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A US Coast Guard officer who refused to be injected with a vaccine derived from the remains of an aborted child has won an exemption from the required vaccination.
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Pope thanks "wifes of Christ"
Pope Benedict yesterday thanked consecrated virgins for their "total gift" to Christ encouraging them to "always irradiate the dignity of being the wife of Christ."
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Mail and penny drop for WYD
Preparations for World Youth Day have stepped up a notch with a letter drop to half a million Sydney homes and the release of a commemorative colour coin of the Pope.
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Priest in supermarket trolley protest
Melbourne parish priest, Fr Noel Brady, has launched a protest against unsightly supermarket trolleys left abandond in streets for up to three months.
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Call to follow WA and reject cloning
Sydney archdiocese policy officer, Dr Brigid McKenna, has welcomed a decision by the Western Australian Legislative Council to reject cloning as a victory for "commonsense science and morality."
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US churches offer mortgage help
With US lenders threatening to repossess 650,000 homes in the first quarter of 2008, Catholic parishes are mobilising to offer assistance to mortgage distressed homeowners.
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Feature - A new dawn for Sorry Day
It is time for this country to build new relationships and to be open to future possibilities, we commit ourselves to deep, on-going dialogue with our indigenous sisters and brothers on further ways of moving forward. - Fr Mark Raper, Pathways
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Featured Website - Ron Rolheiser
This is the website of one of the best known Catholic priests in the western world. Fr Rolheiser is best known through his writings and lecturing on spirituality and prising open the Word in such a clear, beautiful and heart-inspiring style.
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Film Review - Shutter
Based on a 2004 Thai film of the same name, Shutter is an American/Japanese production. If you can take the shocks and violence of this genre, this film is worth the admission price for the cinematography alone. - Fr Richard Leonard, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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Opinion - Middle class creep in Irish Church
During the transformation of Irish society from a largely rural and agricultural economy to an industrialised one there occurred a failure of imagination in the Irish Church. - Fr Oliver Rafferty, The Catholic Herald
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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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Congregation says only priests authorised to anoint sick
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has issued a note reaffirming its determination that only a priest may administer the Sacrament of the Sick. 
Zenit reports that the Congregation was responding to several questions it had received in recent years.
"Neither deacons nor lay persons therefore may exercise such ministry and any action in this connection is a simulation of the sacrament" and would be "invalid," said the dicastery. Canon law provides sanctions for such an action, it added.
The congregation's "Note on the Ministry of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick" was published on Friday in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.
It had been issued by the congregation on 11 February - the World Day of the Sick - with the signature of its then prefect, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI).
The Note, also signed by the dicastery's secretary Archbishop Angelo Amato, is addressed to the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, bishops' conferences and Eastern synods.
The Vatican Note describes as "definitive tenenda" -- to be considered in a definitive manner -- the doctrine that makes the priest the only minister of the sacrament.
The Greek words of the Letter of James, which the Vulgate translates as "presbyteros Ecclesiae," "cannot refer to the elders of the community, but to the particular category of faithful to whom, by the imposition of hands, the Holy Spirit had placed to lead the Church of God," the commentary explained.
The commentary includes a reminder about "the particular dignity and efficacy" of the sacrament, underlining that the priest, being its minister, "makes present in an altogether particular way the Lord Jesus Christ, Head of the Church," because "He who acts in this Sacrament is Jesus Christ," while the priest is the "visible" instrument.
SOURCE
Vatican: Only a Priest Is Minister of Anointing of the Sick (Zenit 24/10/05)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Vatican Note on Ministry of Anointing of the Sick (Zenit 24/10/05)
26 Oct 2005
