News
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Bendigo Catholics are up in arms over rumoured proposals to move the altar from the sanctuary and remove the altar rails at the regional Victorian city's Sacred Heart Cathedral but a spokesperson says that renovation plans are still at the consultation stage.
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Toowoomba diocese social justice coordinator, Dr Mark Copland, has welcomed an about-face by Tamworth Regional Council over an earlier decision to refuse to relocate Sudanese refugee families to the north-western NSW centre.
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With drought now affecting 93 per cent of NSW, the St Vincent de Paul Society has launched an urgent appeal for drought victims who face stress and "are also feeling the knock-on effects of the drought".
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The Pope's always-elegant personal secretary, Msgr "Gorgeous Georg" Gaenswein, is the inspiration behind the clerical black jackets and priestly white shirts in Donatella Versace's latest men's fashion show, the Italian designer says.
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Lamenting the "painful" condition of many migrants, refugees and exiles, Pope Benedict calls for recognition of the difficulties of migrant families and concrete measures to favour their legal immigration and to keep families united.
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Although dismissing claims that the Vatican was negligent in failing to protect children entrusted to clergy, a US judge has allowed plaintiffs in a sex abuse action to pursue a claim that Holy See officials should have warned the public about priests suspected of abusing children.
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Speaking at his Wednesday general audience, Pope Benedict called for Christians and Jews to respect and appreciate each other and to cooperate for justice and peace in the world.
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Former German World Cup winning captain, Franz Beckenbauer, has returned to the Catholic faith after a meeting with Pope Benedict that he describes as the "most important experience of his life".
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Suggestions that Centacare should be excluded from involvement in providing pregnancy counselling are misguided and could ironically lead to an "anti-choice" outcome, Catholic Social Services Chairman Fr Joe Caddy says.
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Most hospitals in Australia do not offer IVF services, says Sydney Bishop Anthony Fisher, and criticisms of Catholic hospitals for not doing so are a bit of a "beat-up".
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Sunshine Coast priest, Fr John Dobson, says that an attempted Federal Government ban on a controversial book offering tips on self-help euthanasia is not likely to stop those who want to commit suicide.
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A school in South East England has banned a 13-year-old Catholic girl from wearing a crucifix necklace in class because it breaches health and safety rules, according to teachers.
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"The Church is not afraid of the truth, even if that is a difficult, shameful truth, and it sometimes hurts," Poland's bishops said, announcing the establishment of a special commission to investigate links of all the country's bishops with the former communist regime.
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A new Italian magazine has a hit on its hands with the runaway success of electronic audio cards bearing the image and voice of Pope John II while a dealer is auctioning on eBay a car that the late Pontiff rode during a 1979 US trip.
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Scottish church leaders have condemned a local program handing out over 1,000 free condoms per week to children under the age of 16, saying that it makes sex as easy as having a pizza.
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Australia could one day have a Catholic king or queen if Irish Anglican primate, Bishop Alan Harper, who says it's time to "move on" from a 1701 law forbidding a Catholic British monarch, has his way.
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Top officials from Holy See agencies are meeting today with leaders of the Catholic Church in China to discuss challenges for the Church in the world's most populous country, including unity of the official and unrecognised churches.
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Warning that warring Palestinian factions could trigger a civil war, Christian church leaders in Jerusalem are urging an end to the violence and offering to play a mediating role between Hamas and Fatah.
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An Iraqi bishop has warned that Iraq is moving towards a terrible division with the US doing nothing to stop it as a spokesman for the American bishops calls on his government to end troop deployment in the country "at the earliest opportunity".
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The official Vatican newspaper has described as "cruel justice" the hangings in Baghdad of Saddam's henchmen, Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, as the Vatican reiterates its opposition to the death penalty.
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With a plan to rewrite Ecuador's constitution, former Catholic social worker Rafael Correa was yesterday sworn in as the country's new president, the latest in Latin America's line of left-wing political leaders.
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accused Archbishop Roberto Luckert of lying following criticisms of his leadership style, saying that he would meet the Bishops Conference vice-president in hell because "he is not going to heaven".
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Mildred Akinyi, a HIV positive widow from western Kenya, and other members of her St Monica's Widows Group, have stunned members of their local community, by refusing to be "inherited" under traditional cultural practices.
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Against overwhelming odds, the Catholic Church in northern Sudan is continuing to grow, a local bishop says, with the Sudanese capital now boasting 121 priests ministering to 900,000 Christians.
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A Nigerian bishop has issued a pastoral letter warning his flock that it is their "sacred duty" to vote in the upcoming national elections and those failing to register will not be allowed to receive holy communion.
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The number of state registry weddings is rising and church weddings are declining in parallel with the rate of religious participation, a Melbourne Christian think tank researcher says.
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Saddam Hussein was in the "front rank of evildoers", Sydney Archbishop George Pell said in his newspaper column yesterday, adding that although the Church opposes capital punishment he did not weep for the executed Iraqi dictator.
