No. 25
06 Sep 2011
1592 Reads

Why Catholics are heading for the exits... We have known for a long time that Catholica attracts a disproportionate readership from the sectors of the Catholic Church who have played a significant role in leadership initiatives in the Church over recent decades. This has been confirmed through an initiative that one of Catholica's publishers, Amanda McKenna, initiated earlier this year asking people to send in their stories explaining their disillusion or why they have left or dropped out of supporting the institution. Today's commentary from Amanda seeks to give an overview of the responses she received. Over coming Tuesdays we will publish a selection of the comments that people have written. [more]

No. 24
30 Jun 2011
1647 Reads
(129 Print)

Bishop Morris: Has the Vatican forgotten the lessons from Fr Feeney? Today's commentary from Fr Dan Donovan contains a massive amount of interesting reading material if you include all the articles he links to in the body of the article and the footnotes. Fundamentally what he presents is a comparison of the treatment of Bishop Bill Morris and an earlier excommunication of an ultra-orthodox priest in the United States in 1953, Fr Leonard Feeney SJ. The treatment of Fr Feeney is even to this day a sore issue with some conservative elements and even to more moderate and liberal elements who believe he was treated with gross unfairness and a lack of due process. The excommunication of Fr Feeney and his followers was eventually overturned by Pope Paul VI in 1972 and Fr Feeney died in 1978. Coincidentally we received this commentary from Fr Donovan shortly before the editor of Catholica left to attend the American Catholic Council in Detroit. On the second day of the Council meeting, the editor was surprised to hear one of the keynote speakers, James Carroll (who is also mentioned in Fr Donovan's commentary), also mentioning the relevance of the Feeney case to Catholicism today. So, tomorrow, as well as the fascinating research provided by Fr Donovan we will also be providing you with some video highlights from Mr Carroll's address at Detroit. The commentary and the video will be of interest to readers of Catholica for two reasons: (i) for the information contained about the perspectives of one of the more conservative elements in the Church who today seem to increasingly dictate the agenda being pursued by the hierarchy; and (ii) for the specific arguments Fr Donovan raises regarding the justice issues and double standards involved in the treatment of both Fr Feeney and Bishop Morris. [more]

No. 23
23 Jun 2007
1686 Reads

How important is the question of who wrote the Gospels? The authorship of the Gospel's has been a long-disputed question. In this commentary Ian Elmer seeks to examine the evidence and explains his personal motivations as a biblical scholar why he thinks examining the question is important. [more]

No.22
26 Dec 2011
1688 Reads
(217 Print)

Christ? What Happened to Jesus? In this thought-provoking essay Michael Morwood raises questions that will be challenging to both traditionalist theologians and progressive theologians who have been searching for a better interpretation of the meaning of Jesus since the time of Teilhard de Chardin when the insights of modern science began to pose serious challenges to our theologies. This is a thought-provoking essay likely to be dismissed outright by the traditionalists and the fundamentalists but has the potential to encourage much reflection amongst those, following the likes of Teilhard de Chardin, who have been attempting to reinterpret Jesus as the "Cosmic Christ" as a way of enabling our traditional understandings of Christ to better fit with what we're learning about our universe from the sciences and modern scholarship. [more]

No. 21
18 Jan 2011
1731 Reads
(83 Print)

Bishop's Holiday Plans raise eyebrows... The new Bishop in the rural Diocese of Bathurst in New South Wales, +Michael McKenna, has been raising some eyebrows with a letter that was sent out recently to the priests of his diocese notifying them of his plans for an overseas trip and for the importation of more priests from overseas. In today's commentary Fr Daniel Donovan gives voice to some of the concerns. A copy of the bishop's letter is attached to the commentary. [more]

No. 20
24 Oct 2007
1775 Reads
(273 Print)

Religion and Art Part III… Do you remember the recent controversy over the Blake Prize for Religious Art where Queensland artist, Priscilla Bracks, submitted an image of Jesus that morphed into Osama bin Laden? Or do you remember the even bigger controversy in 1997 when Andres Sorano's provocative work Piss Christ was exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria and George Pell unsuccessfully applied for a Court injunction to try and prevent it being exhibited? We won't give Peregrinus's arguments away but urge you, whatever side you might have been on in these controversies to read the very different perspective that he brings to the consideration of these matters. No one is going to be disappointed with this Catholica commentary. [more]

No. 19
13 Sep 2006
1817 Reads
(36 Print)

The Christian meaning in Human Suffering Catholica presents a special feature on the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering. The editorial provides an overview and leads into a commentary prepared by Peregrinus on the Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II on the subject — Salvifici Dolores. [the editorial]

The meaning of Human Suffering (cont'd)... Today Peregrinus provides a summary of Pope John Paul II's lengthy 1984 discourse on The Meaning of Human Suffering — Salvifici Dolores. This Apostolic Letter was written relatively early in the pontificate of Pope John Paul and reputedly out of his own experiences of suffering following the attempt on his life in 1981 by an assassin in St Peter's Square. [peregrinus'commentary]

