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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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Green pope says save Amazon
Addressing 40,000 young people in Brazil, Pope Benedict has called for "greater commitment" to fighting environmental devastation in the Amazon basin that threatens indigenous peoples in the region.
"The devastation of the environment in the Amazon basin and the threats against the human dignity of peoples living within that region call for greater commitment," Pope Benedict told a stadium fullo of enthusiastic young Brazilians, Catholic News reports.
"Stretching out in front of you, my dear friends, is a life that all of us hope will be long; yet it is only one life, it is unique; do not let it pass in vain; do not squander it," the pope said.
"Live it with enthusiasm and with joy, but most of all with a sense of responsibility," he said.
About 40,000 young people crowded into the Paulo Machado de Carvalho soccer stadium for the papal encounter, and others spilled out into the Pacaembu neighborhood of Sao Paulo. Many arrived hours before the event.
The papal program included a song calling for protection of the environment and an end to burning and killing in the Amazon region. As the music rang out, video projections of threatened Amazon species were shown on a giant screen.
Young men and women from various areas of the country performed rhythmic dances that reflected their local cultures.
When people see the beauty of creation, the pope said in his address, "it is impossible not to believe in God." He said Brazilians' desire to protect the country's natural environment, especially the vast forests of the Amazon region, reflects this awareness of the creator.
"The devastation of the environment in the Amazon basin and the threats against the human dignity of peoples living within that region call for greater commitment," he said.
God's commandments are important, the pope said, and it is even more important to witness them in daily life.
Ecological conversion call
Meanwhile, in New York, the Holy See nuncio to the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, told the international body that "the world needs an ecological conversion".
"The environmental consequences of our economic activity are now among the world's highest priorities," Archbishop Migliore told delegates.
The world's 'economy continues to rest basically upon its relation to nature", and in particular to its impact on the earth's soil, water and climate, the archbishop said.
"It is becoming rapidly ever clearer that if these, the world's life support systems, are spoiled or destroyed irreparably, there will be no viable economy for any of us," the apostolic nuncio said.
He criticised the tendency of national policy makers to view ecological issues as "external or marginal" to economic considerations.
"Environmental concerns have to be understood," the archbishop said, "as the basis upon which all economic - and even human - activity rests."
"The environmental question is not only an important ethical and scientific problem," he said, but one that impacts political, economic, security strategy, developmental and humanitarian issues at regional, national and international levels.
He added that the Holy See favours efforts at making the Kyoto Protocol fully strategies that meet "short and long-term energy needs, protect human health and the environment, and establish precise commitments that will effectively confront the problem of climate change."
The Kyoto Protocol, ratified by more than 160 countries not including the United States and Australia, commits nations to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Rancher on trial for Amazon martyr murder
In another story, the International Herald Tribune reports that a rancher goes to trial today for the killing of an American-born nun, Sr Dorothy Stang, a rare instance in which Brazil's courts take on a member of the elite in the violent Amazon region.
Vitalmiro Bastos Moura is one of two ranchers accused of ordering the 2005 killing of 73-year-old Sr Stang, a naturalised Brazilian originally from Dayton, Ohio. She was slain by six bullets at close range on a muddy patch of road deep in Para state in a dispute over land.
Three men - the gunman, his accomplice and an intermediary - have been convicted in Stang's death, but Moura is the first alleged "mandante" (mastermind) to stand trial.
SOURCE
Vatican calls world to ecological conversion aimed at sustainability (Catholic Online, 13/5/07)
Vatican's Address to U.N. on Climate Change (Catholic Online, 12/5/07)
Pope tells enthusiastic Brazilian youths to live fully, responsibly (Catholic Online, 12/5/07)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Archbishop Celestino Migliore (Holy See Mission)
Dorothy Stang (Wikipedia)
ARCHIVE
Five face trial in Brazil for nun's murder (CathNews, 31/7/05)
American nun assassinated in Brazil (CathNews, 14/2/05)
14 May 2007