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Parramatta diocesan priest Fr Les Campion will tomorrow bless 83 roses - one for each person killed in Sydney's Granville rail disaster 30 years ago - to be thrown in a ceremony from the local railway bridge onto the tracks.
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The Catholic Social Justice Group of Manly parish on Sydney's North Shore is campaigning on behalf of a Muslim Pakistani who has lived in Australia for 19 years but who faces deportation after a visa mix-up.
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Murdered teenage mum, Rachael Myring, who was killed by a client at the real estate office where she worked, was buried yesterday after a moving funeral at Mary Immaculate church at Ashmore on Queensland's Gold Coast.
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Regulars
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According to a new study commissioned by the Australian bishops, Catholics disconnected from Mass attendance and other parish life believe the Church is out of touch with the world today and is not relevant to their own lives. I am sure if we conduct a similar study of our own "disconnected Catholics" in the US, the reasons given will not differ much from their Australian counterparts. Today the average man is under tremendous pressures to cope with all the problems he is forced to encounter. Where does the Church stand in their lives? - Dr Chris Anthony
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An outspoken Polish critic of the communist regime, Fr Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, was attacked twice in 1985 by communist agents. Twenty years on, Fr Zaleski has finally been allowed to view the secret files compiled about him by the state. "The shock was worse than the original attacks," he says. The yellowing pages reveal categorically that he was on the black list of the state security services and was constantly being watched - by fellow priests, other brothers in the order, friends and acquaintances - Jan Puhl
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The fortunes of war brought Francis Tran to Australia in 1987, a refugee from Vietnam with no friends or family in Australia and no English, setting him on the usual route of such newcomers: four months in a migrant hostel followed by hard labour at the bottom of the social scale. Francis Tran, however, made a further journey from labourer to the priesthood and he is now parish priest of Milton on the NSW South Coast. After ten years, the three churches in his parish are now noticeably crowded - Brian Davies
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Before the ferry anchored, a Trappist monk with a long, white beard was already waving from the pier. Fr Nicholaus Kao Se-tsean then greeted each person as the visitors landed. An hour-long journey by boat had brought them from downtown Hong Kong to an abbey on Lantau Island. They came to "celebrate the miracle of the longevity of Father Kao," said Dom Anastasius Li, the abbot and main celebrant at Fr Kao's 110th birthday Mass. "The older the wine, the finer it will be," and the wine in a 110-year-old wineskin is fine indeed, the abbot told the 150 guests.
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Crowds are flocking to the Vatican, not to get a papal blessing or see the Sistine Chapel, but to snap up bargains at the winter sale at the Holy See's department store. As Rome's post-Christmas sale season gets under way, the Vatican store is offering some of the biggest savings in town on televisions, jewellery, designer handbags and clothing. But it is also the most exclusive event - it helps to know a cardinal to get in.
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Many religious and irreligious want the same things when it comes to improving the conditions of life for their fellow human beings. Religious conviction does not make a person morally superior. It doesn't even make a person moral. What does, funnily enough, is acting morally. All people concerned about the state of the nation should contribute to public debate and serve as examples in the community. It serves no one and progresses nothing to alienate your allies by denigrating their moral integrity - Emily Maguire
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Over the last few weeks Catholic hospitals have been the target of disgruntled doctors and misguided politicians. The upshot has been yet another round of "anti-Catholic" bashing and the projection of an erroneous perception that Catholic health is a harsh, insensitive service devoid of compassion and decency. It is encouraging to note that Queensland Treasurer Anna Bligh publicly praised the work of Catholic hospitals amidst this recent furore. She clearly knows the economic and social benefits Catholic hospitals bring to her state - Francis Sullivan
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Except on occasion of grave illness, my father never missed Sunday Mass in his entire life. One wife, one family, one profession, one religious faith, one house, his sons at the same school as him: a life as unfashionable in its limits and commitments as anything could be today. And yet a life within those self-imposed limits and commitments of vast, imaginative richness. My father, who died last week at the age of 86, came from the World War II generation, as good a group as we've ever known - Greg Sheridan
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The advent of relatively cheap, safe air travel has literally shrunk the globe. The result is that fantastic journeys, once reserved for the very rich and the very brave, are now commonplace. Air travel may be the fastest way to reach our destinations, but it's also the most carbon intensive. How do we protect the planet that we're destroying in our attempt to experience it? An interesting solution is something called carbon offsetting - Suzanne Elston
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In May, Benedict XVI will travel to Brazil to attend the Fifth General Conference of Latin American and Caribbean Bishops. In doing so, he will be visiting a continent in which Christianity is in a state of flux. It is a continent in which politicians are increasingly anxious to associate themselves with Christianity, even when identifying the Church as a major obstacle to their agendas. Added to this complication are liberation theology's dissolution into irrelevance and the rise of Protestant sects throughout the region - Samuel Gregg
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