News
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08-Aug-2008
Speaking to 400 priests during his vacation break, Pope Benedict said that he used to be "more strict" about the administration of sacraments, adding that the Church had not always emphasised respect for the environment enough.
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08-Aug-2008
Holy See spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi has responded to a petition calling on Pope Benedict to change Church teaching on contraception describing the letter as "paid propaganda" with no reference to love.
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07-Aug-2008
Churches on the New South Wales South Coast have launched a week of prayers for the well being of communities along the Murray-Darling river system.
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04-Aug-2008
In a case that has divided India, Mumbai Bishop Agnelo Gracias has appealed to a fifteen year old pregnant girl not to abort her pregnancy.
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06-Aug-2008
Describing homelessness as human rights abuse, Society of St Vincent de Paul President Syd Tutton has called on the Australian government to enshrine the right to housing in a Bill of Rights or other legislation.
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07-Aug-2008
Professor Celia Hammond has been inaugurated as the third vice-chancellor of the University of Notre Dame Australia.
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06-Aug-2008
A judge in the annual Blake Prize for religious art is believed to have resigned over his objections to a painting of the crucifixion that another judge also described as "really offensive".
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05-Aug-2008
Releasing his latest album, St Louis composer and singer Dan Schutte says the recent emphasis in the Church on Gregorian chant represents a natural swing of the pendulum and is not a cause for pessimism.
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News - National
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08-Aug-2008
Polish WYD pilgrims visited the Penola birthplace of the Sisters of St Joseph this week as the community prepared for the feast of founder Mary MacKillop.
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05-Aug-2008
Former Governor-General Sir William Deane has opened a new Bible Garden in Canberra that will feature all 148 plants mentioned in the Bible.
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05-Aug-2008
Hoping to benefit from a post-WYD increased interest in vocations, Australia's De La Salle Brothers are offering young men the opportunity to "test drive" their vocation in remote Western Australia and Papua New Guinea.
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04-Aug-2008
A Palestinian refugee, Akram al Masri, who was deported from Australia in 2002 has been killed in his homeland less than six months after Australian authorities refused him a visitor's visa.
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07-Aug-2008
Abuse victims have welcomed a Maitland-Newcastle diocese service of solidarity to be held tonight.
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07-Aug-2008
Students at a Brisbane Catholic college are learning about risk and return by placing imaginary bets on Doomben horse races.
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06-Aug-2008
The New Norcia Museum in Western Australia is celebrating after winning second prize in an ABC Radio museums competition.
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News - International
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08-Aug-2008
In a newly published book, American scholar Joseph Pearce concludes that William Shakespeare was a Catholic.
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06-Aug-2008
A German court has ordered a man suffering from bipolar disorder to seek treatment after he jumped a security barrier and grabbed Pope Benedict's popemobile in St Peter's Square last year.
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06-Aug-2008
US and other foreign soldiers have joined Polish military in a 10 day pilgrimage on foot to the Czestochowa shrine of the Black Madonna.
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05-Aug-2008
Toledo Cardinal Antonio Canizares has denounced a "social revolution" in Spain and the West that he says aims "to impose nihilist thought and eliminate everything Catholic from public life."
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05-Aug-2008
Weekend retreats for couples promoting "divine sex" given by Polish Fr Ksawery Knotz are booked solid for the next year following publicity for the Capuchin Friar's counselling work.
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04-Aug-2008
The St John of God brothers say they will supervise for the rest of his life a former brother, Rodger William Moloney, to be deported from New Zealand after serving his sentence on sex abuse charges.
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04-Aug-2008
Spanish Templars are suing Pope Benedict seeking restoration of the medieval Knights Templar Order.
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08-Aug-2008
A new "Indianised" Bible will include ancient Hindu texts and references to Mahatma Gandhi as well as pictures of Mary in a sari and Joseph in a turban.
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07-Aug-2008
Parading with a coffin marked "Tiruchy diocese", priests from the Indian city of Tiruchirapalli have gone on a hunger strike against their local bishop.
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05-Aug-2008
Reflecting on her release from captivity former French-Colombian hostage, Ingrid Betancourt, says that Jesus kept his promise to her when she was released in June after she consecrated herself to the Sacred Heart.
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04-Aug-2008
Nigerian born Monsignor Jude Okolo from the Apostolic Nunciature in Canberra has been appointed as the Nuncio for Chad and the Central African Republic, the Holy see has announced.
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08-Aug-2008
Hong Kong Coadjutor Bishop John Tong Hon has mixed feelings about attending today's Olympic opening ceremony because of the absence of other Catholic leaders including Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kun who was not invited.
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06-Aug-2008
China is sending positive signals to the Vatican that should not be overlooked, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone says.
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04-Aug-2008
Vatican recognised Bishop Peter Fang Jianping represented the Catholic Church in the Olympic torch relay last week while Pope Benedict has sent a message to Chinese games organisers and athletes calling on them to do their best in the "Olympic spirit".
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07-Aug-2008
The National Council for Building a Better Fiji co-chaired by Suva Archbishop Petero Mataca and coup leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama has endorsed a People's Charter for Change seeking an end to the country's "coup culture".
