News
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13-Feb-2009
Meeting with Jewish leaders yesterday, Pope Benedict re-affirmed the Catholic Church is "profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism."
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11-Feb-2009
The Vatican says that an upcoming conference on evolution to mark the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species will also include discussion on the theory of intelligent design as a cultural phenomenon.
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11-Feb-2009
The Vatican is not considering an immediate intervention in the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi organisations following revelations that founder Fr Macial Maciel had led a double life and fathered a child.
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09-Feb-2009
In the wake of the controversy over the lifting of the excommunication on holocaust denying SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi has said the Vatican needs to improve its communications.
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09-Feb-2009
The Italian government is in constitutional crisis after President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign a decree by the Berlusconi government to prevent the removing of feeding tubes of long term coma patient Eluana Englaro.
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12-Feb-2009
Figures show almost 1,100 students from Victorian Catholic and independent schools received special examination arrangements last year compared with 703 students from government schools.
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11-Feb-2009
Twenty-one Burmese students from the Thai-Burma border refugee camps are following a liberal studies diploma program organised by the Australian Catholic University in the mountain areas of northern Thailand.
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News - National
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13-Feb-2009
Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby has said he is prepared to call in the police at St Mary's parish, South Brisbane but ousted administrator Fr Peter Kennedy says that he will not be breaking any laws.
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13-Feb-2009
St Patrick's Cathedral was packed yesterday for a Mass for Victoria's bushfire victims while messages of solidarity and prayer from church leaders from around Australia and the world have poured in.
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13-Feb-2009
Representatives of a group of Australia's major religious bodies have met with ABC Managing Director Mark Scott last week to lobby for the return of a dedicated religious current affairs program.
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12-Feb-2009
Collum Thoms, father of Perth teenager Gemma Thoms, who died of an ecstasy overdose at a Big Day Out concert, asked young mourners at her funeral yesterday to "think of the pain they could cause their parents."
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11-Feb-2009
Pope Benedict has sent condolences to all the victims and families of all those affected by the Victorian bushfires that claimed over 200 lives and released the energy equivalent of 500 Hiroshima nuclear bombs.
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10-Feb-2009
Updated: South Brisbane's Fr Peter Kennedy says he is prepared to be arrested rather than leave St Mary's parish while Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby says he has received hate mail over his decision to remove Fr Kennedy.
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10-Feb-2009
Among many churches hit by Saturday's Victorian fires, the Catholic churches at Kinglake and Marysville were destroyed.
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09-Feb-2009
Churches have launched prayers for bushfire victims in Victoria, where 126 people are already confirmed dead.
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09-Feb-2009
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart and the St Vincent de Paul Society have launched appeals to assist Victorian bushfire victims and Centacare agencies are mobilising while ACBC President Archbishop Philip Wilson has urged people to give generously.
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13-Feb-2009
Toowoomba Bishop William Morris has said he has been under investigation by the Vatican for two years after discussing the prospect of women or married priests in a pastoral letter.
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12-Feb-2009
Aborigines will establish a tent embassy at St Mary's South Brisbane under the terms of a treaty signed last year between the parish and the local aboriginal community.
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12-Feb-2009
The Toowoomba Catholic primary school principal at the centre of an alleged cover up of child sexual abuse has been suspended.
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10-Feb-2009
Brisbane's St Stephen's Cathedral plans to webcast weddings and funerals from next year and possibly sermons as well, according to Dean Ken Howell.
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09-Feb-2009
Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby is replacing St Mary's, South Brisbane administrator, Fr Peter Kennedy.
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09-Feb-2009
Brisbane's North Coast dean Fr John Dobson, who is also chancellor of the University of the Sunshine Coast, says that workers and employers should consider developing job pacts to minimise the effect of a tightening economy.
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News - International
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13-Feb-2009
Pope Benedict yesterday personally welcomed Australia's new ambassador to the Vatican, former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer.
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10-Feb-2009
Vatican Radio has announced that it has withdrawn an invitation to Novartis Chief Executive Daniel Vasella to act as its "commentator of the week" after it discovered the Swiss pharmaceutical company made contraceptives.
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12-Feb-2009
A Catholic tribunal has allowed Dutch priest Fr Ruud Huysmans to continue a "registered partnership" with theologian Freda Droes despite the opposition of Rotterdam Bishop Ad van Luyn.
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11-Feb-2009
Speaking on the floor of the Senate, Itay's Health Minister has announced that long term coma patient Eluana Englaro is dead only four days after doctors began a "gradual" reduction in her food and water intake.
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11-Feb-2009
Days after a British nurse was reinstated after a suspension for offering to pray for a patient, it has emerged that a foster mother has also been struck off the register for allowing a Muslim girl in her care to convert to Christianity.
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09-Feb-2009
Evangelical British nurse, Caroline Petrie, who was suspended without pay for offering to pray for a patient's recovery has been reinstated and will return to work in the next few days.
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12-Feb-2009
Foreign ministry spokesman, Le Dung, says the Vietnamese government has agreed to a meeting next week with the Vatican to discuss issues relating to the establishment of ties.
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10-Feb-2009
The Latin American Chapter of the Society of St Pius X has announced that controversial Bishop Richard Williamson has been removed from his post as head of the Society's seminary in Argentina.
