Pope urges authentic "church of the Poor"




		Year of Paul an ecumenical opportunity: Pope Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and representatives of other Orthodox and Anglican churches accompanied Pope Benedict in lighting a candle to launch the Year of St Paul. [More] Volunteers refuse WYD powers Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service volunteers will not seek "authorised person" status while assisting with WYD in order to avoid "negative interactions with people". [More] Vietnam up, US down on WYD numbers A record number of Vietnamese pilgrims will attend World Youth Day this year but US numbers are down - and 50 Angola pilgrims are stranded in Sydney instead of Adelaide because tour organisers thought the SA capital was only an hour way. [More] Celebrate the living spirit: Bishops urge Australia's bishops have urged Catholics to "celebrate the Living Spirit" to mark Aboriginal and Torres Islander Sunday this weekend. [More] Korean priests in Mass protest against US beef Two hundred South Korean priests have celebrated a street Mass in Seoul to protest an unpopular government decision to resume beef imports from the US. [More] Bees for Benedict Italian scooter manufacturer Piaggio has presented Pope Benedict with two new specially made three wheeled vehicles. [More] Feature - Walking away from what they do not know "People who leave the Church are not leaving because they are rejecting the teachings of John Paul II or Pope Benedict. Most do so because they go to Catholic schools and they think that the kind of warm secular humanism with Christian gloss that they get in Catholic schools is in fact the Catholic faith and it hasn't captured their imagination, their love or their intellect so they are walking away from something that they do not know." - The Catholic Herald [More] Featured Website - First Things First Things is a monthly ecumenical journal concerned with the creation of a "religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society." It is published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life in the United States of America. [More] Film Review - Kung Fu Panda Kung Fu Panda is essentially a martial arts comedy and is a total action movie. It has striking effects and action sequences and a particularly impressive concluding fantasy sequence which brings DreamWorks to a new level of technological sophistication. There is a strong cultural feel about the movie and it heavily draws on Chinese culture to bring authenticity to its fantasy. - Peter Sheehan, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting [More] Opinion - God is without circumference His challenge was to see the beauty in every face, even when the owner of that face had long given up on it. Surely, that is to love others as Jesus did—Jesus the One who never gives up on us. If we are to love as Jesus loved, we need to be forgiving people. Forgiving people are bridge-builders and reconcilers. - Fr Chris Gleeson, Madonna [More] OPINION Beyond knowledge to wisdom I 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 borders It 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 Parramatta Returning 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
				Warning: main(http://www.cathnews.com/cgi-bin/ad_management.pl) [function.main]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found in E:\hshome\eureka0\cathnews.com\news\309\153.php on line 131 Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://www.cathnews.com/cgi-bin/ad_management.pl' for inclusion (include_path='.\;C:\HSphere.NET\3rdparty\PHP\4.4.7\PEAR') in E:\hshome\eureka0\cathnews.com\news\309\153.php on line 131 Pope urges authentic "church of the Poor" As Australian Catholics prepare to celebrate Social Justice Sunday, Pope John Paul II has said the Church should be a "Church of the poor" that gives preference to the neediest members of society. Speaking to bishops from Mindanao in the southern Philippines, the Holy Father stressed that a "preferential option for the poor" does not mean the Church works exclusively with the economic poor and ignores the other sectors of society. He said that the option for the poor involves what he called the "evangelical spirit of poverty". He said that means all Catholics - regardless of economic class or social stanging - "combine detachment from possessions with a profound trust in the Lord as the sole source of salvation". The Pope envisages that the poor are active participants in the life of the Church, not merely recipients of charity. He said: "The Church of the poor is a Church in which the poor are welcomed, listened to and actively involved." He was responding enthusiastically to a statement of vision and mission from the Philippine bishops in which they resolved to "follow the way of the Lord" by "opting to be a Church of the poor". SOURCE Zenit LINKS Catholic Social Teaching: Option for the Poor (Archdiocese of St Paul & Minneapolis Office for Social Justice) Option for the Poor and Vulnerable (Centre of Concern) Mother Teresa0…7s order pray for pope0…7s health (AFP) John Paul II greets audience pilgrims from Castelgandolfo (Vatican Information Service) Back at Vatican, Pope faces busy October schedule (Catholic World News) Pope returning to Vatican from summer residence (Catholic World News) Pope resumes normal service (The Australian/AFP) 26 Sep 2003