Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are suggesting that the results from a series of three experiments they conducted show that the link between compassion and generosity is stronger in those who are non religious or less religious than it is in highly religious people The study defined compassion as “an emotion felt when people see the suffering of Read more
ROME — When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected to the papacy in April 2005, the popular forecast called for stormy weather ahead. This was, after all, the Vatican enforcer who had been leading a “smack-down on heresy since 1981”, in the words of T-shirts and coffee mugs marketed by a Ratzinger fan club. His rise elicited Read more
Both the investigation into the orthodoxy of the US’s Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and the “visitation” of active congregations of US sisters were initiated within weeks of each other in 2009. But while the latter received extensive publicity both in America and internationally throughout the entire time the process was underway, the LCWR Read more
Soon after the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, our Prime Minister, John Key, spoke of the resurrection of Christchurch. He meant the rebuilding and regeneration of the city. As a Christchurch man himself, this came from the heart. In talking of resurrection, he wanted to give people hope amidst the terrible damage the city had sustained. Read more
This gets personal. In fact, should I even be saying all this to people I have never met? What do I say? How far do I go? These are things I never talk about with strangers. Anzac Day is one of those mysterious days. We know the meaning, only what is the meaning precisely? I Read more
The Second Battle of Passchendaele, during which 845 New Zealand soldiers died, was the blackest day in New Zealand history. Yet the battle is not well known and most Kiwis will probably go about their lives with no thought of it. But a small group is trying to put the battle back on the map. Read more
Christchurch’s interim cardboard cathedral should be good to go by December. Of course it’s not all cardboard and may well last over 50 years but that’s not the point. It’s the sense of impermanence that has promise. Cathedrals tend to play down impermanence, opting instead for solid and imposing, but they’ve always had a more ethereal and Read more
How is it that a family-owned company, Talley’s Group, making money from the sea and the land, is able to inflict economic uncertainty on more than 1300 other families? What does it say about the society that makes that lawful? Is it the ultimate result of colonisation unresolved, that one family, of European origin, is Read more
At 32, one of my clients (I’ll call her Jennifer) had a lavish wine-country wedding. By then, Jennifer and her boyfriend had lived together for more than four years. The event was attended by the couple’s friends, families and two dogs. When Jennifer started therapy with me less than a year later, she was looking Read more
On Easter Monday, the ABC’s Q&A program featured a live debate between evolutionary biologist, author and militant atheist, Professor Richard Dawkins, and Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, on topics of faith, science, history and morality. The show attracted an audience of 863,000, its highest since the coverage of the 2010 Federal election; an indication Read more