Perspectives
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22-Feb-2013
A radical transformation of the culture is unlikely. “We’re talking about people who have given their life to this institution, but at the same time the institution has become their life,” said one senior Vatican official. “Unlike parish priests, who have the personal rewards that come with everyday contact, their lot is not as human. It’s bureaucratic, but it becomes all-consuming.” The entire debacle, he said, “wasn’t a communications crisis. It was a management crisis, ” reports The Washington Post.
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22-Feb-2013
The Transfiguration - Luke 9:28-36
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.29And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.30Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.31They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
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22-Feb-2013
Can we forgive our government for what we believe were immoral actions? Can we forgive our churches for the ways they've failed to be the trustworthy instruments of God? And perhaps even more difficult is the question of whether we ourselves are willing to be forgiven or even to acknowledge that we need to receive forgiveness, writes Bill Tammeus in NCR Online.
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22-Feb-2013
The Roman Curia has always had a distinctly Italian composition. But under the pontificate of Benedict XVI, several non-Italians have assumed key posts in the central government of the Roman Catholic Church. One of those people is Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, former Archbishop of Quebec and now the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
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22-Feb-2013
On a first level of analysis, Benedict’s shocking announcement would seem to contradict the image of the papacy as left by his predecessor. John Paul II kept heading the global Catholic Church despite old age and the major illnesses that characterised the last few years of his pontificate. This begs the question as to whether the two popes held different views of the institution they represented, writes Dr Sara Silvestri, a specialist in religion and politics, on the Cambridge University website.
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22-Feb-2013
The head of Catholic Social Services Australia is appointed to a government advisory board on not-for-profits, a Brisbane seminary is full to capacity and the Bishop of Toowoomba, Robert McGuckin (pictured) says he is not surprised by the Pope's resignation.
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22-Feb-2013
An American priest says it is ok to eat alligator on Lenten Friday, a Catholic priest is killed in Zanzibar, a Spanish laywoman could be made saint, China says the new pope should break with Taiwan and Vatican officials arrive in Jordan as the refugee crisis worsens.
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22-Feb-2013
Thirty years in a labour camp did nothing to diminish the faith of China’s oldest bishop, who has died at the age of 100. In the same week, Australia’s oldest bishop, Bp Douglas Warren, also died.
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22-Feb-2013
From the North of Nigeria, where Christians find themselves attacked by fundamentalist Muslims, across north Africa and into the Holy Land, where Palestinian Christians are caught between Islamic and Jewish claims,Rupert Shortt asks whether a battle of faiths is being waged. Catherine Pepinster, editor of The Tablet, filed this review of his latest book for The Independent.
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22-Feb-2013
Veteran photographer John Casamento was 12 years old when he first picked up a camera. His father had bought the ‘box-Brownie-type’ for a trip back home to Italy to see his relatives. When his father returned, John began borrowing the camera. His older brother, Peter, had set up a makeshift darkroom in their Northcote family home where they would process films—neither of the boys wanted to wait a week for the photos to come back from the chemist, reports Kairos on the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne website.
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