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The number of tourists to Australia in World Youth Day month, July 2008, jumped by 47,000 compared with the same month last year, figures show.
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NSW parents lobby to keep free student travel
The New South Wales Catholic Education Commission has confirmed that it has called on parents of children in Catholic schools to lobby for the scrapping of a new travel levy for students.
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Qld, Vic school teachers in new abuse cases
A former Catholic College Bendigo staff member has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two young boys twenty years ago while a Darling Downs Catholic school teacher has been charged with seven counts of rape.
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Catholic Healthcare pilots squalor phone hotline
Catholic Healthcare is to launch a Sydney telephone hotline to coordinate responses to people living in domestic squalor.
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Poland's Wyszynski proposed Wojtyla
Cardinal Stefan Wyszinski declined to be nominated as pope during a 1978 conclave, proposing instead his compatriot Karol Wojtyla, the late Polish primate's journal reveals.
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Vatican denounces Congo "massacre of the poor"
Describing recents events in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a "massacre of the poor", Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi called for world support to end the violence and assist refugees.
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Feature - A positive legacy comes from grief
David and Samantha Meyn of East Maitland have gained wisdom beyond their years after losing their son Harrison, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of 6, in July 2006. Oscar, now 7 and Campbell, 3, speak often of their older brother and love to draw attention to the photos displayed at home. - Tracey Edstein, Aurora
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Featured Website - Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education
The western Sydney based Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education is the organisation behind the documentary on Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, A Well Founded Fear, which airs on SBS TV tonight. The Centre is a ministry of the Christian Brothers and has a history of advocacy and campaigning on social justice issues.
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Radio - The Rhythm Divine: The Rapping Priest
Fr Stan Fortuna is a Catholic priest and a founding member of the Community of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, an order established in the heart of the South Bronx in 1987. But he is also a musician known worldwide as "the rapping priest". Even after 20 years it's not a title he's totally comfortable with.
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Opinion - A moment in history for Anglicans and Catholics
2008 has been a year of potentially historic breakthroughs between Anglican Christians and the Chair of Peter. Many Catholics have noted with great interest the growing number of Anglicans who have approached the possibility of coming into full communion with the Catholic Church. - Deacon Keith Fournier, Catholic Online
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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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East Timor Catholic leaders appeal for calm after riot
Church leaders in East Timor have called for calm as troops continue to patrol the tense streets of Dili in the wake of a riot by hundreds of dismissed soldiers and about a thousand of their supporters.
The UCAN agency reports that Army protesters and their sympathisers took to the streets of the capital last week to call for the reinstatement of 591 soldiers who had been dismissed in February after they protested against alleged discrimination.
According to various reports, five people died in the rioting, 20 houses were burned and a market in Taibessi, around 7 kilometres southeast of Dili, was badly damaged. The protesters also broke the windows of the government palace and burned a government vehicle in the front of the building.
Thousands of shaken city inhabitants took refuge at Salesian-run Don Bosco centre located 10km west of the city.
In a press release the diocesan office in Dili issued on 2 May, Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva of Dili and Bishop Basilio do Nascimento of Baucau declared that the Church condemns all violence caused by protesters or security agencies. The bishops, whose two dioceses cover the whole country, urged that those responsible for crimes be investigated and called on the government to address the dismissed soldiers' grievances justly.
The dismissed soldiers, representing a third of the army, are "Kaladi," a term referring to people from East Timor's west, while most army personnel are "Firaku" from the east. The easterners, it is claimed, were the backbone of the resistance against Indonesian rule during the 1980s and 1990s.
Salesian Fr Agostino Soares told UCAN that "mostly children and woman" are sheltering at the Don Bosco centre. "We are trying to help them by providing basic nutrition and sanitation. The government is also helping us to provide them with food," Father Soares said.
Silverio da Silva, who was staying at the centre with his two daughters, told UCAN on 30 April that East Timorese are still traumatised by the violence following the 1999 referendum vote for independence from Indonesia.
"We have suffered enough," da Silva said as he carried one of his daughters. "We urge the government leaders to settle this problem soon."
Following the August 1999 referendum, pro-Indonesia militias went on a rampage, killing hundreds of people and destroying infrastructure. Indonesia then relinquished control of the former Portuguese colony, which it had brought under its rule in 1975. After more than two years under a transitional UN administration, Catholic-majority Timor Leste, or East Timor, became an independent country in May 2002.
SOURCE
East Timor Catholic leaders appeal for calm after soldiers riot (Catholic Online/Union of Catholic Asian News 3/5/06)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Mary MacKillop East Timor
ARCHIVE
Thousands shelter in Catholic centres after East Timor riots (CathNews 3/5/06)
MORE STORIES
20,000 flee Dili fearing civil war (The Australian 5/5/06)
5 May 2006
