News
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Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Australia's last judicial hanging,
the execution of Ronald Ryan. For many, the hanging represents an
important moment in their political awakening. For those who had some
more prominent role to play in the execution drama, the emotional scars
run even deeper. Former Pentridge prison governor Ian Grindlay was
deeply affected by the execution and his health suffered badly because
of it. A devout Catholic, he would say a prayer for Ryan every day of
his life until his own death in 1984 - Mike Richards
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Saying that not much has changed since Jesus first told the parable of
the Good Samaritan, Catholic Social Services chairperson, Fr Joe Caddy,
has called for a new government, church and community partnership "to
create a genuinely fairer and better world for all".
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Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code
publisher has gained US rights to Pope Benedict's forthcoming book on
the life of Jesus, dubbed the "Ratzinger Code" by an Italian newspaper.
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Opening a seminar on the social doctrine of the Church, a Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace official has identified three main weaknesses of the Catholic world, including loss of identity, lack of understanding on bioethical issues and failure to promote Catholic social doctrine.
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An Italian journalist who visited confessionals while posing as a
HIV-positive man wanting to use condoms found that the advice of most
priests varied from Church teaching but the Holy See has denounced the
investigation as a sacrilegious search for a "shameful scoop".
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The Adelaide archdiocese's Vicar-General Msgr David Cappo, Melbourne Jesuit Fr Peter Norden and several Vinnies workers, including Loreto Sister Toni Matha, were among the prominent Catholics cited in this year's Australia Day Honours.
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Community and parent groups in Victoria are claiming that some Catholic schools are cheaper than the state system while a survey shows that public and Catholic schools in South Australia are the most expensive in the nation.
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"Latin is dying in the Church" as neither bishops or young priests are studying the language, says the papal translator who prepared the Latin version of Benedict's encyclical Deus Caritas Est.
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Pope Benedict has warned against "a distorted interpretation" of canonical norms that may have led to a massive rise in the number of annulment cases being considered by church courts.
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The Vatican's Secretary of State has presented a spirited defence of Pope Pius XII's role during World War II in protecting Jews as a former KGB spy reveals a deliberate super-secret Soviet plan to smear the Pope as an anti-Semitic Nazi sympathiser.
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An American Jesuit priest, Robert Drinan, who represented the US state of Massachusetts as a Congressman for ten years before bowing to a Holy See directive prohibiting priests from political office has died aged 86.
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The revamped bishops' Office for Employment Relations has a new director, Ms Susan O'Connor, who took up her post yesterday, according to an Australian Catholic Bishops Conference announcement.
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Canberra Archbishop Mark Coleridge, a member of a Holy See committee
for revising a new English translation of the Latin Missal, has called
for patience during a "messy transition time" as Catholics get used to
the new translation which he says "offers great riches".
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Commenting on new statistics which show that reports of child abuse
have nearly doubled since 2001, Sydney youth advocate Fr Chris Riley
says that the phenomenon is "out of control" and is regarded by some as
"normal behaviour".
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Two American men are calling for the prosecution of a former Victorian priest, Paul Ryan, who is already serving a prison sentence in Australia for indecent assault, over offences alleged to have occurred while he was serving at a US parish.
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Former Victorian premier John Cain, whose father's government was destroyed by the 1950s Labor split, has criticised Tony Abbott for painting a benign picture of BA Santamaria and his mentor, then Melbourne Archbishop Daniel Mannix, who he says promoted a "dark sectarianism".
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Health Minister Tony Abbott will today tell a Melbourne book launch that with eight Catholics now in Federal Cabinet, BA Santamaria's DLP is still alive inside the Liberal Party though he concedes that Labor's Catholic-influenced "shoppies' union" would get a "fair hearing" under Kevin Rudd.
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Health Minister Tony Abbott, a prominent Catholic, has accused Labor leader Kevin Rudd of trying to "commandeer God for political purposes", telling a Melbourne conference that Jesus did not say "that the best way to feed the hungry ... was to vote Labor".
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Scottish Church officials say that they are prepared to break the law
but will not close down Catholic adoption agencies after a Blair
government refusal to exempt them from complying with proposed new
rules allowing gay adoption.
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The Portuguese Church is leading the campaign to oppose efforts to
legalise abortion in a national referendum on the issue to be held this
month with one bishop describing abortion as a "variation of capital
punishment".
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Catholics in a Polish lace-making village that produces altar cloths
and robes for priests - including the Pope - are in uproar after
declining demand for their products led women to develop hot selling
new product lines including sexy G-strings for international markets.
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Prague Cardinal Miloslav Vlk says that under communism many priests
"weren't heroes" and succumbed to pressure to collaborate with the
former government but he remains confident that the Czech Church will
be spared a scandal similar to that in Poland.
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The Korean Catholic Human Rights Committee has hailed a decision by a
Seoul court to exonerate eight pro-democracy Korean activists who were
executed 33 years ago on trumped up treason charges.
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Hanoi Cardinal Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet says that last weekend's meeting
between Pope Benedict and the Vietnam Prime Minister is a positive sign
while a Government official hails warming relations between the two
states as "a model for other countries to follow".
