 |
|
 |
|
|
|
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.
[More]
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".
[More]
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.
[More]
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.
[More]
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.
[More]
Bees for Benedict
Italian scooter manufacturer Piaggio has presented Pope Benedict with two new specially made three wheeled vehicles.
[More]
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
[More]
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.
[More]
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
[More]
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
[More]
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
Warning: main(http://www.cathnews.com/cgi-bin/ad_management.pl) [function.main]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found in E:\hshome\eureka0\cathnews.com\news\604\54.php on line 159
Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://www.cathnews.com/cgi-bin/ad_management.pl' for inclusion (include_path='.\;C:\HSphere.NET\3rdparty\PHP\4.4.7\PEAR') in E:\hshome\eureka0\cathnews.com\news\604\54.php on line 159
Catholic Health supports aged care abuse report plan
Catholic Health Australia has backed a plan by federal and state ministers to oblige aged-care workers to report physical and sexual abuse of elderly people.
The Age reports that the requirements, which also make it mandatory to report suspected abuse, are among a raft of reforms following a series of nursing home abuse scandals.
Police background checks on workers, and random inspections of aged-care facilities, are also part of the plan to help stamp out abuse of vulnerable elderly Australians.
Francis Sullivan, chief executive of Catholic Health Australia, which runs some 20,000 aged care beds, told the ABC's The World Today: "It's very important that we restore the confidence in the community about the quality and supervision in the aged care residential system."
But he said the industry needed to learn from the experience of mandatory reporting in other sectors and come up with a rigorous and reliable system.
Federal Aged Care Minister Santo Santoro said authorities would quickly determine full details of the mandatory reporting scheme, and implement it as soon as possible.
"(Under the new regime) if any instance of abuse is observed, or indeed suspected, it needs to be reported, compulsorily," Senator Santoro said.
Both levels of government are now working to establish potential penalties for failing to report abuse. Senator Santoro, who met with state and territory aged care ministers, said he remained sympathetic to proposals for a complaints commissioner or ombudsman.
Monday's meeting followed a series of abuse scandals involving elderly nursing home residents. In one of the worst cases, a 34-year-old Victorian nursing home worker has been charged with two counts of indecent assault and four of rape.
Under the reforms, all aged care workers will have to undergo police background checks and all nursing homes will receive at least one unannounced random check a year.
Further work is also being done on a whistleblower protection scheme.
Victorian Aged Care Minister Gavin Jennings said that under the agreement, nursing home owners would be obliged to compulsorily report incidents to an appropriate authority.
"That may be the police, that may be a complaints commissioner," he said. "But there are very, very clear guidelines, protocols and procedures in place to be sure that any incident is pursued with vigour."
The federal Opposition's aged care spokeswoman Jan McLucas welcomed the plan for background checks, but said a more rigorous spot check program was meant to have been put in place six years ago.
SOURCE
Aged care workers must report abuse (The Age 10/4/06)
Governments target aged care abuse (ABC Radio PM 10/4/06)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Catholic Health Australia
ARCHIVE
Catholic Health backs power for Minister to address scandal (CathNews 22/2/06)
MORE STORIES
Tougher checks for aged care staff (Seven News/Australian Associated Press 11/4/06)
11 Apr 2006
