News
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24-Jul-2008
Vatican Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo has blessed the headquarters of the city state's newly created Department of Health and Welfare.
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23-Jul-2008
Former Coalition Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the Rudd Federal Government's decision to appoint a full time resident ambassador to the Vatican "has merit".
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25-Jul-2008
Schools have come to the rescue of Papua New Guinea pilgrims stranded on the Gold Coast.
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24-Jul-2008
Over 500 Papua New Guinea WYD pilgrims were stranded in Sydney yesterday with another 400 Solomon Islanders sleeping in a rainswept Brisbane sports field after their flights home were cancelled.
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23-Jul-2008
New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione says that Sydney's crime rate during the World Youth Day week was the lowest it has been in a long time.
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22-Jul-2008
Before leaving Australia yesterday, Pope Benedict thanked 8,000 World Youth Day volunteers while Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the Pope's visit had left an indelible mark.
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22-Jul-2008
The Catholic Church's portion of the costs of hosting World Youth Day may be more than anticipated but will not result in extra levies on parishes or dioceses, Sydney Cardinal George Pell says.
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21-Jul-2008
Pope Benedict yesterday urged a teeming World Youth Day final Mass crowd estimated at up to 400,000 to become prophets of a new age to bring faith to a "spiritually barren" world.
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21-Jul-2008
Over 1,000 priests were hearing confession at any one time during World Youth Day, organisers say.
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24-Jul-2008
Saying that scores of beds in suburban hospitals go empty each day, Catholic Health Australia CEO Martin Laverty has proposed a "brokering service" to ensure better use of available beds.
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22-Jul-2008
Paintings by Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts helped inspire Dural artist Paul Newton's new St Mary's Cathedral painting of Our Lady of the Southern Cross
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News - National
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25-Jul-2008
Melbourne priest Fr Anthony Guelen says that the media has unfairly linked the large majority of innocent priests with child abuse.
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25-Jul-2008
A sex abuse assessment and treatment facility which has treated over 1000 clergy is now down to to a single volunteer after funding was cut.
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22-Jul-2008
Two victims of clerical sex abuse who took part in a private Mass celebration with Pope Benedict yesterday welcomed the meeting saying they were moved by the pontiff's compassion but other victims condemned the event as a staged publicity stunt.
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22-Jul-2008
In a significant foreign policy decision, the Australian government has appointed former Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer as Australia's first resident ambassador to the Holy See.
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21-Jul-2008
Pope Benedict this morning met three victims of clerical abuse after the pontiff apologised Saturday for the "shame which we have all felt".
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21-Jul-2008
Pope Benedict has prayed for hospitalised former Vatican colleague, Cardinal Edward Cassidy, as well as visiting retired Sydney Cardinal Edward Clancy and 92 year old Catholic lay pioneer, Rosemarie Goldie.
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25-Jul-2008
A Victorian Supreme Court has authorised the sale of the well known Limerick Arms hotel in South Melbourne which was part of an estate left to Catholic orphanages in 1937.
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24-Jul-2008
Maltese Archbishop Paul Cremona, now in Mackay Queensland following World Youth Day, has brought with him a relic reputed to be the arm of St Paul.
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23-Jul-2008
Model Lara Bingle and her fiancee Test cricketer Michael Clarke will attend a Brisbane Catholic school fete next weekend but some children's parents are shouldering arms at the $50 fee for a photo with the Australian batsman.
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News - International
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21-Jul-2008
Three women to be ordained in the USA overnight separate themselves from the Church by their own actions, the Boston archdiocese says.
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23-Jul-2008
An Italian animal rights group has launched an internet petition calling on Pope Benedict to stop wearing fur during religious ceremonies.
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23-Jul-2008
Southern Philippines Bishop Martin Jumoad says he has received a letter threatening him with harm if he does not convert to Islam or pay Islamic taxes.
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25-Jul-2008
After Australian authorities refused visas for most Iraqi pilgrims, the country's Chaldean Catholic bishops decided to organised their own World Youth Day program in northern Iraq.
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24-Jul-2008
An olive tree on the Mount of Beatitudes blessed by Pope John II is the only one producing olives this year, according to the forester at the site.
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25-Jul-2008
New fighting and bombing in northern Sri Lanka has forced tens of thousands of refugees to seek shelter in the jungle and the local Catholic Church has again moved the statue of Our Lady of Madhu to the local bishop's house.
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23-Jul-2008
China is recruiting overseas priests to help say Mass for visitors to next month's Beijing's Olympics while 100,000 bibles embossed with the Games logo have also been printed.
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Religion
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22-Jul-2008
The US Catholic Church is set to expand its use of the so-called "Anglican Use" provision instituted by Pope John Paul II which allows communities of Anglicans to join the Catholic Church as a bloc while retaining some of their traditions.
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24-Jul-2008
Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples head, Cardinal Ivan Dias, has described turmoil in the Anglican Communion as "spiritual Alzheimer's" and "ecclesial Parkinson's", angering charities working with sufferers of those conditions.
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21-Jul-2008
In a speech to Muslim and Jewish leaders in Sydney, Pope Benedict called for all religions to unite against terrorism and to resolve conflicts peacefully.
