News
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22-Aug-2008
The Holy See has published a prayer composed by jailed medieval Knights Templar in which they lament being "unjustly imprisoned" and appeal to the Virgin Mary to persuade their enemies to abandon "calumnies and lies".
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18-Aug-2008
As part of a three year makeover, the Vatican Library will get a fireproof bunker for manuscripts and a climate controlled room for papyrus fragments.
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18-Aug-2008
Emphasising the universality of the Church's mission, Pope Benedict yesterday called for an end to racism.
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21-Aug-2008
As Sydney Airport announced that World Youth Day pilgrims had helped set a new daily arrivals record, Cardinal George Pell launched a book of talks by Pope Benedict during his Australian visit for WYD.
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21-Aug-2008
Catholic Earthcare chair and Wilcannia-Forbes Bishop Chris Toohey says that it is urgent for Australians to get involved in addressing the degradation of the Murray-Darling basin.
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18-Aug-2008
Investments by Catholic agencies including $8.9 million from the Society of St Vincent de Paul may be at risk as a result of the US subprime crisis.
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News - National
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20-Aug-2008
Fertility education should be right up there with pap smears and breast scans as a "must do" for good sexual and reproductive healthcare, natural family planning expert Cheryl Curnow says.
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19-Aug-2008
Sydney's Josephite community is praying to Mary MacKillop for her intercession to save convicted Brisbane drug trafficker Scott Rush from the death penalty.
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19-Aug-2008
ACU lecturer Dr Patricia Hansen has told a child welfare conference that parents are losing custody of their children when "they could be given a second chance".
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19-Aug-2008
Victorian Catholic students have joined a multifaith campaign to put a stop to "offensive" billboards and vehicle advertisements.
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18-Aug-2008
Two American Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia who spent twelve months in Australia preparing for World Youth Day will return to Sydney to launch a permanent mission while an Adelaide busker is joining the Mercy Sisters.
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18-Aug-2008
BA "Bob" Santamaria, was "a pessimist attracted to crisis situations," Sydney Cardinal George Pell said at a launch of the second volume of the late Catholic political activist's writings.
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15-Aug-2008
Former leader of the Australian Democrats Lyn Allison argued the Bible is a "cruel text" at a debate on religion in Sydney last night while another speaker pointed to the need to believe in a "higher being".
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22-Aug-2008
State MP Matthew Guy says tail docking a dog and boiling a lobster will be illegal but abortion up to six months will be legal if legislation before the Victorian Parliament is passed.
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22-Aug-2008
Son of a Habsburg Austrian archduke and later a ten pound Australian immigrant, silversmith Christoph Altenburg was buried this week after a funeral at St Bede's Church in Braidwood, New South Wales.
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21-Aug-2008
NSW student Emma Newhouse has lost a nearly completed quilt that was her major work for her Year 12 textile assessment after it may have been mixed up with blankets for Vinnies.
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18-Aug-2008
Maitland-Newcastle diocese Vicar General Fr Tom Brennan has been charged by NSW police with perverting the course of justice over an investigation into sexual abuse.
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21-Aug-2008
Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby is considering whether the controversial St Mary's parish at South Brisbane "is in communion with the Catholic Church" after a parishioner protested to the Vatican over a Buddha-like statue.
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19-Aug-2008
On the eve of state elections, Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey has criticised Western Australia's Labor government for failing the homeless while the Broome diocese has also highlighted housing issues in the region.
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News - International
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21-Aug-2008
As the Victorian parliament considers a bill that would remove restrictions on abortions up to 24 weeks, Apostolic Signatura head, Archbishop Raymond Burke, has said pro-abortion politicians should not receive communion.
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20-Aug-2008
Pope Benedict has approved the beatification of Louis and Marie Zelie Guerin Martin, the parents of St Therese of Lisieux, the Holy See has announced.
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20-Aug-2008
A group of priests from five Asian countries have called for a continent wide meeting of diocesan clergy.
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19-Aug-2008
The Catholic Church in Baden-Wuertennberg in southern Germany has joined forces with Protestant churches to launch a non-profit energy company to supply gas to parishes and charitable institutions.
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22-Aug-2008
Hundreds of Hanoi parishioners have occupied a disputed Church owned site to oppose a planned city government building project.
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22-Aug-2008
A Jordanian government project to develop the site of Jesus' baptism into a global pilgrimage destination is making major headway with a Catholic church already completed and six other churches and monasteries in various stages of completion.
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22-Aug-2008
Jaffna Bishop Thomas Savundaranayagam has appealed for assistance after nearly 200,000 people were forced to flee their homes after renewed fighting between Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels.
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19-Aug-2008
An Indian Carmelite priest was tortured and killed at the weekend outside a remote village in central India.
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21-Aug-2008
State appointed Bishop Joseph Li Shan said yesterday that there are "big developments" in relations between China and the Holy See and that he is hoping for a visit by Pope Benedict.
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20-Aug-2008
A Mexican priest has provoked a firestorm of protest after he sounded the alarm against miniskirts.
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20-Aug-2008
The Edmund Rice Centre has welcomed the Australian Government's decision to launch a Pacific Guest Worker Scheme but it says that the Government also needs to address indigenous unemployment here.
