It is the season of Lent. I struggle to find a meaningful, significant, relevant means of living this season – consciously, authentically, deliberately. Attending the Stations of the Cross is a traditional Lenten practice. But my recent experience seems to make a mockery of this devotional prayer. A formula recited at such a rapid pace Read more
Benedict’s decision to resign left people wondering, “Why at this time?” There seemed to be good reasons for such a decision to be made later. He had initiated a “Year of Faith” in October 2012; it would have made sense to leave his resignation till the end of the year of Faith. He has completed Read more
The “Vatileaks” scandal was one in a long series of recent Vatican scandals, and sadly it was not the last. Something of the dark irony of the scandal – “the Butler done it” – may have prevented people from seeing the seriousness of the incident. In reality it’s one of the most serious security breaches Read more
I am one of a rapidly growing group – a woman in the second-half of life, struggling to find a place of belonging in the institutional church. The mainstream churches are hemorrhaging committed, gifted, passionate, knowledgeable, prayerful, spiritual seekers. Women who have given twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years in the service of their spiritual or Read more
There are interesting parallels and connections between Benedict XVI and the last pope freely to resign the papacy, over 700 years ago – Pope Celestine V. Celestine, known as Pietro di Morrone was a hermit monk who lived in isolation in the mountains of Aquila in the Abruzzo region of Italy. When Pope Nicholas IV Read more
As days pass since the announcement of Benedict XVI’s resignation, it becomes clear that his decision is one whose profound significance will only gradually become clear. Benedict is a teacher, a writer, a scholar, for whom words are never trivialized. Vatican observers are listening carefully to each of his speeches, and watching every gesture and Read more
A bunch of blokes were gathered in a holy huddle at the back of a cathedral, worried that no one seemed to be listening to their good news anymore. Par for the course now but this was Paris during the Second World War. A world in turmoil meant people were thinking for themselves, taking up Read more
The awful record of the institutional Catholic church’s leadership in dealing with the scandal of clerical sex abuse of minors has clearly, and rightly, been a trigger for the federal government’s Royal Commission into sexual abuse of children in Australia. This is a record that has already prompted other inquiries here and overseas. It would indeed be Read more
This column probably ought to carry a warning label: “The following piece of writing contains an apples-and-oranges comparison that may be hazardous to your intellectual health.” I’m going to compare two fights among senior churchmen, but the purpose is not to suggest they’re identical. Rather, it’s to understand what makes them different. The first term Read more
Today, the top one per cent of incomes in the United States accounts for one fifth of US earnings. The top one per cent of fortunes holds two-fifths of the total wealth. Just one rich family, the six heirs of the brothers Sam and James Walton, founders of Walmart, are worth more than the bottom 40 per Read more