A five month old girl died yesterday after the child's mother left her in the family car while she collected her other children from a Toowoomba Catholic school.
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Abuse victims plan protest for pope
Support groups for victims of clerical abuse are joining together to hold protests during Pope Benedict's Australian visit.
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Defend religious freedom: Jesuit calls on Muslims
Muslims must defend religious freedom if dialogue between Christianity and Islam is to progress, a German Jesuit expert on Islam has said.
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Rudd cites community hub need
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd cited a St Vincent de Paul Society proposal for community hubs in his 2020 Summit summary, Vinnies president Dr John Falzon says.
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US honour for Notre Dame's Tannock
Notre Dame University Vice Chancellor Dr Peter Tannock has received a prestigious award, the Christus Magister Medal, from an American university.
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45 dead in Brazilian Pentecost festival disaster
At least 45 people are dead after a ferry carrying pilgrims to a Brazilian Pentecost festival capsized on a remote Amazon tributary.
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Feature - Our common links
We live in a linked-up world! We might not think about the links very much but they are there. There are the physical links likes pipes, wires, roads and railway lines. There are radio and televisions links and the World Wide Web. There are other kinds of links in our life too, such as marriage and family links, school and town links, national links, worldwide links. People even speak of being linked with others in a "global village". - Fr John Martin, The Majellan
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Featured Website - CathCommunity.org
Another week passes and another Catholic social networking site pops up on the web. CathCommunity.org is an initiative of the England and Wales Catholic Bishops' Conference and was launched only two days ago. It is designed as a forum where people can explore their faith, be challenged by those who disagree and dispel myths about Catholicism.
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Film Review - What happens in Vegas
The title of this film plays with the common and contemporary throwaway line, "what happens on tour stays on tour." The idea that we can become a different moral person away from home without any effect on our daily lives is as naive as it is immoral. We are our behaviour at home or on tour, and, in a sense, our integrity is more to be judged when we think no one is looking then when we are under the usual scrutiny. - Fr Richard Leonard, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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Opinion - What to do when feeling bored at Mass
We do not primarily come to the Eucharist in order to derive pleasure out of it for ourselves. We come to give ourselves to God no matter what it costs. We are not seeking our own pleasure but, like Jesus, both in worship and outside of worship, we always try to do what pleases the Father rather than what pleases ourselves. - Fr John Kelly, Marist Messenger
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OPINION
Beyond knowledge to wisdomI believe this is one of the crisis points for contemporary Christianity. Put bluntly, its representatives do not seem wise. Yes, those representatives can give you any amount of information, some of them can even speak knowledgeably of Christian teachings. Wisdom is another thing altogether. - Fr Michael Whelan [More] - Aquinas Academy
FEATURE
Connected across bordersIt is time for leaders of nations to see their national interests as connected with the interests of people on the other side of the globe. We have reached the point where human existence is at stake and our destiny is inextricably linked. If we are to overcome this crisis of climate change we need to think beyond the confines of national states. - Just Comment [More] - Edmund Rice Centre
FEATURED CATHOLIC WEBSITE
Catholic Education Diocese of ParramattaReturning to our education theme, we shine the spotlight on arguably the most innovative Catholic education website in the country. In addition to all the standard features of any CEO site, Parramatta's includes some interactive opinion polls and a competition for students to attempt to ''Become the Executive Director for the day''. The site is also well regarded for its RE and curriculum resources.
- www.parra.catholic.edu.au
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Commission condemns free trade deal for war on Iraq
Melbourne's Catholic Commission for Justice Development and Peace yesterday expressed alarm at the news that the US administration was aiming at rewarding Australia for its participation in a US led war on Iraq by negotiating an Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
US Trade Representative Bob Zoellick (pictured), attending the WTO ministers meeting in Sydney this week, made the connection explicit between Australia's support for war on Iraq and the Administrations support for a US-Australia FTA.
"Australia has fought with the United States in every war in the 20th century," he said. "They've been strong supporters of ours, and to me that matters."
The Melbourne Commission's Executive Officer Marc Purcell commented: "The US Trade representative recent actions in squashing the US farm lobby opposition to a Free Trade Agreement with Australia, reinforces what experts have been saying, that a free trade deal is part of the reason why John Howard, alone of world leaders has joined the US and the UK in war talk."
Mr Purcell said that committing Australian troops to a war on Iraq when a Free Trade Deal is a major motivation "blurs judgment and is morally questionable".
"As many as 260,000 Iraqi civilians would die in the first three months of a invasion of Iraq according to the Medical Association for the Prevention of War," he pointed out. "To have trade deals at the as part Australia's motivations for participating in such mass slaughter of innocents is absolutely, morally wrong,"
SOURCE
Catholic Commission for Justice Development and Peace
LINKS
US, Australia likely to talk on free-trade (The Age)
Catholic Commission for Justice Development and Peace (Melbourne)
CATHOLICS SAY "NO" TO THE WTO
The Australian Catholic Movement for Intellectual & Cultural Affairs (ACMICA) has joined a coalition opposing what it calls the "fundamentalist agenda of the World Trade Organisation".
The ministerial meeting is taking place in Sydney today and tomorrow./
"Possibly one of the most despised international organisations, the WTO pushes an economic fundamentalist agenda of rigid trade rules and principles aimed at reducing governments' right to regulate trade and investment in the public interest." ACMICA organiser Minh Nguyen said.
"The effect is to permanently disengage the economy from society to make it a thing in itself, to be worshipped and made sacrifices to.
"The WTO promotes the evangelisation of an irrational and de-legitimate economic system that privileges accumulation over human needs; and favours the strong over the weak.
SOURCE
ACMICA
LINKS
ACMICA
Catholic groups preparing to challenge WTO (31/10/02)
World Trade Organisation
Say No to WTO
WTO Protests
14 Nov 2002
