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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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Act now on climate change: US bishops to Congress
It is time for the US to come together to address the moral, human and environmental dimensions of global climate change, the head of the US Catholic bishops' international policy committee says in a letter to American legislators.
The 7 February letter by Bishop Thomas G Wenski of Orlando, Florida, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Policy, calls on congressional leaders to resist special interest group and instead focus on "common ground for common action to advance the common good", Catholic Online reports.
"We hope this will be a time for our nation to come together across partisan, ideological and interest groups lines to address the moral, human and environmental dimensions of this growing challenge that faces all of humanity," Bishop Wenski said.
The letter arrived less than a week after the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report that concluded global warming is "unequivocal", is very likely - probability is more than 90 per cent - caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases and will "continue for centuries".
It also comes as lawmakers of the new Democratic-controlled Congress have introduced more than 10 bills addressing global warming.
While scientists have long warned about global warming, the issue was not given as much attention as the Bush administration opposed mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions.
Yet last month, for the first time, the President addressed climate change in his State of the Union speech.
The Orlando bishop urged the Congress to "focus on three central priorities" - the poor, the pursuit of the common good and prudence.
Those with the least and those with the most vulnerability in the US and throughout the world will "have little or no voice in this vital discussion", he said, noting that their needs and hardships are likely to be ignored in favour of "more powerful forces".
"We all know too well who is left behind and who pays the greatest price when disaster, floods or droughts occur. The impact on poor communities and nations require priority attention as proposals for action are shaped and assessed," he said.
Rather than search for "economic, political or other narrow advantage", the Congress, the bishop said, has an obligation "to pass on the gift of God's creation to future generations without doing irreversible harm".
Climate change has also been a hotly debated topic in the Australian Parliament this week with the Government saying that it is unwilling to "sacrifice the jobs of coalminers in pursuit of some kind of knee-jerk reaction". Meanwhile, the Opposition and green groups have accused the Government of living in a state of denial.
SOURCE
Resist special interests on global warming, U.S. bishops say, turning heat on Congress (Catholic Online, 8/2/07)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Global Warming FAQ (Union of Concerned Scientists)
United States Catholic Bishops
ARCHIVE
Face truth about fossil fuels, Bishop Toohey says (CathNews, 8/2/07)
MORE STORIES
Fr Shay Cullen writes: we must all do our share to combat global warming (Independent Catholic News, 8/2/07)
9 Feb 2007
