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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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Kirkuk Archbishop fears for future of Iraq Christianity
Christianity in Iraq teeters on the brink of extinction amid new fears that the proposed constitution could deny religious minorities their rights, according to Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk.
Aid to the Church in Need reports that Archbishop Sako said that if the country’s draft permanent constitution fails to protect civil liberties for religious minorities, it could spark a mass exodus of Christians.
The remarks came after fierce debate over whether the constitution should acknowledge Sharia as the ‘sole source’ of law in Iraq.
In his interview with the charity's media office, Archbishop Sako said that if the constitution embraced Islamic Sharia law, his faithful risked losing their freedom.
He said: “We are very worried. If there is nothing that assures Christians of their rights, they will leave for other countries.”
“We are asking people to stay in this country but the problem is that we cannot give them a vision for the future. None of us knows what the future will hold.”
The archbishop’s comments came as Iraqi leaders yet again postponed a vote on the constitution, the key step before the document is submitted to parliament.
As tensions mount amid continued wrangling over the constitution, Archbishop Sako said Christians were finding it very difficult to make their voices heard.
The problem is made virtually intractable as Christians represent well below one million in a country with a total population of 24 million – more than 90 percent of whom are Muslim.
“What will our rights be?” asked Archbishop Sako. “The Christians were here long before the coming of Islam and the Arabs. We are an indigenous population – we are not foreign or strange. Where is the democracy that we all longed for?”
A constitution acknowledging the primacy of Sharia would, he said, make it very difficult to be a Christian. They would, he said, suffer everything from pressure for Christian women to wear the hijab veil through to severe restrictions on building or repairing churches. Christians would have little protection in law, with prejudice weighted firmly in favour of Muslims.
The archbishop – a member of Iraq’s largest Christian denomination, the Chaldeans – went on to underline his concerns about the proposed federalisation of Iraq, especially the plans for Shiite Muslims to take control of the south, including the capital, Baghdad, which has the largest number of Iraqi Christians.
SOURCE
Iraq – Constitution crisis for Christians (Aid to the Church in Need 24/8/05)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Aid to the Church in Need
Iraqi Transitional Government
Test of the draft Iraqi Constitution (Associated Press/The Wichita Eagle 24/8/05)
ARCHIVE
Pope concern for Iraqi Christians after two terror attacks (CathNews 9/12/04)
Catholics rebuild churches in Iraq despite ongoing violence (CathNews 26/11/04)
Iraqi Christians look ahead to uncertain future (CathNews 15/4/03)
Iraqi Christians consecrate country to Mary Queen of Peace (CathNews 24/3/03)
MORE STORIES
An Islamic Republic of Iraq? (BBC 23/8/05)
'Progress' on Iraq constitution (BBC 14/8/05)
Sunni support crucial for Iraqi constitution (catholicireland.net 24/8/05)
Letter from Mother Teresa orphanage in Baghdad (Independent Catholic News 10/8/05)
Baghdad Catholic youth celebrate WYD in Iraq capital, salute Pope and pilgrims in Cologne (Catholic News Agency 20/8/05)
Two young Iraqi men stranded in Jordan on their way to Cologne (AsiaNews.it 12/8/05)
Salvadoran archbishop opposes sending additional troops to Iraq (The Universe 5/8/05)
The Church in Iraq does not give in to terrorism (AsiaNews.it 1/8/05)
25 Aug 2005