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Denouncing mining companies working in the Philippines as modern-day Trojan horses, Filipino Bishop Zacarias Jimenez has endorsed a major Columban-commissioned report which accuses the country of being "among the worst countries in the world" for various mining practices.
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Excommunicated Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who recently formed a
self-styled personal prelature for married priests, is in Seoul this
month with his Korean wife to study the religion of the Reverend Moon
Sun-myung's Unification Church.
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Reacting to deadly clashes between supporters and opponents of Lebanon's government and between Hamas and Fatah forces in Gaza, Pope Benedict has renewed his appeal for an end to violence in the region while emphasising the need for "new ways of rationality".
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Pope Benedict has issued a call to Christians from the Middle East
region to be "courageous and steadfast" and not fall to the temptation
to emigrate.
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Expressing dismay over a recent spate of killings, disappearances and
kidnappings in their war-torn country, Sri Lanka's Catholic bishops say
they are shocked at the deteriorating situation and are calling on the
rebel Tamil Tigers "to contribute positively" to the peace process.
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An Indian priest who was ordained at 70 with special Holy See permission following his wife's death, and whose eldest son was also a priest, has died one day after blessing the marriage of his granddaughter.
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Melbourne's Academy of Mary Immaculate school in inner city Fitzroy,
founded 150 years ago this year by Mother Ursula Frayne, now has a
school co-captain descended from a cousin of the Australian Mercy
Sisters pioneer.
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Regulars
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Ants are no friends to farmers. My husband would most certainly concur!
Each year he faces what feels like a losing battle trying to smooth our
pastures due to the ever-increasing number of ant mounds. So somehow it
feels a bit like an oxymoron to suggest that ants, one of the smallest
and most annoying of God's creatures, know the key to being successful.
Believe it or not, pondering the life and works of "the ant" has given
me fresh inspiration time and again - Annette Bridges
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It's not often that junk television influences world politics, but it happened this month in the case of the British program, "Celebrity Big Brother." During the course of the show one of the participants, Indian film star Shilpa Shetty, was repeatedly insulted by other members of the program. Instead of the episode just remaining another example of trashy television, Shetty's tormentors were accused of blatant racism. Concerns over television and its contents are not new and the Church has long warned about the media - Fr John Flynn
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My wife and I last year spent a month of our long-service leave in Ghana as volunteer teachers. The school in which we worked, we were informed in advance, was poor. This we found to be an understatement; it was very, very poor. We walked most of the 3km to school each morning and would arrive dripping wet from the humidity, knowing that's the way it would be for the rest of the day. But such discomforts were quickly forgotten as students ran enthusiastically to meet us, vying to carry our bags to school - Len Minty
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Euthanasia is not legal in Switzerland, as it is in the Netherlands and Belgium. But a 1942 Swiss law allows a person to help another to commit suicide, provided he or she does so for altruistic reasons. Swiss right-to-die campaigners used the law to establish Dignitas. The group helped John Elliott from Sydney's Rose Bay to die on Thursday at a clinic in Zurich. His specialist Sam Milliken at St Vincent's Hospital says that while he respects his patient's views on euthanasia, "I do not support his action" in going to Zurich - James Button
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Although the evidence has been firming up during the past 10 years, there has been very little said about climate change from Catholic leaders. It is true that the late Pope John Paul II said some very fine things about the need for us all to undergo an "ecological conversion" and Australian and American bishops have also written strong words about the subject. But if we look to Rome, we find next to nothing about global warming specifically, save for half a paragraph in the 2004 Catholic Compendium of Social Teaching - Mark Dowd
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Forty years ago this week Ronald Ryan had a noose put around his neck at the former Pentridge Prison in Victoria. With the authority of the state government, he was killed. Ryan was the last man hanged in Australia, and many believe he will always retain that infamous privilege. Reasoned argument suggests that it is hard for a civilised society to support the taking of the life in order to uphold the value of human life. Such argument in Australia will not prevent other countries continuing the practice - some, such as China and Singapore, continue to practice it with great enthusiasm - Fr Peter Norden
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If I were gay and wanted to give a child a home, my first thought would not be to head off to a Catholic adoption agency. Any more than if I were a man, I would take my medical problems to a well-women clinic. Not unless I was looking for confrontation; not unless I was more concerned about making a statement than achieving my goal. But then gesture politics is at the heart of the escalating row in Britain over whether or not Catholic adoption agencies should be exempt from anti-discrimination legislation - Dani Garavelli
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While occasional events, such as World Youth Day, draw thousands of
young people into active and conscious participation in the life of the
Church, it is not the story of youth ministry writ large. Indeed,
following the conclusion of these large-scale events, it seems
pertinent to ask the question "What now?" Dioceses and parishes have
long struggled to establish effective and long-lasting youth ministry
programs, grappling with the complexities of turning well-intentioned
policy into practical and sustainable outcomes - Daniel Ang
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During the 2004 Olympics it was obvious that "Advance Australia Fair"
had seen off the challenge mounted by "Waltzing Matilda" to be
considered as our national anthem. Now that "Advance Australia Fair" is
widely accepted as the official national anthem - as distinct from a
government decree that it will be our anthem - it is worth examining
its words. First sung in Sydney in 1878, the anthem has words many of
which may have been suitable in their time but today seem heavily dated
- Br Regis Hickey
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