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Regulars
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25-Jul-2008
Cardinal Pell has recently drawn our attention to what he perceives as a crisis in the Western World. He feels falling fertility, increasing divorce rates and serial monogamy threaten the social, economic and religious viability of societies like Australia. - Peter Curson, Online Opinion
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24-Jul-2008
In most cases, suicide, like any terminal illness, takes a person out of life against his or her will. The death is not freely chosen, but is an illness, far from an act of free will. In most instances, suicide is a desperate attempt to end unendurable pain, much like a man who throws himself through a window because his clothing is on fire. That's a tragedy, not an act of despair. - Fr Ron Rolheiser, ronrolheiser.com
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23-Jul-2008
Some baffled journalists described it as a Catholic Woodstock – the 1969 orgy of, drugs and sex and rock 'n roll which became an iconic moment for baby boomers. But 40 years later, the world has moved in an unexpected direction. WYD, the biggest youth event in history, is an anti-Woodstock, a repudiation of the materialism and secularism of the baby boomers. - Michael Cook, MercatorNet
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22-Jul-2008
The secularist-religious debate that has been raging – or perhaps smouldering – over the last few years, has produced some interesting fruits. One of these fruits has been the resuscitation of an idea, that ethics, how one lives one's life, is a central area of concern for philosophy, rather than the marginal concern of nice people who are unable to cope with the machismo of modal logic or philosophy of mind. - Fr John Moffatt, Thinking Faith
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21-Jul-2008
Thirty years ago this week the world's first IVF baby was born in Britain. It was a landmark day in our relationship with technology: the natural process of creating life through love was challenged by one which assembled life for a profit. From a controversial solution to infertility, in vitro fertilisation swiftly grew into an industry of its own and opened the door to other even more controversial developments, like genetic engineering and stem cell research. - MercatorNet
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25-Jul-2008
The glorious indigenous drawings of the Stations of Cross spread throughout this website, is a reason enough for a visit. They are simply beautiful. Drawn by artist Richard Campbell, they are literally the backbone of this new site for the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry in the diocese of Lismore.
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24-Jul-2008
Catholic Church Television Australia (CCTVA) is an office with the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting. It is mandated to produce, schedule, administer and develop television programs for Aurora Community Television.
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22-Jul-2008
St Andrew's Catholic College is situated in the Redlynch Valley in the northern parts of Cairns. The P to 12 college was closed yesterday after a suspected deliberately lit fire destroyed a science block and the smell of smoke permeated the other buildings. It opens again today.
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21-Jul-2008
New Advent is much more than a Catholic encyclopedia in an online format. For a start, it is in the Top 5 busiest Catholic websites in the world and its resources include the Summa Theologica of St Thomas Aquinas and the full version of the Bible with links to its encyclopedia.
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25-Jul-2008
The Savages is about middle aged children coping with their father's decline, the problems of moving him into a care institution, how to overcome their past hostilities, spending time with their father while coping with their own problems. Many people face these issues every day and deal with them with common sense and commitment. - Fr Peter Malone, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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22-Jul-2008
There is a sense of daring in this explosive Batman film, in which we constantly feel on edge, aware of impending risks and the fact that there is something to lose. Writer director Christopher Nolan is as firmly in control of this stupendous blockbuster with its massive stunts, well constructed plot, conflicted hero and darkly manic villain. - Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile
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23-Jul-2008
This week on The Ark presenter Rachael Kohn talks with Associate Professor for Medieval Studies at the University of Sydney, John Pryor about documents which shed new light on the persecution of the Knights Templar that rehabilitates the image of the medieval Christian military order.
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24-Jul-2008
Movies make us laugh with their inanity, shock us with their brutality and impress us with their ability to transport us to another time and place. They also, as Catholics in the Movies seeks to demonstrate, can serve as historic signposts that mark the shifting religious lines and understandings within a country. - Elizabeth Paulhus, Thinking Faith
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25-Jul-2008
Aboard his recent flight en route to Sydney Pope Benedict XVI in response to a question about the issue of sexual abuse by Australian clergy, referred to three dimensions of the issue, one of which concerned a failure in the education of clergy. Here he singled out a particular ethical theory entitled Proportionalism. - Brian Lewis, Social Policy Connections
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24-Jul-2008
I am not lauding the 1800's as a paradise for women. Nor do I think any girl should be silent about herself or her feelings. What is disturbing, however, are the constraints under which girls struggle to develop and flourish today. Many girls now seem to value their physical appearance more highly than personal achievement. They've been led to believe their bodies are the most valuable thing that they have to offer the world. - Melinda Tankard Reist, Quadrant
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23-Jul-2008
According to the teaching of the Gospel, we are not owners but rather administrators of the goods we possess. These are not to be considered as our exclusive possession, but means through which the Lord calls each one of us to act as a steward of His providence for our neighbour. - Kerry A. Robinson, America
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22-Jul-2008
This whole sequence of events was similar to the experience in the United States. And it doesn't surprise me that it was repeated in Australia. The Vatican says it happened after World Youth Day so it wouldn't be mixed up with celebrations. Fair point. But it's yet another example of the Vatican wanting to keep their cards close to their chest and wanting to be seen as controlling their own agenda, which they're entitled to. - Auskar Surbakti, SBS
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21-Jul-2008
Now we have seen the splendid and varied reality of World Youth Day, it is worth reflecting back upon the controversies that accompanied it. The principal points at issue were the support given by the State to a Church event, the laws introduced to cover the event, the media coverage, particularly of Church handling of sexual abuse, and the image of the Catholic Church conveyed by World Youth Day. - Fr Andrew Hamilton, Eureka Street
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21-Jul-2008
Australian Catholic University (ACU National) Melbourne Campus (St. Patrick's) will host a public lecture on Pope John Paul II's new evangelisation by visiting research professor Dr Richard Rymarz on Thursday 24 July.
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