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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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Vatican no comment on release of would be papal assassin
The Vatican is accepting the decision of a Turkish court to free Mehmet Ali Agca, the would-be assassin of Pope John Paul II.
Questioned yesterday about the news that Agca could be freed this week, the director of the Vatican press office Joaquin Navarro-Valls said that his only news on the issue came from wire-service reports.
Catholic World News reports that Navarro-Valls added simply: "The Holy See, faced with such a juridical question, confides in the decisions of the courts involved in this matter."
Cardinal Angelo Sodano confirmed to the Italian daily La Repubblica that the Holy See would not be involved in questions about Agca's future.
"That is for the courts to decide," said the Vatican Secretary of State.
Agca shot and severely wounded Pope John Paul on 13 May 1981. He was convicted on the shooting by an Italian court in July of the same year, and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, in June 2000 he received a pardon from Italy's President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who was acting with the tacit support of Pope John Paul after the Pontiff had encouraged gestures of pardon for prisoners as part of the celebration of the Jubilee Year 2000.
Agca's pardon was granted on the understanding that he would be extradited to his native Turkey, where he had been convicted in 1979 of killing the journalist Abdi Ipekci. Agca had served less than six months of a 10-year sentence for that murder before he escaped in 1979. He faced separate prison terms in Turkey for robberies committed in 1979.
Since his return to Turkey in 2000, Agca has seen several judicial decisions reducing the length of his required stay in prison. On Sunday, a Turkish tribunal announced that Agca had completed his required prison sentence.
From Krakow, Archbishop Stanislas Dziwisz, the longtime secretary to Pope John Paul, told the Italian press agency Apcom that the Turkish court decision was a secondary consideraton.
"John Paul II has already pardoned Ali Agca, a long time ago," the Polish prelate said. "Now, in heaven, he is praying for him."
SOURCE
No comment from Vatican on release of Ali Agca (Catholic World News 9/1/06)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Mehmet Ali Agca (The 80s Server)
ARCHIVE
Pope's would-be assassin denied release from prison (CathNews 9/11/04)
MORE STORIES
Benedict XVI visits nativity scene of Roman street cleaners (Vatican Information Service 5/1/06)
Epiphany shows the mystery and the mission of the Church (Vatican Information Service 6/1/06)
All roles are important in the Church (Vatican Information Service 7/1/06)
Importance of Catholic-Reformed Dialogue (Vatican Information Service 7/1/06)
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord: "Yes" to a culture of life (Vatican Information Service 8/1/06)
Baptism renews us constantly (Vatican Information Service 8/1/06)
Declaration on possible release from prison of Ali Agca (Vatican Information Service 8/1/06)
Truth can only be attained in freedom (Vatican Information Service 9/1/06)
Agca release leaves mystery over papal shooting (Reuters 9/1/06)
Pope says terror provokes 'clash of civilizations' (Reuters 9/1/06)
Pope:No to prevalent culture of death (AsiaNews.it 8/1/06)
Pope urges rediscovery of joy in being “new men” created by baptism (AsiaNews.it 8/1/06)
Ali Agca, the gunman who shot the pope in 1981, to be freed from prison (AsiaNews.it 9/1/06)
Pope Benedict XVI: peace damaged by terror, egoism and lack of freedom (AsiaNews.it 9/1/06)
Pope to international Protestant group: no ecumenical dialogue possible without interior conversion (Catholic News Agency 9/1/06)
Baptism means saying ‘yes’ to Christ’s life, ‘no’ to culture dominated by death, says Pope (Catholic News Agency 9/1/06)
Pope says Baptism should renew holiness in thought and action (Catholic News Agency 9/1/06)
Commitment to truth, human dignity, is at heart of peace Pope tells world diplomats (Catholic News Agency 9/1/06)
Holy See defers to courts on possible release of would-be Papal assassin (Catholic News Agency 9/1/06)
Pope Benedict's "State of the World" address (Catholic World News 9/1/06)
Baptism counters the culture of death, Pope says (Catholic World News 9/1/06)
Pope Says Terrorism Is ‘Moral Perversion‘ (Leading the Charge 9/1/06)
Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See for the traditional exchange of New Year greetings (9/1/05)
Pope Urges Rediscovery of the Joy of Baptism (Zenit 8/1/06)
Benedict XVI Denounces Culture of Death (Zenit 8/1/06)
Pontiff Backs Dialogue With "Reformed Churches" (Zenit 8/1/06)
Vatican: Ali Agca's Release Is Up to Courts (Zenit 8/1/06)
On Baptism (Zenit 8/1/06)
Pope's Address to World Alliance of Reformed Churches (Zenit 8/1/06)
Address of World Alliance of Reformed Churches to the Pope (Zenit 8/1/06)
Benedict XVI's Assessment of 2005 (Zenit 8/1/06)
10 Jan 2006
