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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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Pell urges more study of classic English texts
As part of a broader attack on relativism - the idea that nothing is absolute - Cardinal George Pell told the National Press Club yesterday that injecting postmodernism into the school curriculum threatens to normalise "moral and social disorder".
The Australian reports that he criticised schools that abandon traditional English programs in favour of "critical literacy". These schools are effectively trying to make students agents of social change, normalising "moral and social disorder".
Cardinal Pell was speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra (pictured).
"While parents wonder why their children have never heard of the Romantic poets, Yeats or the Great War poets, and never ploughed through a Bronte, Orwell or Dickens novel, their children are engaged in analysing a variety of 'texts', including films, magazines, advertisements and even road signs as part of critical literacy," Cardinal Pell declared.
Debate has raged in recent months about the educational value of the critical literacy program, which encourages students to approach all texts - from books through to television commercials - from the point of view of the possible suspect motives behind it.
It has been described by advocates in the education sector as a "radical educational idea" that openly politicises the classroom.
Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson, who has been scathing about the ideologically driven nature of critical literacy, said last month its proponents were "doing significant damage to our future".
Cardinal Pell also criticised the political agendas involved in the critical literacy approach.
In a broader attack, Dr Pell warned against the "dictatorship of relativism", a phrase coined by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in an address in Rome just before he was elected to the papacy as Benedict XVI.
Dr Pell said Australians should be aware of "the effects of an increase in the secular-relativist bite into Christianity": previous moral norms society accepted such as standards on lying, breaking promises, assault, abuse and cheating would be vulnerable to revision.
"Conscience would become personal preference - a polite term for 'doing it my way', and clear thinking and past wisdom would be repudiated and ridiculed," he said.
Hard as it was to believe Australia would ever reject the most fundamental moral principles, "it was hard only 50 years ago to believe we would abort 100,000 babies a year, contemplate men marrying men, killing the sick, experimenting on human embryos."
SOURCE
Pell's text message: English syllabus has no morals (The Australian 22/9/05)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Archdiocese of Sydney | Cardinal George Pell: The Dictatorship of Relativism: Address to the National Press Club, Canberra (Archdiocese of Sydney 21/9/05)
National Press Club of Australia
MORE STORIES
Latham book sad - Pell (Daily Telegraph 21/9/05)
Pell blast for pop learning (Herald-Sun 22/9/05)
Pointed lesson (Sydney Morning Herald 21/9/05)
Pell warns on curtailing unions (The Age 22/9/05)
22 Sep 2005
