In 2001, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was a rapporteur for the summit of bishops at the Vatican — and he did not like what he saw. The Catholic Church had adopted a top-to-bottom approach that stripped local churches of any decision-making power, and the synod of bishops was reduced to nothing more than a stamp of Read more
New Zealand’s second terrorist attack in two years highlights weaknesses in existing counter-terrorism laws in preventing violent extremism. Beyond fast-tracking changes to terrorism suppression laws, there are still other areas of law and policy in New Zealand we need to urgently review. Legislative change was already underway as part of an omnibus bill on terrorism. Read more
In the 2010’s, the term ‘woke’ became a popular word, implying political and social awareness, although critics say the term signals a sort of pretentiousness or elitism about one’s understanding of any given issue. In his new book, Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents, Rod Dreher – author of the New York Read more
By special arrangement and courtesy of Fr Frank Brennan SJ, professor of law, and Sydney’s Catholic Weekly: The Anatomy of a Travesty. It’s time to declare that George Pell is innocent of the preposterous charges he faced in the County Court of Victoria and to move on for the good of everyone, including bona fide Read more
“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate,” is the famous excuse the Captain uses to beat up Paul Newman’s character in the 1967 classic movie Cool Hand Luke. But more recently, it’s the Pasifika community who are feeling battered and bruised over a series of Covid-19-related communications blunders. Our Minister for Pacific Peoples was Read more
The generation born in the two decades after World War II has long touted itself as the revolutionary religious demographic that grew up dutifully sitting in the pews before rebelling — as they did in music, politics, art and the bedroom — and freeing American culture from its hidebound superstitions. OK, boomer. Examining the data Read more
The power of major internet companies like Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, and Twitter over public life is a particular threat to religious groups that focus on controversial issues like abortion, marriage, and sexuality, several commentators said at a roundtable last week. These groups should prepare for the possibility of censorship and organize effective countermeasures, they said. Read more
The outdoor Mass at Green Hope High School is informal. People dressed casually in shorts and sandals stand or sit in folding camp chairs. At 8:30 a.m., it’s already hot outside. But this hardy group of Catholics is not a second-wave COVID-19 workaround. Mother Teresa Catholic Church, technically still a mission church, has been meeting Read more
The Government has recently released proposals for legislating a new offence against communications that “intentionally incite/stir up, maintain or normalise hatred”. The proposals themselves seemed to have stirred up strong reactions among people, including among some Christian churches and societies. Depending on what YouTube’s algorithm has decreed you should enjoy watching, some of these reactions Read more
The Puritan colonists who settled in New England in the 1630s had a nagging concern about the churches they were building: How would they ensure that the clergymen would be literate? Their answer was Harvard University, a school that was established to educate the ministry and adopted the motto “Truth for Christ and the Church.” Read more