News
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25-Jun-2007
Randwick racecourse trainers will meet Australian Jockey Club officials
this week about concerns over the impact on their 720 horses of
preparations for the World Youth Day vigil and Mass with Pope Benedict
next year.
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25-Jun-2007
Robert Kubica, whose car was totally destroyed in a 230km per hour
crash at the Canadian Grand Prix, may have enjoyed a "miraculous"
escape owing to the intervention of John Paul II whose name emblazons
the Formula 1 driver's helmet, Polish papers claim.
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25-Jun-2007
In a "Motu Proprio" published yesterday, Pope Benedict has overturned
changes to the procedure for papal elections introduced by the late
John Paul II and restored the traditional method of election that
always requires a two-thirds majority.
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25-Jun-2007
Tony Blair told Pope Benedict that he wants to become a Catholic,
Vatican sources say, but the pontiff did not hesitate to criticise the
outgoing British PM's policies on Iraq and other issues in what was
described as a "frank exchange of views".
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25-Jun-2007
Former Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian will play his gospel
"anthem" for World Youth Day 2008 for the first time in public as
Sydney welcomes the WYD cross and icon at Darling Harbour next Sunday.
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25-Jun-2007
Horse trainers at Sydney's Randwick racecourse claim that disruption
caused by World Youth Day preparations could "send some people broke if
compensation is not worked out in a fair and reasonable manner".
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25-Jun-2007
Despite opposition from the Church and a prayer campaign by Christian
MPs, the NSW Upper House yesterday voted to pass a law lifting the ban
on stem cell research in the state.
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25-Jun-2007
British bishops say that human-animal hybrid embryos or "chimeras"
conceived in the laboratory should be regarded as humans having a right
to life while Pope Benedict yesterday backed adult stem cell research
as an alternative to embryo tests.
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25-Jun-2007
The Catholic Education Offices from the Sydney and Broken Bay dioceses
were among the winners of prestigious business excellence awards for
2007.
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25-Jun-2007
Announcing that the Federal Government will provide funds to almost
1,400 schools to employ chaplains, Prime Minister John Howard said that
a further $25 million will be allocated to the scheme.
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25-Jun-2007
Unreasonable failure to treat pain is poor medicine, unethical and also
an "abrogation of a fundamental right", according to Dr Frank Brennan
of Sydney's Calvary Hospital in Kogarah.
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25-Jun-2007
A NSW Port Macquarie parish aged care centre has launched a project to
assist a HIV/AIDS program run by Port Moresby diocese as Religious
leaders meet in Perth today to explore ways they can be better
"neighbours" to their Pacific counterparts.
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25-Jun-2007
Addressing a meeting of Philippines Catholic bishops, World Health
Organisation official Dr Shigeru Omi said that priests and ministers
could play an effective role in reducing infant mortality by promoting
breastfeeding among their congregations.
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25-Jun-2007
Stating that more detail is needed on how hospital waiting lists would
be reduced under sweeping health care reforms proposed by the
Opposition, Catholic Health Australia head Francis Sullivan says that
Labor's new policy is a "good start but surely not the whole story".
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News - National
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25-Jun-2007
There are now estimated to be 100 permanent deacons in Australia
working in a huge range of ministries, the newly appointed national
deacon coordinator, Rev Paul Simmons says.
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25-Jun-2007
The Australian Catholic population is up again according to 2006 Census
figures with the total reaching 5.1 million but the proportion of
Catholics has declined slightly, says the bishops' Pastoral Projects
Office.
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25-Jun-2007
Shooting hero, Brendan Keilar, who was killed while attempting to
rescue a woman from her attacker in central Melbourne last week, made
the "ultimate sacrifice", mourners heard at the slain lawyer's funeral
on Friday.
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News - International
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25-Jun-2007
Up to 750 unemployed tea workers in India's West Bengal have died of
malnutrition and other causes following mass closures since 2003 of tea
estates employing mostly Catholic tribal people.
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25-Jun-2007
US Chaldean Catholic Bishop Ibrahim B Ibrahim has called for a
withdrawal of troops from Iraq saying that local factions are killing
each other not because they are Sunni or Shiite but because they are
with or against the Americans.
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25-Jun-2007
About twelve current Polish bishops had ties to Poland's communist era
secret police, a special bishops commission has concluded, but file
documents failed to show the scope or intensity of any cooperation by
the bishops with security services.
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25-Jun-2007
British teenager Lydia Playfoot has sued her school for violating her
religious freedom after school officials banned a New Testament
inscribed ring she wore as a sign of her commitment to chastity before
marriage.
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25-Jun-2007
In a move that raises the profile of the Pontifical Council for
Interreligious Dialogue, Pope Benedict has named former Vatican
diplomat French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran as president of the revived
institution.
