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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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World Priest Day focus on friendship with Christ
In a message for today's World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests, the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy has proposed that priests rediscover that friendship with Christ which led them to embrace their vocation in the first place.
The World Day is a recent institution introduced by Pope John Paul II in the wake of the sex abuse scandals of this decade.
"The secret or key of priestly life is the passionate love of Christ, which brings with it Christ's passionate announcement," says a document issued by the Congregation for Clergy for the World Day of Prayer.
The document issued by the Vatican dicastery includes John Paul II's Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday 2005, as well as Benedict XVI's first proposals.
The new Bishop of Rome "has called us to live this Year of the Eucharist rediscovering the friendship of Christ," making it "the key to our priestly existence," explains the document.
"We are called to 'always return again to the root of our priesthood. This root, as we well know, is a single thing, Our Lord Jesus Christ,'" explains the text.
Quoting Benedict XVI's homily at the Mass that officially inaugurated his pontificate, the document states: "Whoever lets Christ enter will not lose anything, nothing that will render life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of the human condition opened up. Only in this friendship do we experience what is good and free."
The feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was promulgated after Christ's apparitions to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a religious of the Visitation in the French town of Paray-le-Monial.
When Christ appeared to the saint he expressed his sorrow over the sins and sacrileges of humanity, but especially the infidelities of those consecrated to him, particularly his priests.
Pictured: Image from e-card available from World Day of Prayer for Priests website.
SOURCE
Holy See Urges Priests To Focus On Friendship With Christ (Catholic Bishops Conference of India/Zenit 1/6/05)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests
Congregation for the Clergy
ARCHIVE
Vatican announces Day of Prayer for Sanctification of Priests (CathNews 6/2/05)
MORE STORIES
Key to priestly life is passionate love of Christ, says Vatican (catholicireland.net 2/6/05)
On Priestly Sanctification (Zenit 31/5/05)
3 Jun 2005