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Regulars
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08-Aug-2008
Far from retreating from the pain and troubles of the world, Merton engaged with people of different cultures and beliefs and worked tirelessly for peace and justice in society. He shared the fruits of his silent prayer life and in an inimitable way taught that contemplation is not the prerogative of monks but is the gift of the Spirit to all the baptised. - The Far East
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07-Aug-2008
It’s possible to argue that the greatest advance in civilisation is the change from fighting with weapons to fighting with words, and the most important of those word battles is in formulating our collective values, our "shared ethics". - Margaret Somerville, MercatorNet
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06-Aug-2008
Catholic bishops' conferences from around the world firmly endorsed Pope John Paul II's views in an unprecedented flood of statements opposing the invasion of Iraq. Yet for the first time in the history of the western democracies, the United States, Britain and Australia invaded a country in defiance of the moral authority of the just war tradition. - Bruce Duncan, Social Policy Connections
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05-Aug-2008
Dad's joy consoled my mother as she lovingly and heroically poured out her life to care for him for more than a dozen years. And it solidified my belief in the truths Dad had taught me as a girl: that the human person has an inherent dignity no disease or disability can erase and that life is a gift to be cherished, even in its most fragile forms. - Colleen Carroll Campbell, MercatorNet
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04-Aug-2008
It is a credit to the thousands of pilgrims, that as the week went on, what happened was so amazing and so authentic, that Sydney and those reporting on it, began to realise that negativity could not crush the momentum of good will, in the knowledge of God's love, that was gathering.
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08-Aug-2008
FaithTrip was one of several social networking sites in the technical, if not philosophical tradition, of other global sites FaceBook and MySpace, which sprang up before World Youth Day in a bid to take advantage of the excitement and faith-filled atmosphere of the event.
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07-Aug-2008
GetReligion.org was established in 2004 as a blog site by veteran religion journalists Douglas LeBlanc and Terry Mattingly frustrated by the lack of coverage matters of faith get in the mainstream media. As the site says "the press...just don't get religion".
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06-Aug-2008
Ursula Frayne Catholic College is a K-12 coeducational school over two campuses in Perth's south eastern suburbs. The school, and its forerunners, has a fascinating heritage and reflects the richness and diversity of several religious orders and different types of schooling.
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05-Aug-2008
The Brigidine Sisters were founded in Ireland in 1807 and have two provinces in Australia in addition to provinces in the United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom/Ireland. The sisters have been active in Australia for much of their history primarily in education, parishes, and specific ministries including spirituality and retreat work.
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04-Aug-2008
It is Open Day season for universities across the country and ACU National is no different. Indeed with its multiple campuses, the challenges of holding an interesting and informative "open house" in an increasingly competitive market for students, is a difficult one.
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06-Aug-2008
Some commentators have sneered at the film for not offering anything new. They have misunderstood Spurlock's intentions. He is attempting a personal cinema essay that uses the lighter touch at times to highlight the issues, to show that many people around the world, Christian, Muslim or men and women of no religious faith, believe in peace and understanding, and that this is a goal for everyone. - Fr Peter Malone, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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04-Aug-2008
A potent mixture of heartbreak and crushing irony, The Boys of Baraka documents the lives of several 12 year old African-American boys who were transported from the harsh streets of Baltimore in the US to an experimental boarding school in rural Kenya, Africa.
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07-Aug-2008
Sport and spirituality is the focus of this edition of Encounter. The question is asked what religion has got to do with sport? In addition the program explores where sport and religion have common ground and where they clash.
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08-Aug-2008
More is a colossus of his age and vast quantities of ink have been expended in trying to describe and understand him, which makes it all the more remarkable that John Guy has in A Daughter's Love given us a wholly new insight into the man. Here is More not as hero, symbol or saint, but as human being, as a family man, the careful and loving steward of a large and often complicated household. - Lucy Wooding, The Tablet
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08-Aug-2008
The Games give China's 12 million strong Catholic population a crucial opportunity to show their patriotism. Many Chinese suspect Catholics of being more loyal to the Pope than to their nation. By joining in the Olympic celebrations Catholics can demonstrate that they are every bit as patriotic as their neighbours. - Luke Coppen, The Catholic Herald
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07-Aug-2008
We are all made in the image and likeness of God, and in the heart of God there is a unity that deepens and goes beyond how we have divided ourselves. It doesn’t matter whether we are black or white or brown or olive. It doesn’t matter if we are powerbrokers, it doesn’t matter what money we have, it doesn’t matter what authority we have. - Bishop Greg O'Kelly, The Southern Cross
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06-Aug-2008
Rather than telling people what to think or what to do, it’s better to help them form their consciences to make their own decisions. That’s why many Catholics are bothered by priests who, either explicitly or implicitly in sermons and homilies, endorse one political candidate over another. - Fr James Martin, Beliefnet
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05-Aug-2008
There is something disquieting about the decision to significantly upgrade Australia’s relations with the Holy See. It is clearly one that was made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. He’s not actually running for sainthood - well, we don’t think so - but he does seem to be carving out a prime ministership that may well win gold for meddlesomeness. - Richard Laidlaw, Online Opinion
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04-Aug-2008
The changes to Australia's asylum policy announced last week by the immigration minister, Chris Evans, were as inevitable as they were sensible. They are also incremental: they remove some of the worst aspects of a cruel system but leave intact much of the deterrent apparatus inherited from the former government. - Fr David Holdcroft, Eureka Street
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05-Aug-2008
This year's Mary Ward Symposium is being held in conjunction with the Carlton/Fitzroy Spirituality in the Pub series and features well known Melbourne writer and academic, Morag Fraser on the topic Inventing the future:new models for women's leadership.
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