Head On. ABC television produced an eight-part series of his multi-faceted The Slap. This version of his novel, Dead Europe, a large book, runs for only 84 minutes, offers key elements by brief episodes, succinct character sketches and pieces of dialogue which reveal character and plot quickly and economically.
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28-Nov-2012
Two people in the audience, sitting side by side in the cinema, could well be having opposite experiences. One might be thoroughly amused by the bizarre plot and characters as well as the black humour. The next might be finding it quite distasteful, a lot of violence, random and planned, too silly to enjoy. A bit of checking on the film is necessary to decide which seat one wants to sit in.
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27-Nov-2012
Sex and the disabled. This is not a topic frequently seen in films, although there have been a number about some persons with mental disabilities and their relationships. This film highlights the issues for a 38-year-old man who virtually lives in an iron lung, his muscular system debilitated by his contracting polio at the age of six.
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25-Nov-2012
This film’s release coincides with the 50th. Anniversary of the James Bond series, which is the longest continuing film series in movie history. It is the 23rd. film in the series, and the third time for Daniel Craig as James Bond. The director of the movie, Sam Mendes, makes sure that action never occurs just for its own sake, however. He takes immense pains to make it dramatically relevant.
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29-Nov-2012
The late Cardinal Martini said in an interview published after his death that "the Church is 200 years behind. Why in the world does it not rouse itself? Are we afraid? Fear instead of courage?" To which one wants to reply, with all respect, "Two hundred years behind what?" A western culture that has lost its grasp on the deep truths of the human condition, writes George Weigel in Ethics and Public Policy Centre.
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28-Nov-2012
No Catholic can ever condone systematic cover-ups of clerical sexual misconduct, but there is a creeping view that if you think a royal commission is a fit-up you must be condoning that behaviour. Among the people I have discussed this with are my female cousins who live in the Hunter. They have not turned away from the church because that feeling of betrayal is engendered by their belief that the church itself is not the clergy or the hierarchy: we are the church, writes Angela Shanahan in The Australian.
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27-Nov-2012
The royal commission into child abuse will investigate the failure of all institutions. For the moment the Catholic Church is the main focus of interest. If the commission is to be not merely retributive, its shaking up and improvement of Australian society will also have to make Catholicism a better institution, writes Gerard Windsor in The Australian Financial Review.
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26-Nov-2012
There is great support within the community for the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. Many people have high hopes it will right the wrongs of the past and help us, as a nation, to eliminate future child sexual abuse. But how will the Royal Commission affect those who were abused, asks Sally Hunter in The Conversation.
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25-Nov-2012
During the Columban General Assembly in Los Angeles in September this year, we visited Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral and took a guided tour. The cathedral is modern and only ten years old. Our visit made a big impression on me, writes Gary Walker in the St Columbans Missionary Society newsletter.
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26-Nov-2012
Dr Mary Ann Glendon, Professor of Law at Harvard University, and former US Ambassador to the Holy See, will speak at a breakfast briefing by Catholic Social Services Victoria on Tuesday, December 4 in Melbourne. Her topic will be: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Foundation for a just society?
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