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25-Jun-2007
The life of an Indian nun who was stabbed to death by a contract killer
for her work with landless labourers inspired a "paradigm shift" in her
Franciscan Clarist congregation as well as a surge of vocations.
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25-Jun-2007
Vatican Cardinal Ivan Dias has written to 610 enclosed female
monasteries around the world calling for prayers that Pope Benedict's
soon to be released letter to Chinese Catholics will be well received
and bear fruit.
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Religion
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25-Jun-2007
Pope Benedict is to declare a Year of St Paul in honour of the 2000th anniversary of the apostle's birth, Rome sources say.
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25-Jun-2007
Announcing a Pauline Year to commemorate the 2000th anniversary of the
birth of the Apostle of the Gentiles, Pope Benedict emphasised the
ecumenical dimensions of the event, saying that St Paul "spent himself
for the unity and harmony of all Christians".
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Regulars
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25-Jun-2007
Questioning whether Government authorities understand the background of
Aboriginal communities, Darwin's Bishop Ted Collins has warned against
adopting a "bullyboy" approach and called for consultation with
Indigenous people.
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25-Jun-2007
Social enterprise is a hot topic in the non-profit sector - among
cooperatives, social agencies and charities. Even among those who claim
to be social enterprises, however, there's no agreement on a
definition. Social entrepreneur Sonia Pouyat of kidsLINK tries to keep
it simple. "It's an organisation that adopts an earned-income strategy
as a way of achieving its mission," she said. The ultimate bottom line
is better social outcomes. "You're driven by mission first. If you're
not anchored in mission there's no point in being a social enterprise"
- Michael Swan
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25-Jun-2007
For scientists who are people of faith, like Kenneth Miller, a
biologist at Brown University who is a Roman Catholic, asking about the
science of the soul is pointless, in a way, because it is not a subject
science can address. Miller said he spoke often at college campuses and
elsewhere and was regularly asked, "'What do you say as a scientist
about the soul?" His answer, he said, is always the same: "As a
scientist, I have nothing to say about the soul. It's not a scientific
idea" - Cornelia Dean
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25-Jun-2007
According to the latest census, the biggest church remains the Roman
Catholic, up 7 per cent over the decade to 5.13 million, followed by
the Anglicans, down 4.7 per cent to 3.72 million. There were slightly
more Anglicans than agnostics and atheists (3.7 million), with another
2.2 million not stating whether they had any religion or none. The
results did not surprise Gary Bouma, professor of sociology of religion
at Monash University. Anglicans and no-religion now meet at 18.7 per
cent, but he had expected them to cross over earlier, he said - Dewi Cooke and Barney Zwartz
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25-Jun-2007
The first Sunday of July has been mandated by the Australian bishops as
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday. The first thing
that must be said is that special intentions such as this are not
liturgical events. The possibilities for celebrating this occasion at
Mass are somewhat limited. Parishes need therefore to look for other
ways to raise awareness of indigenous people and issues and to
encourage people to pray about them, such as having an indigenous guest
speaker during NAIDOC Week - Elizabeth Harrington
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25-Jun-2007
Many in the West and in Muslim-majority states believe a functioning
democracy requires a strict separation between state and religion - the
latter regarded as a purely private matter. Functioning democracies,
however, have introduced a range of institutional relationships between
religion and state. The United States and France, for example, have
strongly separated the two. In most long-standing European democracies,
however, there is a complex and intertwined rapport between state and
religion, with high degrees of legislation related to religion - Mirjam Kunkler and Michael Meyer-Resende
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25-Jun-2007
Imagine an attack on a civilian population aimed at causing maximum
hurt, shock, disruption and terror. 9/11? Resistance in Iraq? No, the
Allied bombing of Hamburg in late July of 1943. Among the Dead Cities
is a moral evaluation of the Allies' area bombing campaign and an
attempt to purify the historical memory of the victors. At a time when
torture is seriously being contemplated in the War on Terror, this book
has provided us with an ABC of ethics that reminds us that not all is
fair in love and war - Dr Richard Umbers
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25-Jun-2007
Now that the politicians have flown out of Canberra and back home for
the winter, it is time to take a deep breath and ask what can be
achieved by John Howard's announcement of a Commonwealth takeover of
Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. There can be no
quarrel with the desire to act urgently to assist children in need.
While there can be no doubting John Howard's commitment to helping
these children, we know that he also has an eye on his re-election - Fr Frank Brennan
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25-Jun-2007
I've never understood why Christians do not take the commandment to
"love your enemies" seriously. We Catholics believe in
transubstantiation, and never question that the bread and wine become
the body and blood of Christ. We eagerly obey the command, "Do this in
memory of me." But love our enemies? When I raise this commandment, the
general response I get is: "Are you nuts?" When will we believe in the
transformation of enemies into friends? - Fr John Dear
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