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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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British Catholic group protests after Indonesian police cleared of killings
The Catholic Institute for International Relations has denounced a ruling by an Indonesian Human Rights Court last week that acquitted two senior police officers accused of serious human rights violations.
Indepedent Catholic News reports that the two officers were cleared of all charges of failing to stop gross human rights violations. Yet they were involved in a police operation on 7 December 2000 that resulted in the killing of three Papuan students and the torture of more than 100, in Abepura, Papua, the Western-most province of Indonesia.
According to Theo van den Broek, CIIR Country Representative for East Timor: "The ruling is further proof that the Indonesian government is neither willing nor able to bring human rights abusers in the Indonesian security forces to book."
He added: "It shows that Indonesia's promises to the international community to try those responsible for human rights violations cannot be trusted and that the practice of impunity is alive and well."
The ruling in the Abepura case casts further doubt on the prospects for justice for victims of rights violations in East Timor. The international community appears increasingly willing to turn a blind eye to attempts by the Indonesian government to avert legal process and secure impunity for those responsible for war crimes there.
In a report completed on 26 May 2005, the independent Commission of Experts, mandated by the United Nations, made recommendations to address the poor progress on the issue of rights violations in East Timor.
These included recommending that the UN ensure that the investigation into and prosecution of serious crimes in East Timor maintain an independent and international component as local resources are insufficient; that the UN set up mechanisms to allow the East Timorese government to retain sovereignty over the justice process, facilitate capacity building of the judiciary and provide opportunities for the international community to help address human rights issues.
These recommendations offer the best hope of delivering the genuine justice that the victims of human rights violations deserve and international law demands. Yet the UN Security Council has so far failed to properly consider the report.
CIIR, along with the churches and other civil society groups in East Timor, is urging the UN Security Council to endorse the commission's recommendations.
SOURCE
CIIR protests after police cleared of killings in Indonesia (Independent Catholic News 13/9/05)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Catholic Institute for International Relations
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14 Sep 2005
