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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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Catholic Welfare weighs in on IR debate
The director of Catholic Welfare Australia has told an interchurch welfare symposium that the Catholic Church has always deplored the treatment of employment as nothing more than a form of commercial contract, which he suggested is the basis of the Howard Government's industrial relations reforms.
Frank Quinlan was in Melbourne for yesterday's "IR reform – social and economic dimensions" forum organised by the Anglican charity the Brotherhood of St Laurence.
He said that an emphasis on contract leads to a "sense of alienation between a worker and his or her labour".
Instead, he said forms of employment should stress the integration of work and worker, and encourage the application of creative skills.
"The most obvious impact for employees is that employment ought to provide adequate income," he said. "This income provides access to essentials such as health, housing, education. In addition to such essentials, income provides for a range of activities that might broadly be called 'social participation'. These activities include recreation and leisure, personal development, philanthropy of various kinds and a range of other activities. Participation in these activities comprises what might reasonably defined as 'participation in society'."
Meanwhile the head of the Brotherhood warned that Australia's poorest households are at risk of being caught in a "pincer movement" between the Federal Government's Industrial Relations changes and its Welfare to Work strategy.
"On the one hand the Government is taking the welfare out of work, loosening Australia's traditional system of the minimum wage and the welfare component in wage structure," Tony Nicholson, Executive Director of the Brotherhood of St Laurence. "On the other hand, through its welfare-to-work proposals, the Government is trying to get people off welfare and back into the workforce."
SOURCE
Address to the Brotherhood of St Laurence's Forum: IR Reform, social and economic dimensions 11 October 2005 by Mr Frank Quinlan Executive Director Catholic Welfare Australia
IR pincer movement to catch the poor? (Brotherhood of St Laurence 10/10/05)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Catholic Welfare Australia
12 Oct 2005
