A US Coast Guard officer who refused to be injected with a vaccine derived from the remains of an aborted child has won an exemption from the required vaccination.
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Pope thanks "wifes of Christ"
Pope Benedict yesterday thanked consecrated virgins for their "total gift" to Christ encouraging them to "always irradiate the dignity of being the wife of Christ."
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Mail and penny drop for WYD
Preparations for World Youth Day have stepped up a notch with a letter drop to half a million Sydney homes and the release of a commemorative colour coin of the Pope.
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Priest in supermarket trolley protest
Melbourne parish priest, Fr Noel Brady, has launched a protest against unsightly supermarket trolleys left abandond in streets for up to three months.
[More]
Call to follow WA and reject cloning
Sydney archdiocese policy officer, Dr Brigid McKenna, has welcomed a decision by the Western Australian Legislative Council to reject cloning as a victory for "commonsense science and morality."
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US churches offer mortgage help
With US lenders threatening to repossess 650,000 homes in the first quarter of 2008, Catholic parishes are mobilising to offer assistance to mortgage distressed homeowners.
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Feature - A new dawn for Sorry Day
It is time for this country to build new relationships and to be open to future possibilities, we commit ourselves to deep, on-going dialogue with our indigenous sisters and brothers on further ways of moving forward. - Fr Mark Raper, Pathways
[More]
Featured Website - Ron Rolheiser
This is the website of one of the best known Catholic priests in the western world. Fr Rolheiser is best known through his writings and lecturing on spirituality and prising open the Word in such a clear, beautiful and heart-inspiring style.
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Film Review - Shutter
Based on a 2004 Thai film of the same name, Shutter is an American/Japanese production. If you can take the shocks and violence of this genre, this film is worth the admission price for the cinematography alone. - Fr Richard Leonard, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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Opinion - Middle class creep in Irish Church
During the transformation of Irish society from a largely rural and agricultural economy to an industrialised one there occurred a failure of imagination in the Irish Church. - Fr Oliver Rafferty, The Catholic Herald
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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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Carroll doubts Just War as Pope sends envoy to Iraq
Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference President Archbishop Francis Carroll told a high-profile ABC Radio forum that he's not convinced there is Just Cause for war with Iraq.
Addressing Thursday night's debate, moderated by Phillip Adams in Old Parliament House, Archbishop Carroll said the first requirement for a Just War was that there had to be Just Cause.
"Usually defence against an unjust aggressor would be seen as a Just Cause," he said.
Second, he said, there must be a Right Intention on the party undertaking the Just War and to oppose terrorism and weapons of mass destruction could constitute a Right Intention.
The decision had to be taken by a Legitimate Authority, in this case the United Nations, there needed to be a Reasonable Chance of Success, Proportion between the evil of war and the evil to be eliminated and war must be a Last Resort.
"At the moment, I am not yet convinced that to take pre-emptive action against Iraq would be a Just War," he concluded.
SOURCE
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference
SOURCE
Archbishop Francis Carroll - transcript of Radio National Old Parliament House Debate
Public Debate: Should Australia go to war in Iraq? (ABC Radio National - Late Night Live) | Audio (requires Real player)
PAPAL ENVOY TO VISIT IRAQ
Pope John Paul II will dispatch a special envoy to Iraq to emphasise his plea for peace and to encourage Iraqi authorities to cooperate with the United Nations, the Vatican announced on Sunday.
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, emeritus president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, will leave Rome on Monday for Baghdad, accompanied by a counsellor, Monsignor Franco Coppola.
Their mission is to "show to all the plea of the Holy Father in favour of peace and to help the Iraqi authorities to seriously reflect on the need for effective international cooperation, based on justice and international rights, with the aim of assuring this population of the supreme good of peace," papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement.
The Vatican has been outspoken in its opposition to a new Iraq conflict, with top officials saying a preventive US-led attack would have no legal or moral justification. The Holy Father himself has said war against Iraq would be a "defeat for humanity".
Pope John Paul reiterated his concerns on Sunday, telling crowds gathered in St. Peter's
Square for his weekly appearance: "In this hour of international concern, we all feel the need to turn ourselves to the Lord to implore the great gift of peace."
The pope was a vocal opponent of the 1991 Gulf War, and has frequently spoken out in opposition to U.N. sanctions imposed on Baghdad after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Etchegaray previously has served as the pope's envoy to trouble spots, most recently to the Middle East, where he tried to help end the standoff last year between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.
SOURCE
AP
CARITAS PREPARES TO DEPLOY HUMANITARIAN AID TO IRAQ
Caritas International, the Catholic Church-run worldwide assistance network, is preparing to address the consequences of a possible military attack on Iraq.
"We are preparing to be massacred," the Caritas-Iraq office said.
During a meeting with the media on Wednesday, Jose Sanchez Faba, Director of Caritas-Spain, explained that the different national Caritas offices (there are 154 worldwide) are preparing to give humanitarian assistance, in case the United States attacks Iraq.
Many have already begun to collect provisions, medicine, and clothes as a precaution. The office of Cartas-Iraq, located in Amman, Jordan, will coordinate Caritas' humanitarian aid if hostilities do break out.
"We estimate that there will be around 500,000 displaced people if the war breaks out," the directors of Caritas-Spain said, "and this only if it is, as the U.S. has announced, a rapid action. If the war is prolonged, the number would be much greater."
"Caritas-Iraq has already appealed for help from different delegations of the association, [asking] them to send provisions, clothes, etc., as people would go to the churches for protection in case of war," they said.
SOURCE
Zenit
LINKS
Pakistan Catholic Religious March To Protest Possible U.S. Attack On Iraq (UCA News)
Pope Sends Special Envoy to Baghdad (Catholic World News)
Iraq: Dominicans Planning New Projects (Vidimus Dominum)
Iraq's Aziz to pray for peace (Reuters)
Iraq: North American Consensus against the War especially in Canada (Fr Ron Rolheiser, quoted by Vidimus Dominum)
John Paul II Calls for Peace in Iraqi Crisis (Zenit)
Pope sends envoy to talk with Iraqis (Washington Times)
Pope Is Sending Envoy to Baghdad in Effort to Avert a War (New York Times)
Mission to avert 'clash of civilisations' (London Times)
Pope takes issue with America's 'just war' (London Times)
Papal envoy will urge Iraqis to aid inspectors (New York Times/International Herald Tribunal)
Pope Sends Papal Envoy to Baghdad (Zenit)
Panelists trace role of religion in foreign policy (Catholic News Service)
Rome resists Bush's plea for a blessing on aggression (Ray Cassin in The Sunday Age)
Don't use war to respond to Iraq, Vatican rep says after Powell talk
There is still time (NZ Church Leaders)
Pope and German Foreign Minister Discuss Iraq and Europe (Zenit)
Iraq: In War Jesuits not to Abandon Poor, Women, Children (Vidimus Dominum)
Iraq: Jesuits: No Moral Justification for a Preventive War (Vidimus Dominum)
Pope steps up peace drive (Reuters)
Pope, German Foreign Minister Discuss Iraq Crisis (Catholic World News)
11 Feb 2003
