News
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18-Jun-2007
The ex-wife of former US congressman, Joseph P Kennedy, son of the late
Robert F Kennedy, has welcomed the decision of the Vatican Rota appeals
tribunal to overturn the annulment of the couple's marriage saying that
they had had a strong union that unravelled.
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18-Jun-2007
Like the bible, the modern world is full of people on the move, says
Vatican Cardinal Renato Martino, explaining a set of "Ten Commandments"
for drivers issued by the Holy See office for migrants and itinerant
peoples.
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18-Jun-2007
Nations should protect women from the violence and "modern slavery" of
prostitution and punish the men who are their clients, the Vatican says
in a document on pastoral care for "street women" released yesterday.
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18-Jun-2007
An international convention on arms limitation should include a total
ban on cluster bombs, Vatican representative Archbishop Silvano Tommasi
has told a United Nations arms conference.
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18-Jun-2007
Radical changes to family assistance payment proposed by Federal Family
and Community Services Minister Mal Brough will result in the
"effective stigmatisation of welfare recipients", Catholic Social
Services Australia chief, Frank Quinlan says.
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18-Jun-2007
An employee of a Caritas joint project for Darfur refugees has been
killed as Pope Benedict reaffirms that giving "hospitality to refugees
is an obligatory gesture of human solidarity".
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18-Jun-2007
A leading Victorian barrister, Allan Myers, has donated $1 million for
the establishment of a national chair of law at ACU National's new
Institute of Legal Studies.
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News - National
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18-Jun-2007
A psychologist formerly employed by the Australasian St John of God brothers has called for the order to be closed down, accusing it of being in a state of denial over abuse allegations.
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18-Jun-2007
Commenting on reports that unemployed people are having their benefits
withheld for weeks because of Centrelink staff shortages, Catholic
Social Services chief Frank Quinlan says that the government should
dump its breaching policy if it cannot be implemented fairly without
delays.
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18-Jun-2007
Staff at Whitefriars College in Melbourne's east are reported to be
shocked over the arrests of four former students who have been charged
with drug trafficking allegedly as part of a Tony Mokbel-directed gang.
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18-Jun-2007
Msgr Peter Elliott and Salesian Fr Timothy Costelloe were ordained on
Friday at St Patrick's Cathedral as bishops for Melbourne's southern
and northern regions.
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18-Jun-2007
Formerly chief executive of the old South Melbourne Football Club, now
the AFL's Sydney Swans, Noel Brady, today has 18 teams of a different
kind to manage in his role as a parish priest in Melbourne's West.
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18-Jun-2007
Former Catholic high school student turned party girl, Kara Douglas, is
still in critical condition having lost a kidney in Monday's multiple
shooting in Melbourne.
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18-Jun-2007
As the stem cell cloning bill moves to the NSW upper house, Liberal MP
David Clarke defended Cardinal George Pell's intervention in the
debate, telling Catholic MPs who supported the legislation that they do
not know better than the bishops and Pope.
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18-Jun-2007
Following disquiet over spending priorities in the Sydney archdiocese,
Cardinal George Pell has announced that priests will receive an 8.7 per
cent pay increase - their first raise in three years.
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18-Jun-2007
Parramatta diocesan Executive Director of Schools Greg Whitby has been named by the Bulletin magazine as Australia's smartest and most innovative person working in education today.
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18-Jun-2007
Sydney Cardinal George Pell and NSW Green MP Lee Rhiannon continued to
trade blows yesterday as James Haire from the Australian Centre for
Christianity and Culture defended the right of religions to involve
themselves in politics.
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18-Jun-2007
Marrickville Council in Sydney's inner west has ratified a controversial plan to form a sister city relationship with the biblical birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem, but Jewish groups are concerned over the city's alleged Hamas links.
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18-Jun-2007
Reacting to a Greens-initiated investigation by the NSW parliamentary
privileges committee into his comments on stem cell cloning, Sydney
Cardinal George Pell has described the inquiry as a "clumsy attempt" to
curb free speech with a "whiff of stalinism".
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News - International
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18-Jun-2007
On a pilgrimage to St Francis of Assisi's birthplace, Pope Benedict has
issued a "pressing appeal" for an end to armed conflicts in the Middle
East, while in the NT Supreme Court four Pine Gap anti-war protesters
have avoided jail after being found guilty under security laws.
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18-Jun-2007
With a "clear mandate" for change, Zimbabwe-born Briton Lesley Anne
Knight is taking over the reins as newly elected Secretary General of
Catholic relief and development federation, Caritas Internationalis.
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18-Jun-2007
Claiming inspiration from Sr Helen Prejean's book on capital punishment, Dead Man Walking,
a Texas death row prisoner has organised a joke contest in which he
will read the winning entry as his last words before his execution in
just over a week.
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18-Jun-2007
After a court found it was not liable in a sexual abuse case, the
Oblates of Mary Immaculate order in Canada's British Columbia province
are suing the law firm who successfully defended them - and billed them
for over $8 million.
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18-Jun-2007
US presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton has removed photos of
Mother Teresa from her campaign material following a request from
Missionaries of Charity sisters and criticism from Catholic groups.
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18-Jun-2007
A veto of congressional stem cell legislation by President George W
Bush "enhances not diminishes" the chances of a life-saving scientific
breakthrough, according to US bishops spokesman, Cardinal Justin
Rigali.
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18-Jun-2007
In the wake of a "notification" concerning works by liberation
theologian Fr Jon Sobrino, over 100 German theologians have backed a
call for an "intelligent restructuring" of the Holy See Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith.
