Dear Friends,

The new editor of CathNews has certainly not faced the challenges of a "slow news day" this Monday. The front page of CathNews contains a range of interesting and challenging stories, including the not unexpected first signs of a back down by the politicians on Randwick as the venue for the closing Mass for WYD. Almost as interesting as that is the Opinion piece in which NCR reporter, John L Allen Jr interviews Cardinal Francis George of Chicago. Cardinal George, whose conservative credentials are well known, is arguing that the Catholic sub-culture needs to be restored — you know, the sort of things that make certain religious groups distinctive in society — eating habits (no meat on Fridays), distinctive religious holidays. The Jewish people have retained a separate religious identity in the community through eating customs, special days of religious observance and even clothing styles. The same goes for the followers of Islam. Cardinal George laments that Catholics have lost some of their distinctiveness.

One might wonder if this is part of his campaign push to become the next President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the United States? It is without precedent that his bid for the presidency has led to a number of high profile protest groups in the United States mounting letter writing campaigns urging the American bishops to not consider Cardinal George as their nominee.

Also of interest to Catholica readers will be the news story about the release of a new book on the spiritual attitudes of Generation Y. That's a subject we'll be following up on much more here on Catholica in coming weeks. I notice my own son, who seems to be having a go at his mother and me for naming him after St Benedict — the name he's using on the forum is "Pope Benna dictum" (say it with a smile. He had a big smile on his face when he told me he was choosing that as his nic.) — has posted an item on our forum overnight inviting us to view a two-hour film that's available on the net (see www.zeitgeistmovie.com) which takes a critical look at religious beliefs. I've downloaded it but so far have only been able to view the introduction. I have to say I am sceptical having looked at some of the stuff on the accompanying website but I am pleased that we are getting an increasing flow of correspondence from younger people these days wanting to contribute to the discussions we're having here on Catholica. Like the film, The Secret, which Ben was the first to introduce me to a couple of years ago, I am confident this film Ben has drawn to our attention will provide plenty of meat for discussion in our forums and it will not be unrelated to the general issues that these researchers from ACU National and Monash universities are seeking to investigate in this new book mentioned in this morning's CathNews.

The matter which has been exercising my own mind in recent days is not unrelated to all of the foregoing — nor even to the lead story on CathNews this morning which is about Pope Benedict's arguments that praying the Rosary can lead to peace. I certainly believe that personal prayer of the meditative type such as that which underlines the Rosary style can induce personal peace. If enough people are doing it that can also lead to a sense of communal calm and peace. I am sceptical though that our prayers, to Mary, or anyone else, including God, lead to God intervening in the affairs of Creation to bring about peace. Now I appreciate there are still many people in the world who do seriously believe in miracles and who do have a sincerely held understanding that if they pray earnestly enough God will grant them whatever they wish for as if by some "magical" intervention in our (human) affairs.

Is their opinion as good as mine? Or is mine as valid as theirs?

	Novus Ordo Watch website Highly critical of Pope Benedict — even calls into question the legitimacy of his ordination as a priest

In the last week or so — and through following leads from posters on the CathNews discussion board — I was led to three websites that were very intent on proving the orthodoxy of their credentials but, at the same time, were highly critical of the institution and the Pope. One was a Fatima site — and I have previously mentioned that in one of these emails — the other was a Novus Ordo Watch site which was even more "way over the top". I am increasingly inclined to ask: what are the limits that need to exist in society between tolerance for differences in opinion and when we need to have community consensus and say "No, that opinion you are expressing is not mere 'opinion' but offends against some higher understanding of 'truth'?"

Our Lady of Fatima Conference website Has some "spooky stuff" every bit as worrying as some of what you'll see on the Zeitgeist site Benna referenced in our forum. Where does truth ultimately lay in all of this?

We see this question, writ large, on a much larger canvas in the debate — which has now spread to the European Parliament in the past week — over our communal response to Creationists? Some people do sincerely believe in the literalness of what is written in Scripture. There are no arguments the rest of society can mount which might convince them that they are misguided or wrong. Elsewhere in the world we can observe the rise of calls from some people who sincerely believe in Sharia Law where they want to impose their beliefs on entire nations and large communities of people. Even within Catholicism, and without venturing into the sort of extremist sites such as the Fatima and Novus Ordo Watch sites I have referred to above, I find myself often in conflict with other people, even some priests, who I believe do hold views that are simply not tenable. They are not reflective of the "ultimate truths" that God reveals to us in the canvas of Creation. These are not issues that might be described as being "at the margins" or where there are no "expert opinions" or some broad consensus in society but they are "opinions" where sincere Catholics almost seem to be arguing that 2 + 2 = 5. Can our spiritual leaders afford any longer to try and stand "above the fray" in some of these matters?

	Fatima Network website Also worth looking at for their refusal to accept direction when the Vatican has had the courage to draw a line in the sand about some things.

I think a significant part of the Church's present problems — i.e. the increasing irrelevance with which the institution is treated in the eyes of so many — has come about because our spiritual leaders have been playing this game of pretending not to notice when elements on the extreme end of the spectrum advance arguments that reside more truthfully in the realms of superstition and nonsense and they do nothing to disabuse those people that their beliefs or "opinions" do in fact step outside the limits of what our institutional tolerance ought to be. Is this not what Bishop Robinson was partly driving at in the reflection we published yesterday as to what the limits of our tolerance should be as to the very picture we present to the world, and to ourselves, of who God is?

Obviously this is an argument that needs much greater development than can be given in this commentary. My hope is that this commentary might help stimulate such a discussion.

Brian Coyne is the editor and publisher of Catholica Australia.

We welcome your thoughts in response to this commentary in our forum.

Brian Coyne can be contacted at: Brian Coyne <editor@catholica.com.au>

©2007 Brian Coyne

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