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Pontifical Council on Christian Unity head, Cardinal Walter Kasper, has warned the Anglican church that it "must clarify its identity" and make "difficult decisions" ahead of its forthcoming Lambeth Conference.
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Quarantine for Indigenous welfare cards undermines responsibility: CSSA
Quarantining welfare payments in indigenous communities fails to address the real issues putting children at risk and undermines people's sense of responsibility, according to Catholic Social Services Australia Executive Director, Frank Quinlan.
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Baby dies in car outside Toowoomba school
A five month old girl died yesterday after the child's mother left her in the family car while she collected her other children from a Toowoomba Catholic school.
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Latin back on menu at Vatican website
The Vatican website has introduced a section in Latin which will publish the official original editions of pontifical documents.
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Abuse victims plan protest for pope
Support groups for victims of clerical abuse are joining together to hold protests during Pope Benedict's Australian visit.
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ACU seeks student volunteers
Australian Catholic University has announced that starting in 2009 it will base its selection of students on their involvement in cultural, sporting and religious activities including volunteering as well as on academic performance.
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Hart slams Vic government over Catholic school funding
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart has attacked the Victorian government for its failure to increase funding for Catholic schools while boosting support for public schools by $1.3 billion and raising state teachers' annual salaries by $5,000.
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Priests and sisters among Burma dead
At least two priests and several sisters are among the ten of thousands of Burmese killed by Cyclone Nargis, a Salesian priest says, with many churches and related projects also badly damaged.
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Feature - Woodstock and worship renew chance for improved relations
Since Pope John Paul II launched World Youth Day 22 years ago, it has become the Olympic Games of world religion, the largest and most complex spiritual event held on a recurring basis across the globe. One part worship and one part Woodstock, the youth oriented festival is designed to offer a rocking rebuttal to impressions that Catholicism is sliding toward oblivion. - John Allen, Sydney Morning Herald
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Featured Website - Rosary in the street
May is a month of devotion to Our Lady often best expressed through the Rosary. This website is encouraging people not just to pray the Rosary in their homes, but to take the pray with others to the street.
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Television Review - No limits
A television program devoted to showcasing people living with a disability is indeed a rare find in our commercialised world and its quest for perfection. No Limits looks at living life to the fullest with a disability, featuring stories about workshops on UN dignity and rights of people with disabilities, disability standards in education, disability legislation and much more.
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Opinion - Respect the key to youth violence
Without other standards of human flourishing to counteract those communicated on billboards and in advertising, the young members of some communities are deprived of all sources of self-esteem and respect. Unable to hope for those signs of success which the consumerist environment holds up for our emulation, young men in particular can be without resources to resist the message given them that they are failures, nonentities, nothing. - Thinking Faith
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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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Former top canonist says divorce is not sinful
This week CathNews presents the top stories from 2006. This story was originally published on 16 January 2006
Divorce is not a sin, and in some circumstances it is even a valid course of action, an outspoken former Vatican official has told an Italian newspaper.
"In itself, divorce is not a sin, and in certain cases it could even be recommended, to resolve patrimonial or civil problems," Cardinal Mario Francesco Pompedda told the daily La Stampa.
Catholic World News reports that until his retirement in May 2004 at the age of 75, Cardinal Pompedda was the Vatican's top judicial official, as prefect of the supreme tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
With his remarks to La Stampa Cardinal Pompedda came to the support of Spanish Jesuits who had recently suggested that the Church should allow Catholics who are divorced and remarried to receive Communion.
The Italian prelate had been asked to comment on an article that appeared in a Spanish Jesuit journal in December, in which Fr Eduardo Lopez Azpitarte argued that Catholics who encounter marital difficulties are often treated harshly by the Church. The Jesuit author argued that divorce is not a sin, and that Catholics who divorce and remarry are not excommunicated.
Cardinal Pompedda supported that view. The cardinal- speaking with some authority, since he had once been the Vatican's top canon-law official- said that there is no provision in canon law requiring the excommunication of someone who remarries despite an earlier valid union. He argued that "the principle of the indissolubility of marriage does not prevent us from regarding divorce as licit."
Although the Church does not recognise divorce, the cardinal said, the Code of Canon Law does allow for the separation of married couples. In some cases, he continued, there are legal complications that "simple separation cannot resolve." Those cases justify civil divorce, he concluded.
The question of whether Catholics should be allowed to receive Communion after divorce and remarriage has prompted some intense debate in recent years. The Vatican has consistently answered in the negative, upholding the traditional teaching that a valid marriage can never be set aside, and a second union is therefore adulterous. In October, after a lively discussion of the issue, the Synod of Bishops affirmed the existing norm, barring remarried Catholics from the Eucharist.
SOURCE
Divorce is not sinful, former top canonist says (Catholic World News 13/1/06)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Supremo Tribunale della Segnatura Apostolica
MORE STORIES
Pre-marriage classes to stop divorce: bishop's call (Catholic Weekly 15/1/06)
Revealed: the battle plan to save marriage (Sydney Morning Herald 9/1/06)
Married to the EU, but Malta says no to divorce (Reuters 21/12/05)
New office will focus on marriage, family (Catholic Weekly 11/12/05)
2 Jan 2007
