Distances and demographics combine to tell the story. Three-quarters the size of the United States, Australia is mainly uninhabited except along its coastline. While the U.S. shelters close to 313 million people, latest Australian census statistics report only 22 million persons on the continent’s nearly 3 million square miles. Australia’s Christians — mainly descendants of Read more
Given the Judeo-Christian origins of our long-held tradition of caring for the frail, census data indicating the demise of Christianity and the ageing of Australia’s population could herald a perfect social storm. The 2011 census makes clear that Christian affiliation is diminishing, falling 7 per cent over the past decade to 61 per cent. The Read more
Australia’s Labour government may have to resort to sending asylum seekers to Nauru without their preferred option of transferring them to Malaysia after appeals by the government for the opposition to meet it halfway on policy fell on deaf ears. Despite three cabinet ministers urging yesterday the opposition to allow Labour’s Malaysia plan in return Read more
Australia’s Finance Minister Penny Wong has told gay rights groups and Labor party members that marriage equality is a “bedrock principle” and its opponents have nothing to fear. Senator Wong, who helped drive a hard-fought change to the ALP’s platform on gay marriage, likened the campaign for marriage reform to the fight for racial equality. Read more
The auxiliary bishop of the Australian capital Canberra said Sunday he has long planned to retire at 70 and will continue to work as a priest. Pope Benedict XVI last week accepted Bishop Patrick Power’s resignation five years before the mandatory retirement age of 75. Power says his decision to retire early is his alone Read more
Two priests, one convicted of sexual abuse, and another charged with 30 sex offences were, in the 1990s, allowed to continue ministering in the Melbourne archdiocese. The discovery, reported in The Age, is the result of confidential documents obtained by the paper. The Age reports that the documents show how senior church leaders continued to Read more
A study published recently shows that many children in Australia think that their parents work too hard. The Australian Institute of Family Studies points to a growing lack of balance between work and home. Parents’ concerns about work, and about bringing work-related stress into their families, were similar to their children’s concerns. Professor Alan Hayes, Read more
Many Australians are using Facebook to find out about the Church following an advertising campaign run on the social networking site last year. The Catholic Enquiry Centre, Australia, has received 327 inquiries from January to March this year compared with 543 for all of 2011. They also reported that Facebook advertising accounted for 33.6 per Read more
In today’s youth culture the penalties for taking drugs don’t matter a great deal, because drug-taking has become so normalised in Australia. “Prohibition of drugs is not working”, according to Vivienne Moxham-Hall. She writes that “Often kids won’t know what they are taking or can take very dangerous risks in mixing their drugs. If something goes Read more
When our pilgrim group of Sydney teachers was sitting in the ancient amphitheatre at Ephesus, another group of Australians started to sing Advance Australia Fair for the tourists from many nations. They were pleasantly surprised when our group joined them. Mostly young, they were on their way to Gallipoli, with many New Zealanders. Officials estimated Read more