The Vatican’s treatment of LCWR (the Leadership Conference of Women Religious) has raised eyebrows outside the Church as well as within it. In his column in NCR, Bill Tammeus, a Presbyterian elder, writes: “Those of us outside of Catholicism find it unfathomable that the church … would exploit or disdain the women who have committed Read more
A 12-year-old boy in Cannons Creek recently rescued a dog from being held down, kicked and hit with a cricket bat. In her weekly column, Rosemary McLeod reflects on what is likely to happen later in life to young people who are cruel to animals. McLeod contends that cruelty to animals “as a child is Read more
Some churches are more than just buildings; they are symbols of greater realities. They are important not just to believers, they represent the lives, hopes and aspirations of a whole people. That is why the decision not to rebuild the Christchurch Cathedral “makes a profound statement about the entire city’s future”, says Chris Trotter “Those Read more
For the most part, the Queen has been on her best behaviour for sixty years. Gillian Bouras writes of her memories of when Elizabeth II became queen, reflects on her reign, and says that “conscientiousness and devotion to duty now seem to be outmoded virtues. But many people my age, despite our political affiliations and Read more
An experience of archeology gives rise to a reflection on the resurrection of the body. The writer, Bill Tammeus, finds “there is something reassuring about finding the atoms that make up 2,000-year-old pottery shards, something that says that in God’s economy, matter matters,” and “we comfort ourselves with the understanding that what God created and called Read more
‘Re-imagining the Mission — A Pilgrimage of Faith’ was the title of the keynote address presented by Fr Frank Brennan on 24 May 2012 at the Sandhurst Catholic Education Conference at Catholic College Bendigo. Fr Brennan gave his personal reflections on Catholic education and social justice, Vatican II and Catholic education 50 years on, contemporary faith and “some Read more
The Vatican butler accused of leaking documents is Paolo Gabriele. He is a 46-year-old Italian layman who has worked in the Vatican since 1998. He is married and has three children. Writing in National Catholic Reporter, John L Allen Jr outlines the evidence against him. He then suggests motives behind the leaking of confidential information to Read more
Cardinal Levada has issued regulations “regarding the manner of proceeding in the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations.” The regulations, updated from the time of Pope Paul VI, are aimed at helping pastors “in their difficult task of discerning presumed apparitions, revelations, messages, or extraordinary phenomena of presumed supernatural origin.” In his column in NCR, Eugene Cullen Read more
In a book called “Wage Theft in America,” the author calculates that wage theft costs employees $100bn at a minimum each year and possibly up to $200bn. The way to steal from those who live in poverty is to do so “in ways that are systematic, impersonal, and almost impossible to trace to individual perpetrators,” according Read more
A claim has been made that Kiwis are naive and gullible about religion. Since 1877 New Zealand has a public education system that is compulsory, free and secular. Douglas Pratt suggests that this has given rise to a poor knowledge of religion on the part of many New Zealanders which in turn has made them Read more