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Regulars
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22-Aug-2008
There is no question that victims must be appropriately cared for as long as they require it. Settlement money can buy helpful therapy. Systems must be put in place to deal with specific accusations and all must remain vigilant to prevent today’s children from suffering abuse. Yet while these practices have widespread support, there is little talk of forgiveness of the abuser as part of the formula that contributes to healing.- Sr Camille D'Arienzo, America
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21-Aug-2008
Anyone who's ever learned a foreign language knows that perhaps 50 percent of a language is predictable according to its own rules, and the rest simply is what it is, the product of history and culture rather than logic. Try explaining to an ESL student why the plural of "mouse" is "mice," but the plural of "spouse" is not "spice," and you'll find that going over the rules really doesn't help; in the end, that's just how things are. - John L. Allen, National Catholic Reporter
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20-Aug-2008
St Paul's life holds a lesson for all of us. His achievements flowed from his extraordinary personal involvement in announcing the Gospel, and his total dedication to Christ, despite all kinds of problems and persecutions. - Bishop Kevin Manning, Catholic Outlook
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19-Aug-2008
We experience our true selves in the presence of a God who out of respect for us never coerces but rather invites our receptive attention. To be open to respond to the non-assertive presence of God in our lives is our true vocation. With the tenderness of a mother, or father, who respects our freedom and intelligence, God coaxes us, as it were, and patiently waits for us to trust in him. - St Columban's Mission Society
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18-Aug-2008
He owns three Harleys, is a self described staunch Roman Catholic and has helped kill dozens of men. Dr Alan Doerhoff calls himself the "world's authority on lethal injection." - International Herald Tribune
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22-Aug-2008
It was one year and two days ago that the Principal of St Aloysius College in Sydney announced that along with Loreto College, Kirribilli the two schools were breaking away from Amnesty International over the organisation abandoning its neutral platform on abortion, and establishing the Benenson Society. They invited other schools and groups to join them.
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21-Aug-2008
If you want to remind yourself of what websites looked like before they adopted visually appealing design features, then this site is one you should visit.
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20-Aug-2008
The Young Christian Worker (YCW) movement was considered by many social analysts to be the most significant cooperative development initiative in Australia since the end of World War II. Founded on the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, YCW is an international youth movement seeking to organise, educate and empower young people to be a positive change within their own lives and the community.
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19-Aug-2008
The Sisters of Charity Foundation Limited was established in 2000 to promote in perpetuity the mission of the Sisters in Australia, specifically in the service of the poor. It has established two charitable funds, namely the Sisters of Charity Foundation and the Sisters of Charity Ministry Fund.
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18-Aug-2008
The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) has been a bastion of Catholic news reporting in Asia since its founding in Hong Kong in 1979. Its mission has been to report news of interest to the growing Church in Asia.
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21-Aug-2008
Son of Rambow is a very entertaining story of two young boys and their friendship, though it raises the perennial questions of how much movies influence behaviour, attitudes and desensitising because of violence.- Fr Peter Malone, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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18-Aug-2008
If you intensely dislike "ocker comedies", slasher films, and the road crash genre, then do not under circumstances go and see Not Quite Hollywood. If however, you are an adult who wants to see what all the fuss was about in the early years of the remerging Australian film industry, or you want some nostalgia, then maybe this documentary could be considered. - Fr Richard Leonard, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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19-Aug-2008
The grand survivor of Australian religious television, Mass For You At Home has been broadcast by the Ten Network since 1971 and in more recent years by Aurora Community Channel on Foxtel/Austar.
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20-Aug-2008
Remote indigenous communities in the Top End are often seen as hopeless and dysfunctional places where any sense of community has been destroyed by violence and substance abuse. Tonight's edition of The Religion Report hears from three leading anthropologists who have lived and worked for years in remote communities.
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22-Aug-2008
Few theological subjects are more likely to provoke a good argument among Catholic theologians than the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council. While there is much in this book that is useful and timely, I had hoped for far more overt discussion of the questions. This is a helpful commentary on the council, but some significant nettles remain to be grasped. - Lewis Ayres, The Tablet
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22-Aug-2008
My friend, Elkie Taylor and I have been corresponding for almost ten years. Elkie is an African-American on death row, in Texas and I began writing in answer to an appeal from Amnesty International. I don’t know the reason for his sentence, but I do know that he is a fine person, coming from a background of extreme poverty, alcoholism and total depravation. - Sr Anne Drover, Mercy Matters
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21-Aug-2008
The suffering we experience when we are drawn out of our safe place by trust and then abandoned to fall into pain became evident in small ways on the faces of so many people. This tragedy of abuse has in fact been built into a wall at which many are wailing. Brick by brick, touch by touch, denial by denial, the barrier has been laid across our land to stretch and stain the velvet vestments and rosewood desks. - Vic O'Callaghan, Province Express
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20-Aug-2008
What is required for the Olympic Games to be authentic in their very essence, without which that essence is lost? One important element is that athletes must compete only on the basis of their own natural talent, unenhanced by prohibited means such as drugs. But the Games, as a whole, must also be authentic. - Margaret Somerville, MercatorNet
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19-Aug-2008
God does not settle, God summons. This is what I call the God of second chances; the one who, despite our persistent failings, calls us back to those higher aspirations. There are a lot of prodigal sons and daughters among us, people who leave, return, and perhaps even leave again, but are always welcomed back by the God of second and third and fourth chances.- Fr Erik Kolbell, Beliefnet
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18-Aug-2008
NGOs who conduct aid work overseas do not involve themselves in politics. They focus on the needs of the people as determined by their own independent assessment teams. They prefer to use their own resources. They are often better equipped than anybody else to engage in political commentary, but they keep their political views to themselves and limit their public communication to description of what they see. - Michael Mullins, Eureka Street
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