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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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Let Iraqis kill each other but occupiers out: US bishop
US Chaldean Catholic Bishop Ibrahim B Ibrahim has called for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq saying that local factions are killing each other not because they are Sunni or Shiite but because they are with or against the Americans.
"Let the Iraqis kill each other, but let the occupying power get out, because they are not killing each other because they are Sunni or Shiite, but because they are with the Americans or against the Americans," said Bishop Ibrahim N Ibrahim of the Chaldean Eparchy of St Thomas the Apostle, based in Southfield, Michigan, according to a Catholic News report.
He was speaking at a Mass, which drew close to 1,000 people, to remember the recently slain Chaldean Fr Ragheed Aziz Ganni and the three subdeacons who were killed with him in Iraq, as well as to pray for all those who have died in the fighting in Iraq, including US troops, and for the safety of Iraq's remaining Christians.
Bishop Ibrahim said the situation of Christians in Baghdad, Iraq's capital, "is very, very bad," with Islamic terrorists threatening that they must convert to Islam or pay a special tax as protection money.
Even if they choose to leave, they are being threatened to leave any unmarried daughters behind so they can be taken as wives by Muslims and forced to convert to Islam, the bishop said.
But Bishop Ibrahim said he does not believe the Muslims killing and threatening Christians are from either of Iraq's two Muslim groupings - Shiites or Sunnis - but rather al-Qaida terrorists from outside Iraq.
The bishop spoke in Arabic at the Mass, but later provided an English translation of his major points.
"For a Christian to be killed in the Middle East is nothing new - it often happened in the second, third and fourth centuries that Christians were martyred for their faith - but for Christians to be killed in the 21st century, when the world's major superpower has 150,000 troops in that country, is a terrible thing," he said.
"Why are they there if they cannot defend human life and human rights?"
Bishop Ibrahim said US troops should at least withdraw from the cities, and he believes the warring factions would eventually reach some sort of power-sharing arrangement.
The current situation puts Christians in the hazardous position of being perceived as being allied with the foreign occupiers, but the Americans provide no special protection for them, the bishop continued.
"We do not have weapons, we do not have a militia, and nobody is supporting us," he said.
And even with some of the additional troops from the planned surge in US forces already in place, there is no security in Baghdad, he noted.
"Things are worse and worse and worse every single day, even for the Americans. The best thing is to withdraw, and then let the brothers attack each other," Bishop Ibrahim said.
SOURCE
'Let Iraqis kill each other', Catholic bishop says, calling for U.S. withdrawal (Catholic Online, 27/6/07)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Who Are Christians of Iraq ?
A Final Appeal: Save Christian Iraq (www.chiesa)
ARCHIVE
Pope deplores "senseless killing" of Iraqi clerics (CathNews, 5/6/07)
Iraq Christians taxed for their religion (CathNews, 20/3/07)
'Big problems'' for Iraqi Christians, Pontifical agency warns (CathNews, 2/3/07)
Pax Christi welcomes British plan to withdraw Iraq troops (CathNews, 23/2/07)
Non-violence a "way of being", Benedict says (CathNews, 19/2/07)
Indian Catholics mark Gandhi non-violence centenary (CathNews, 6/2/07)
Pax Christi raps profiteers in Palestinian occupation (CathNews, 12/7/06)
More young Christian women abducted, raped in Iraq (CathNews, 12/10/06)
Official highlights bleak outlook for Iraq (CathNews, 27/2/06)
Bishops see US 'at a crossroads in Iraq' (CathNews 16/1/06)
British cardinal prays for Iraq peacemaker hostages (CathNews 13/12/05)
Priests say Iraqi Christians now victims of extortion (CathNews 8/11/05)
Pax Christi stands firm on nuclear weapons (CathNews, 19/7/05)
Pax Christi Australia call for end to Falluja violence (CathNews 19/11/04)
Five churches bombed in Baghdad (CathNews, 18/10/04)
Pax Christi call for US to act as "honest broker" (CathNews 31/5/04)
Pope says Iraq war threatens humanity (CathNews, 24/3/03)
Vatican reasserts opposition to war in Iraq (CathNews, 4/10/02)
28 Jun 2007
