Schools warned on coercive donations




		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\405\123.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\405\123.php on line 131 Schools warned on coercive donations Private schools that pressure parents to pay tax-deductible building levies are in a "grey area" of tax law because such donations are meant to be voluntary, new analysis has found. Under Tax Office guidelines, school building levies are tax-deductible if they are given freely and paid into a public fund used only for buying, constructing or maintaining buildings. But an Australia Institute report to be released today said private schools used coercive language to get parents to pay the levies, which can be up to $1000 a year. The Jesuits' St Aloysius College in Sydney came under fire in the press this morning for having a foundation that receives donations which, the college website states, "parents are expected to join at a level in keeping with their personal circumstances". "While tuition fees cover a major portion of a boy's education at St Aloysius College, fees do not and cannot provide all the funds we need to undertake building projects and new major capital works." The website says the Foundation Building Fund, which has raised $14.7 million in the past 12 years, was "vital to the provision of new buildings and resources". The school did not respond to Herald inquiries but Terry Chapman, director of the NSW Association of Independent Schools, said he was satisfied St Aloysius "was not doing the wrong thing" because it clearly advised that the levies were voluntary. The school's website says a "tax-deductible donation of $235 per family is optional". "I believe that all the schools obey the law and don't engage in practices that are contrary to the tax act," he said. "We do not support any school that is not abiding by the rules." The Sydney Catholic Education Office, which runs 148 schools, said its building and maintenance levy - $252 to $324 per family per year - was not tax-deductible and was paid on top of school fees. Cardinal George Pell told ABC Radio that "nobody is forced to send their children to Catholic schools".. "We have a right to teach our Christian teachings and to follow out the consequences of that." SOURCE Schools accused of gouging levy from parents (Sydney Morning Herald 24/5/04) LINKS Catholic Education Office laments teachers' row (ABC 21/5/04) St Aloysius College \| Schedule of Fees and Charges Australia Institute \| Tax Deductibility of Donations to School Building Funds 24 May 2004