No. 18
15 Aug 2011
2018 Reads
(102 Print)

Are you infected with any of the madness in contemporary Catholicism? Here's the cure... Are you ready for this: it's a whimsical reflection from Dr Graham English taking a look at the madness that seems to be infecting contemporary Catholicism. Are you infected with any of this or have you managed to escape? Part 1 today and the conclusion will follow tomorrow. [more]

No. 17
31 May 2009
2146 Reads
(25 Print)

Accepting what cannot be changed! The journey out of active participation in the sacramental and communal life of the institutional Church is tortuous — particularly for those who have put in decades of active participation at the parish or diocesan level. Increasingly though the institution is losing many of those who were once the most active participants at the local level. In today's commentary Kerry Gonzales reflects on her own journey and likens it to the grieving process identified many decades ago by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross. [more]

No. 16
05 May 2007
2241 Reads
(866 Print)

The controversy surrounding Arius — what can we learn? Ian argues: "This reflection serves to remind us that God simply doesn't provide us with all the answers in some definitive way. We have debate and discussion, even argument, to refine and define our shared faith – what else might we expect from a God who chooses to enter into conversation with his creatures?" [more]

No. 15
01 Dec 2007
2251 Reads
(51 Print)

Who then were the founders of the Church in Rome? Over the last two weeks Dr Elmer has explored two possible candidates for the honour of founder of the Church in Rome, Paul and Peter. His exploration of the material from Paul's letter to Rome suggests that neither of these apostles can claim that title — although the later Roman apologists would make that claim for them. This week he looks at further scholarly speculation about who the true founders of the Roman church may have been and when Christianity first came to Rome. [more]

No. 14
26 Feb 2011
2359 Reads
(81 Print)

The abuse scandal is far from over... Clerical abuse campaigner Richard Sipe has sent us this new assessment of the renewed state of the clerical abuse scandal in the United States following the release last month of the second lengthy Philadelphia Grand Jury investigation into the sexual abuse of minors in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia by archdiocesan clergy and employees. Mr Sipe concludes that the prosecution of a higher level official in the Church grows closer and the abuse scandal for the institution is far from over in the United States. [more]

No. 13
05 Mar 2011
2419 Reads
(39 Print)

"Gay Marriage – yeah or neah?" In his delightfully sensitive, "view from the pews" way George Ripon offers us today a thought-provoking commentary exploring the difficult issue of gay relationships and the call for gay unions to be legalised under the Marriage Act in Australia. The issues have been causing much discussion in the media and in Australia's parliaments. George seeks to explore these divisive issues within a contemporary catholic spiritual context. Have you reached a view on these issues yet? Hopefully George's commentary, and the discussions he cites we've already been having on the Catholica Forum may assist you in navigating through this challenging moral territory. [more]

No. 12
01 Jan 2007
2825 Reads
(576 Print)

Perspectives on Spirituality and Religion written by young people Pt III – Armen Gakavian Dr Armen Gakavian summarises his spiritual journey in this way: "I have had an Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) upbringing, Catholic religious education at school, encounter with Jesus through a fundamentalist Baptist Church, involvement with various campus Christian groups, and encounters with radical Christian communities. At the 'end' (there is really no end) of this process, I am now what I would call 'evangelical'." His essay is illuminating not only of his own personal journey but seeks to provide commentary on why so many of his contemporaries are today distanced from the Church. [Editor's introduction] | [Armen's perspective]

No. 11
22 Apr 2008
2947 Reads
(391 Print)

Where Is Your Brother? This week both Eastern Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox celebrate Holy Week. It is an appropriate time in which we might re-visit what is perhaps still the greatest scandal in Christendom of all time — the split which occurred between the East and the West in 1054. Dr Andrew Kania's commentary today takes us back to examine the causes of the split and argues that greater effort needs to be made on both sides to heal the split. [more]

No. 10
26 Aug 2006
2965 Reads
(279 Print)

Would the 'Real' Jesus Christ Please Stand Up? This week, Biblical scholar, Ian Elmer, begins a new exploration that he informs us will unfold over several weeks. Last week he was exploring the different perspectives on Jesus that were to be found from the New Testament accounts in the early Church. His new quest goes back further than that in an endeavour to reconstruct what scholars are finding out about the historical Jesus. In his first article today in this series Ian is addressing the issue of method. In effect, asking questions about how Biblical scholars undertake the task of reconstructing the Historical Jesus. What criteria do they use to sort fact from fiction? [more]

No. 9
02 May 2011
3074 Reads
(270 Print)

