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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Catholic bishops back government AIDS plan
The leadership of South Africa's Catholic Church on Wednesday welcomed the government's undertaking to mount an anti-retroviral HIV/Aids treatment program.
At the end of its plenary assembly outside Durban yesterday, the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) warned that logistical problems should not be allowed to slow down the roll-out of the drugs program.
The South African Cabinet has asked the Department of Health to draw up a comprehensive operational plan by the end of next month, for the anti-retroviral therapy programme in state hospitals and clinics.
"If carried out in full, this would represent a critical step in bringing hope and relief to great numbers of people affected by the pandemic, and in easing the burden on health personnel who are working in stressful conditions in hospitals and clinics," the SACBC said in a statement.
"Logistical considerations, and the necessary support infrastructure for such a comprehensive plan are indeed challenges to be faced. But these cannot be allowed to further delay our response as a nation to those most in need of anti-retroviral therapy," the bishops said.
The week-long conference, which brought together 28 bishops from South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland, ended on Wednesday. The 28 bishops represent about 4,5-million Catholics in the three countries.
The bishops urged all sectors of society to work together in implementing the program and called on the government to provide "effective and sustained leadership" in the months ahead.
SOURCE
Mail & Guardian Online
LINKS
Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference
Antiretroviral Budget is the Vital Issue (Allafrica.com/Business Day)
Overview of antiretroviral drugs (UCSF Center for HIV Information)
14 Aug 2003
