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.
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Volunteers refuse WYD powers
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Bees for Benedict
Italian scooter manufacturer Piaggio has presented Pope Benedict with two new specially made three wheeled vehicles.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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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Vatican theologians to shine "light of God's mercy" on Limbo conundrum
As the public imagination wrestled with the idea of hundreds of invalid baptisms in South Brisbane, the Vatican's International Theological Commission was last week determining that the question of Limbo - the supposed destination for the unbaptised - would be studied "in the light of God's mercy".
The Commission - which includes Redemptorist Fr Anthony Kelly of the Australian Catholic University's Brisbane campus - said that the response to calls to resolve long-standing doubts about the status of limbo should not focus on limbo in isolation from its larger context.
Last week's media revelation of the fact of improperly baptised Catholics in Brisbane brought the question of Limbo into fresh focus. Archbishop John Bathersby declared that children baptised at a South Brisbane church using non-traditional words would have to be re-baptised.
Commission Secretary Fr Luis Ladario told Zenit after a recent session that "to concentrate only on the question of limbo would be to lose the focus of the problem."
He stressed that it would be studied "in the light of God's mercy".
He affirmed that "limbo is not the problem; in fact, it was a historical attempt to proffer a solution in the face of the death of a child who has not been baptised."
"What is interesting is to study this topic in the light of God's universal saving will, the unique mediation of Jesus Christ, and the Church's sacramentalism," he said.
In addition to limbo, the theologians of this commission, which forms part of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, are studying natural law -- moral norms that correspond to man's nature and that can be known by the use of reason -- and the status of theology and its methods.
The commission comprises theologians of various schools and nations, distinguished for their knowledge and faithfulness to the Church's magisterium. The members, whose number does not exceed 30, are appointed by the Pope for five years after being proposed by the prefect of the doctrinal congregation in consultation with the bishops' conferences.
SOURCE
Theologians to Go Beyond Question of Limbo (Zenit 25/11/04)
LINKS
Australian priests stop ‘New Age’ baptism, retake Trinitarian formula (Catholic News Agency 27/11/04)
Australian bishop rebukes priests for invalid baptisms (Catholic World News 23/11/04)
Non-traditional baptisms ruled invalid (The Courier Mail 24/11/04)
Brisbane Tribunal vicar comments on invalid baptisms (CathNews 25/11/04)
Parishioners to be re-baptised after 'invalid' service (ABC Radio PM 24/11/04)
Toe the line, church tells priest (Sydney Morning Herald/Australian Associated Press 24/11/04)
Australian bishop rebukes priests for invalid baptisms (Catholic World News 23/11/04)
Non-traditional baptisms ruled invalid (The Courier Mail 24/11/04)
Brisbane Archbishop stops "inclusive" baptism (CathNews 23/11/04)
Church rebuked for 'new' baptism (The Courier Mail 23/11/04)
Bathersby censures St Mary's Church (Online Catholics 13/10/04)
Catholic Parish of South Brisbane
Vatican Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum
29 Nov 2004