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18-Jun-2007
Saying the church "needs priests, not politicians" and "evangelists,
not economists", Holy See nuncio to Poland Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk
has called on the clergy to stop preaching politicised homilies and not
to turn liturgies into "public rallies".
» more
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18-Jun-2007
A school and convent in a Gaza Catholic compound were ransacked before
being torched as fears rise among Christians over their future in the
Hamas-ruled territory.
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18-Jun-2007
An Islamic militant leader has warned that Gaza's Christians must
expect that Hamas rule means "real changes" and to be "ready for
Islamic rule if they want to live in peace".
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18-Jun-2007
Citing a DNA analysis, Sri Lankan authorities have refuted claims that
a corpse discovered allegedly in an army bag was that of disappeared
priest Fr Jim Brown.
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Regulars
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20-Jun-2007
If there was a redeeming aspect to the whole Abu Ghraib affair, it was in the thoroughness and the passion of the Army's initial investigation, led by Major General Antonio Taguba. The General's investigation found "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees". Taguba is a slight man with a friendly demeanour. His parents were devout Catholics, and their children were taught respect and,Taguba recalls, "above all, integrity in how you lived your life and practiced your religion" » more
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18-Jun-2007
When a Vatican-led team of art restorers started scrubbing what was
underneath centuries of soot and grime caked on the ceiling and walls
of a major shrine in Rome, they made a spectacular discovery. A whole
pictorial series of brilliantly coloured, 16th-century frescoes by
influential Flemish landscape artist Paul Bril and others had been
hidden under the dirt. The Sanctuary of the Scala Santa (Holy Stairs)
and its care are entrusted to the Passionists, who led the campaign to
win recognition and grants for the restoration of the frescoes - Carol Glatz
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18-Jun-2007
It's not every day you see a priest tinkering his way around an
aeroplane, but that has been a regular sight for the last couple of
years at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Thurgoona in southern
NSW. A light aircraft has been built by Fr John Fowles who hopes to
soon fly it around Australia to raise money for those less fortunate in
East Timor. "The 'Fly Away to Heaven' project is an initiative that is
inspired by the idea of giving back", the priest says - Allison Jess
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18-Jun-2007
Patricia McKeever does not like to be photographed. She does not like
people to know where she lives and prefers to communicate with the
outside world by letter or email. But, from the security of her home,
the 58-year-old former secondary school teacher has co-ordinated a
relentless campaign in Scotland to name and shame gay priests. But what
Ms McKeever calls her "great work of charity" has not met with
universal approval. The Archdiocese of Glasgow has labelled her group
as "self-appointed heresy hunters" and accused her of harassment - David Lister
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18-Jun-2007
She once tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II and, some years later,
was ordained as Mother Bernadette Marie by a breakaway Catholic sect.
Opprobrium stuck to Sinead O'Connor like a nylon chasuble. But next
month, the singer will have the chattering classes spluttering into
their tea again with an appearance on the BBC's Songs of Praise.
O'Connor lives in Monkstown, an unprepossessing Dublin suburb. The
gaudy statue of Our Lady on the doorstep of the imposing Georgian house
gives a clue to the rebel within - Paula McGinley
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18-Jun-2007
The Cold War rhetoric heard in the run-up to the recent G8 summit, as
President Vladimir Putin tried to block the planned deployment of US
missile defences in Poland and the Czech Republic, may have been
intended primarily for domestic Russian consumption. But many East
Europeans will see it as confirming a new Russian self-assertiveness
and drift to authoritarianism, which is finding echoes at all levels,
from the country's trade organisations to its predominant Orthodox
Church, and which alarms its neighbours - Jonathan Luxmoore
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18-Jun-2007
Can Islam be compatible with religious freedom? I certainly hope so,
but doubts are raised by a decision of Malaysia's highest court, given
a month ago, preventing 43-year-old Malay woman Lina Joy, a Christian
convert, from marrying her Christian boyfriend. The decision was
applauded by Muslims in Malaysia. But what do moderate Muslims in
Australia think about it? Would it be possible for Muslim leaders in
Australia to speak firmly against the denial of religious freedom in
countries such as Malaysia? - David Hodgson
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18-Jun-2007
We all want to live a happy life. But what do we think of when we think
of our own happiness? If asked, most of us would talk about having
loving and supportive relationships with family and friends, and of
having fulfilling and stimulating work, whether paid or unpaid. Yet in
today's society, dominated by the techniques of marketing and the
culture of consumption, we are being persuaded to think of our
happiness in a quite different way - as the gratification of our
desires - Clive Hamilton
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18-Jun-2007
Authorised by the Holy See in 2002 "ad experimentum" for a period of
five years, the current statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way expire
later this month. It will be interesting to see what variations will be
contained in the new statutes as compared with the earlier,
experimental ones. The Way, founded in Spain in the 1960s, is one of
the most vigorously flourishing Catholic movements. But its teachings
and liturgical practices are also the object of reservations and
criticisms on the part of the Church hierarchy - Sandro Magister
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18-Jun-2007
Tsunamis, earthquakes, poverty, drought, starvation, corruption. These
are the times when aid is usually in the news. Recently, however, the
Australian media has posed questions about the real purpose of aid.
International development agencies such as Caritas Australia strongly
believe that aid is, and should only be, about the alleviation of
poverty. There is a danger of headlines such as "Phantom Aid" or
stories about "misuse of aid funds" feeding a perception that aid is
often wasted - Jamie Isbister
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