This year’s Australian Catholic Bishops Social Justice Statement focuses on the family. It is put into useful perspective by the publication the Bishops’ Pastoral Research Office September E-News Bulletin headlining the 2011 Census statistic that only 50 per cent of Catholics aged 15 and over are married. The often talked about nexus between marriage, the family, and the Catholic Read more
On a cold winter night in 1994, in the grip of a decades-long addiction to porn and illicit sex, I began my typical ritual of acting out sexually. I sat in a familiar parking lot of a XXX bookstore, unusually troubled by the routine I was about to perform even though I had carried it Read more
Companies are usually accountable to no one but their shareholders. Internet companies are a different breed. Because they traffic in speech — rather than, say, corn syrup or warplanes — they make decisions every day about what kind of expression is allowed where. And occasionally they come under pressure to explain how they decide, on Read more
By Lucy O’Donoghue Doesn’t it just bug your socks off the way someone in the workplace – your boss especially – manages to rub you so ridiculously up the wrong way? You cringe to think what frustration and subsequent lack of charity emanates from you – how this doesn’t feel at all like ‘living the Read more
How absurd for the president of the Law Society to criticise televising of court cases for distorting reality. Jonathan Temm believes broadcasts of some court cases over the past 15 years have helped force an undesirable law change, contributed to losses of confidence in the courts and respect for justice, and to the demonising of Read more
Dear Fathers, We are writing this letter to you today because we have some things we want to say to you. Some things are easier to say than others, but here you go. Before that, though, a HUGE thank you. Thank you for having the courage to say yes to your counter-cultural vocation. We are forever grateful Read more
I heard about a kid who used to burn palm crosses whenever sex sauntered across his mind. He was a normal adolescent but confused about one of the most powerful drivers in his life. He ‘s not alone in that confusion. Whether you’re a princess, bishop, rubbish collector, nun, teacher, bus conductor, judge, or prime Read more
Spike Milligan is a Catholic hero of mine. In his will, he asked that he be buried in the chuch cemetery in the village in Ireland where his parents came from. On the tombstone he asked that the inscription read: “I told you I was ill.” Just to complete the comic routine, the next joke Read more
In a recent book of the same title, Can the Church Be Saved? (2012), this question was posed by Swiss-German Hans Küng, one of the best known and prolific theologians in the Catholic fold. Along with his colleague from the University of Tübingen, Joseph Ratzinger, he enthusiastically advocated for a renewal of the Church. Küng Read more
Recently an expert advisory group made some recommendations for tackling child poverty. I’m a member of the advisory group and took part in its work because business has a clear interest in this issue – child poverty affects us all. Some of the advisory group’s interim recommendations were quite specific – on things like benefit Read more