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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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Acquitted peace activist lends support to Aussies facing trial
Controversial Catholic peace activist, Ciaron O'Reilly, has returned to Australia following his recent acquittal on a charge of criminal damage to a US Navy warplane in Ireland to support four Australian anti-war activists facing trial next week in the Northern Territory.
Mr O'Reilly, originally from Brisbane, said he is in Australia to support the four Christian activists who will face trial in the Northern Territory Supreme Court following their "Citizen's Inspection" of the US spy base at Pine Gap, Alice Springs, in December last year.
The four were charged under the new Defence Special Undertakings Act with entering a prohibited area and taking photos.
One of the defendants, Donna Mulhearn, a well-known Catholic pacifist from Maitland, is a former "human shield" who was abducted and briefly held by militants in the Iraqi flashpoint city of Fallujah last year.
She said the group was conducting a citizens' inspection in protest at the facility's involvement in the ongoing war in Iraq when they were arrested.
According to Ms Mulhearn, her voluntary defence team headed by the retired Federal Court judge Ron Merkel will move on 3 October to have the charges dismissed.
"We will be saying: No case to answer," she said this week in an email bulletin.
Outside the court next week, Mr O'Reilly will be part of a planned "peace convergence".
"I will be speaking out against continued Australian involvement, deployment of troops and the use of Pine Gap base for targeting US bombing raids in Iraq," O'Reilly told the Westender.
O'Reilly together with four other activists, known in Ireland as the "Pit Stop Ploughshares", were acquitted following a trial for $US2.5 million criminal damage to the US Navy plane at the civilian Shannon Airport in Ireland which has become the major hub for US troop deployment to the war in Iraq.
All five defendants were unanimously acquitted by a jury at their third trial in Dublin in July this year. The defendants had faced a maximum of ten years imprisonment if they had been found guilty.
O'Reilly is a long time activist. He was first arrested while still at high school under Bjelke Petersen in a banned street march in 1977.
He joined the pacifist Catholic Worker movement and founded a house for homeless aboriginal youth in West End, Brisbane in 1982.
SOURCE
Ciaron O'Reilly returns to Australia to support local peace activists (Westender, 29/9/06)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Peace on Trial
Catholic Worker
Pine Gap 6
ARCHIVE
Irish jury acquits O'Reilly (CathNews, 26/7/06)
Catholic peace activist faces 10 years jail in Ireland (CathNews 6/7/06)
Catholic activist challenges peace movement (CathNews 2/5/06)
Catholic peacemaker receives ASIO treatment (CathNews 8/2/05)
MORE STORIES
29 Sep 2006