Calling for moral courage on the scale exhibited by Christ himself! The significant religious affairs story in Australia today has been the forced retirement of the Bishop of Toowoomba, William (Bill) Morris, in rural Queensland by the actions of the temple police in this country aided by forces in the Vatican. The matter has already been generating significant discussion and moral outrage on the Catholica forum. In this editorial we argue this matter calls for a response from the broad mainstream of Australian priests and bishops on a scale of that exhibited by Jesus Christ himself. [more]

No. 8
01 Mar 2011
3189 Reads
(174 Print)

Evaluating The Wilkinson Report... It is our pleasure today to bring you a report, The Wilkinson Report, that is also simultaneously being released in the mainstream media examining the serious crisis the Catholic Church is facing in Australia in providing the sacraments and pastoral care to its core constituency of baptised Catholics. We present both the report, a couple of brief summaries of the full report, as well as our own editorial comment on the report's conclusions. [more]

No. 7
13 Oct 2007
3398 Reads
(2268 Print)

Entering the Kingdom within… This is stuff some of the bishops and cardinals who are going to be held accountable for the present parlous state the Church is in ought be reading. Of course they won't be reading it but that's no reason why you mightn't get great benefit out of it. You'll probably get labelled as a dissenter, heretic, liberal and a whole lot of other choice labels for reading it but that's part of the price one pays these days for trying to find out where one finds the key to the door where one can begin "the journey within". Is this stuff Ian Elmer is discussing heretical or is it the sort of language our ecclesial leaders need to be getting their heads around if they are to return to "bringing the 'Good News' to all" and not just to "the self-anointed few"? [more]

No. 6
20 Nov 2010
3485 Reads
(28 Print)

An Open Letter to the Cardinal? Fr Dan Donovan originally titled this commentary as an "Open Letter to Cardinal Pell". On reflection though it addresses issues of much wider concern even if there was the slightest indication that anyone at the top of the ecclesial food chain is the slightest bit interested in the things we discuss on Catholica, or which have driven nearly 90% of the baptised out the door. The Catholic Church hierarchy of today seems only interested in pandering to the needs of a tiny subset of the baptised and the rest of us can all "go to Hell". That said, Fr Donovan's letter does address some issues that the majority might like addressed. From Tempe to Leeds to Manhattan or anywhere else on planet Earth the broad body of the faithful face similar issues to the one's addressed in this commentary. Don't hold your breath waiting for an official reply! ...Editor [more]

No. 5
06 Dec 2010
3542 Reads

The Trouble with Women! Bill Farrelly enters the lion's den with the headline he chose for today's article. Fear not, gentle souls, he has come to smite a certain type of man — funnily enough, the sort that are often seen parading around in dresses. Bill's trying to curry favour with the other half of humanity — and making a few hard-hitting points at the same time. It's doubtful though if the men in dresses might be capable of listening yet. [more]

No. 4
04 Feb 2010
4031 Reads
(3301 Print)

Did Jesus consider himself a Eunuch? Remember when they employed castrati in the Vatican choir? Most of us are too young to remember but there would be some still alive today when the last Castrati died. Eunuchs have been a feature of many civilisations. Dr Ian Elmer's commentary today delves back to explore what Jesus and Paul had to say on the subjects of eunuchs, castrati, celibacy and marriage. What is the meaning of all this today? Civilised societies do not expect men today to castrate themselves to serve the Emperor or the Church. Do we stop at the physical, or should we consider others non-physical forms of castration? [more]

No. 3
12 Nov 2006
4518 Reads

Searching for an authentic understanding of Jesus' vision... Following on from Rosemary's Take last Thursday, further discussion on the discussion forum in the days following, and today's Scriptural readings, Tom Scott seeks to explore what the authentic Catholic vision is by constrasting it to a number of alternatives. These include the "abundance theology" of Evangelical Christianity, the message thrust in things like the film The Secret, and abominations within Catholic belief itself. [more]

No. 2
06 Sep 2007
5606 Reads

Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and all that "stuff"! Long time lover of authentic "Catholic" thinking, Tom McMahon, has been busting for ages to have a go at what he sees as the "outmoded views" of the editor of Catholica, Brian Coyne, on "Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and all that 'stuff'". Well, we've given him a page to "let rip" and we're also pleased to see Tom joining the pages of Catholica on a more regular basis as a commentator. (The editor reserves the right to come back in this ongoing debate about all this eschatological "stuff" and the ultimate meaning, purpose and objective of all this religion and faith business. Stay tuned for a vigorous, on-going discussion and we'd welcome your views on why we bother with all this belief in God and going to Church business.) [more]

No. 1
06 Sep 2007
8171 Reads

Bishop Bill Morris's letter to his people The most read commentary or article on Catholica during 2011 was the letter we published on 1st May 2011 from Bishop Bill Morris to the people of his diocese at Toowmomba. In many ways this was fitting as his story had generated unprecedented comment on our forum and from our commentators throughout the year. [more]