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
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".
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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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Continued growth in diocesan seminary numbers
Australian seminaries are reporting a steady increase in numbers in the years since recruitment reached rock-bottom in 1996.
Sydney's Good Shepherd Seminary Rector Bishop Julian Porteous told AD2000 that there are now 42 students in residence, the largest number for many years. This includes a 2005 intake of ten for the Archdiocese of Sydney, as well as one candidate for Canberra-Goulburn, one for Wollongong and another for a Burmese diocese.
Good Shepherd Seminary in Sydney is under the jurisdiction of Cardinal George Pell. The other two dioceses covering parts of the Sydney metropolitan area - Parramatta and Broken Bay - make their own arrangements and have no candidates currently residing at the Good Shepherd Seminary.
Within the Sydney Archdiocese, the recently established Redemptoris Mater Sydney (or Archdiocesan Missionary seminary), operated by the the Neocatechumenate, with 50 missionary seminaries worldwide, has 16 seminarians for 2005.
Elsewhere in NSW, Vianney College in the Wagga Wagga Diocese continues to attract recruits for the priesthood. This year there are at least seven seminarians in training for the diocese. Since its founding in 1992 by Bishop Brennan, the seminary has contributed 25 priests, most of whom are serving in the Wagga Wagga Diocese. Wagga Wagga enjoys the best ratio of priests to Catholic population in the country and has the youngest average age for its priests.
In Perth, the St Charles Seminary has 22 students for 2005, five of whom are new. Of the 22 students, three are for the Diocese of Geraldton and the remainder for the Archdiocese of Perth.
In Melbourne, where major reforms to priestly formation at Corpus Christi College took place in late 1996, numbers have continued to increase, with ten new seminarians entering for 2005 - all for the Melbourne Archdiocese.
The former Director of Vocations in Melbourne, Fr Paul Stuart, told The Australian that the average age of incoming students was "getting younger" at "around 27" with some being "school leavers or just out of university". Significantly, Fr Stuart pointed out: "These new seminarians are different in that they seem to have fewer problems with the authority of the Church."
AD2000 comments that if present trends continue, "the steady influx of young, orthodox priests will have a significant and beneficial impact on the character of the Catholic Church in Australia during coming decades".
Pictured: Seminary of the Good Shepherd, Sydney - Fr Peter Dwyer, Director of First Year, with new First Year seminarians Phan Dinh Nguyen (Syd), Patrick Mara (Syd), Yoon-Jae Seo (Syd), Bryan Wilden (Syd), Peter Kwak (Syd), Greg Morgan (Syd), Nicholas Rynne (Syd), Thuc Van Le (Syd), Pio Jang (Syd), Duane Fernandez (W'gong), Luke Verrell (Can/Gburn)
SOURCE
Australian diocesan seminary numbers continue to increase (AD2000 March 2005)
LINKS (not endorsed by Church Resources)
OzVocations: Life choices for Catholics
Vocations to the Priesthood (Archdiocese of Adelaide)
Catholic Priesthood (Archdiocese of Brisbane) | Holy Spirit Seminary
Vocations (Archdiocese of Hobart)
Catholic Vocations (Archdiocese of Melbourne) | Corpus Christi Seminary
Vocations (Archdiocese of Perth) | St Charles Seminary
Vocations Centre (Archdiocese of Sydney) | Good Shepherd Seminary
ARCHIVE
Pope asks for prayer and support for vocations (CathNews 12/1/05)
Clergy Commission head says priest drought overstated (CathNews 2/12/04)
ARCHIVE
Increase in numbers for seminaries (CathNews 13/1/05)
Clergy Commission head says priest drought overstated (CathNews 2/12/04)
Sydney seminary head claims vocations "worst is over" (CathNews 16/4/03)
Vocation Centre invokes spirit and place (CathNews 23/1/03)
A seminarian's perspective (CathNews 2/1/03)
Pope says standards must be maintained during vocations crisis (CathNews 29/5/02)
Pope says seminarians who finds chastity difficult should forget priesthood (CathNews 18/3/02)
MORE STORIES
The Seminary of the Good Shepherd Welcomes New Seminarians for 2005 (Seminary of the Good Shepherd, Archdiocese of Sydney)
Deacon’s ‘heroic’ decision (Catholic Leader 13/5/05)
Liberal and weak clergy blamed for empty pews (The Times 5/3/05)
11 Mar 2005