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Regulars
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13-Feb-2009
When ABC Radio National shelved The Religion Report, it set off a wave of comments that its other axed specialist programs did not generate. Many notable individuals raised their concerns about the consequences of its demise. - Fatima Measham, Australian Catholics
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12-Feb-2009
Population growth can aid economic development, as in Australia. But development economists are generally of the view that rapid population growth can put great pressure on resources, making it extremely difficult to lift peoples out of acute deprivation. In such circumstances families and communities may feel morally obliged to reduce their birth rates. - Fr Bruce Duncan, Online Opinion
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11-Feb-2009
In recent months dioceses around the world have been offering Catholics a spiritual benefit that fell out of favour decades ago - the indulgence, a sort of amnesty from punishment in the afterlife - and reminding them of the Church's clout in mitigating the wages of sin. - Paul Vitello, International Herald Tribune
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10-Feb-2009
Nearly halfway through the Year of St Paul, it is worthwhile reflecting on the relationship between Paul's missionary spirit and what goes to the heart of a priestly vocation. Pope Benedict refers to Paul as the world's greatest missionary; the missionary par excellence. - Fr Anthony Denton, Kairos Catholic Journal
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09-Feb-2009
In December, with great fanfare, the Vatican released Dignitas Personae, its latest report on bioethics. Sad to say, the document demonstrates once more that a morality rooted in outdated, pre-scientific understanding is not appropriate to modern realities. I refer not to the hot-button issues of abortion or stem cell research but to the Church's continued opposition to a decidedly pro-life medical intervention: in vitro fertilisation. - Lawrence Krauss, New Scientist
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13-Feb-2009
Flame Ministries International is a Perth based ministry of lay evangelists established as a public association of Christ's faithful under Canon law. It positions itself as a Catholic ministry of the Word, feeding the poor in spirit.
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12-Feb-2009
Latin Mass Melbourne is a website for the community attached to the extraordinary form of the Mass in the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
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11-Feb-2009
The Queensland Catholic Education Commission is a body established by the Bishops of Queensland which has statewide responsibility in respect of Catholic schools which are administered by five diocesan education authorities and a number of religious institutes of Queensland.
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10-Feb-2009
A Nun's Life is the personal blog of Sr Julie Vieira from the servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary congregation based in the United States. Her mission is to change the face of nun imagery on the web and she is keen to portray religious sisters in their real and daily lives.
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09-Feb-2009
The Queensland Bioethics Centre is sponsored by the Brisbane Archdiocese. It provides regular briefings on current bioethical issues, an up-to-date resource library, workshops for professional and community groups and parishes, and an online resource centre.
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12-Feb-2009
What a pleasant surprise. For those who like their films visually appealing and literate, intelligent and delightful, Dean Spanley will be a most satisfying entertainment. It is G rated though it is not a children's film. - Fr Peter Malone, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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09-Feb-2009
Living Life Now appears on Aurora Community Channel on Foxtel and Austar and is hosted by motivational speaker Craig Harper, with co-hosts Emma Lechte and Vanessa O'Hanlon. It is a popular Pay TV program that provides an educational and inspirational resource for people who are serious about creating their best life.
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13-Feb-2009
Anyone who has been confounded by the Church's mishandling of the child sex abuse crisis will benefit from Nicholas Cafardi's detailed account of the Church's response prior to the 2002 approval in Dallas of the US Bishops' Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. - US Catholic
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13-Feb-2009
As far as the Italian secular Left is concerned, it is increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to disentangle Italian politics from the Vatican. The row over Berlusconi's last minute intervention to try to save the life of Eluana Englaro was believed to have happened after a call from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state. The case became a test over whether the Vatican is dictating Italian policy on issues from euthanasia to birth control and homosexuality. - Richard Owen, The Tablet
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12-Feb-2009
Controversial Christian leader Danny Nalliah says the Victorian bushfires are a punishment for decriminalising abortion. Danny Nalliah is wildly wrong. He is wrong as a theologian, a thinker and a pastor, and has shocked and appalled both the mainstream community and the vast majority of his fellow Christians. They feel he has brought the name of Christ into disrepute. - Barney Zwartz, The Age
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11-Feb-2009
In the end, faith is not simply the good, secure feeling that God exists. Faith is a commitment to a way of living beyond good and secure feelings. To have faith means to sometimes live our lives independent of whatever feelings may come. Ultimately faith is not in the head or the heart but in the action of a sustained commitment. Faith is fidelity, nothing more but nothing less. - Fr Ron Rolheiser, ronrolheiser.com
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10-Feb-2009
Traditional Catholics accept that the Pope cannot err on the few occasions when the head of the Catholic Church makes consciously infallible statements on matters pertaining to faith and morals. But on those matters which pertain to governance, the Vatican is just as subject to error as any other political or religious leadership. - Gerard Henderson, The Sydney Morning Herald
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09-Feb-2009
The public could be forgiven for thinking that non-government schools only serve the wealthy; that they are awash with funds; and that the impending review of Commonwealth funding to non-government schools should conclude that less is best. - Kevin Donnelly, The Age
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11-Feb-2009
Archbishop Denis Hart will offer Mass for those who have lost their lives in the Victorian bushfires and the spiritual support of those who have suffered through the fires at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne this Thursday February 12.
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10-Feb-2009
Relations between Christians, Jews and Muslims are among the most divisive, challenging and important issues in the world today. Despite their often violent differences, each share a common heritage as the Children of Abraham and the worship of one God.
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