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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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Redemptorist says "ghetto" piety sidelining social justice
Fr Bruce Duncan, who coordinates social justice studies at Melbourne's Yarra Theological Union, has said that a renewed stress on older forms of piety is reflecting "a deepening cleavage within the Catholic community over the place of social justice in the ministry of the Church".
Online Catholics reports today that despite the Church's long and solid record of commitment to social justice, many Catholics are unaware of the Church's social justice tradition.
Catholic bishops have been releasing statements on issues of social and economic concern since the 1940s, most recently for Social Justice Sunday last weekend.
The Online Catholics report asks whether the problem is a lack of effective education and promotion, or whether there are there more underlying problems.
It quotes Fr Duncan, one of Australia's leading Catholic social teaching scholars: "There is a deepening cleavage within the Catholic community over the place of social justice in the ministry of the Church and the faith of Catholics."
Fr Duncan, who co-ordinates the social justice studies program at Melbourne's Yarra Theological Union explains: "In recent years, more conservative groups have wanted to down-play social justice in the mission of the Church, as if it were a distraction from authentic Christian living, or at least a very secondary aspect.
"Instead we see a very heavy stress on older forms of piety or devotionalism or mass displays of Catholic numbers. This seems to reflect a return to the old ghetto strategy, of circling the wagons in a hostile world, combined with a heavy stress on Church authority.
"This cleavage is reflected at many levels of the Church, and even in Rome. Debate revolves around the interpretation of [the Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on] The Church in the Modern World and the social encyclicals, which are generally ignored or down-played by the conservative wings, except for the morals of sexuality and family life," Fr Duncan asserts.
SOURCE
Teaching social justice (Online Catholics 28/9/05)
28 Sep 2005
