211 :
29 Feb 2012

Two Models of Priesthood IV Tom McMahon in now what is an extended series looking at two models of priesthood today fills in another "hole" he felt was missing from his previous commentaries. The Council of Trent certainly went a long way to shaping the ideas we have about priesthood today — and the ideas that priests themselves have of their roles in society. Has the world moved past this model? Are collectively searching for a new understanding of the role of the priest in our contemporary world? [more]

107 :
28 Feb 2012

The history of Synods in Australia... On Catholica today we're going to take you away from our own website to bring to your attention some information that we think is valuable and provides considerable food for reflection. The subject is Synods — those meetings at the grass roots level of the Church that are supposed help with the guidance and governance of the Church. We draw your attention to a detailed study that has recently been published by Peter J Wilkinson into the history of Synods in Australia; and we also direct your attention to the Synod presently underway in the Diocese of Broken Bay here in New South Wales. [more]

210 :
26 Feb 2012

The mythological aspect of life and belief IV In this fourth part of a new series of mini-commentaries Tom McMahon takes us to the religious beliefs in Ancient Egypt. The essential issue he examines are religious notions that we also find much later in history in the Jesus' story. [more]

067 :
26 Feb 2012

The Catholic Hierarchy is at war with the majority of us in the pews! John Chuchman's reflection today is principally focused to goings on in the United States but could as easily be applied in any country in the developed world today. Have some hierarchical fringe in the Church declared some sort of war on the great majority of ordinary pew-sitters in the church, or who once sat in the church? Are the old crusader's banners coming out again? [more]

028 :
25 Feb 2012

A theology for the new millennium: Epilogue Fr Peter Dresser today provides an Epilogue to the series of commentaries we have serialised from his book over the last six months. As he argues: "This book has been an attempt to find some convergence between science and our Christian theology. Because science and theology use different data, such a marriage might sit uncomfortably with many. On the other hand, many will find such an attempt a rewarding endeavour. In any case neither science nor theology ought do any great violence to each other. If anything, one should nourish and enhance the other." [more]

052 :
24 Feb 2012

Pastoral Plans: Are they an exercise in the Emperor's 'New Clothes'? Here at Catholica we are often critical of the institutional endeavours that seem more designed as "make work" endeavours – i.e. "make out you are busy in case Jesus (or His Holiness) visits the factory floor" — rather than actually doing whatever they proclaim is supposed to be taking place, such as "evangelisation. Today's commentary from Fr Daniel Donovan take the blow torch to another "make work" exercise: Diocesan Pastoral Plans. Read on; you'll be entertained, if not enlightened! And again the footnotes are almost a second commentary within themselves. [more]

087 :
23 Feb 2012

Some Confronting Questions at the Start of Lent: This commentary from Timothy Schmaltz in Phoenix, Orizona, only arrived in our email box this morning but it is arresting enough to displace the commentary we were planning to bring you today. Tim went to Church yesterday, as he does on Ash Wednesday each year. He ended up coming away with a bevy of confronting questions that he'd like to share with all of you who read Catholica. [more]

209 :
22 Feb 2012

Two Models of Priesthood III Over the last two Wednesday commentaries Tom McMahon has been looking at these two models of priesthood. Today was going to be some kind of conclusion but on reading back through his previous commentaries Tom felt there was a "hole" in what he'd written so today he gives what is effectively a chronological exposition as to how we got to the model of priesthood that seems favoured by the institutional leadership today. [more]

042 :
21 Feb 2012

Two significant events for the future of Catholicism in Australia... Two significant events occurred yesterday, 20th February 2012, that more than probably will have huge implications for the future of Catholicism across Australia for decades into the future. One development has been the release of The Gonski Report – a massive review of Education Policy in Australia commissioned by the Australian Federal Government which will carry with it massive implications for the future of Catholic Education across Australia. The second development has been the retirement of Archbishop Barry James Hickey in Western Australia. This is partly significant in itself but perhaps more significant in that it marks the start of a raft of significant new episcopal appointments across this "wide, brown land" that have huge implications for where Catholicism in this country heads from here. In this editorial commentary, Brian Coyne, provides links to where you can get a handle on the significance of these events and he offers his own perspectives on the likely future direction. [more]

005 :
20 Feb 2012

The Vatican takeover of "the People of God"… Ted Schmidt and John Quinn provide today's lead commentary on Catholica lamenting the peaceful coup that has been underway for decades by which the Holy Roman Catholic Church has been slowly stolen from the people of God. It is a commentary on the decline of Catholicism to the point that religious affairs no longer attracts serious coverage in the secular media. It is also a commentary on the style of recent Vatican appointments to key leadership positions in the English-speaking world. Are we witnessing a decline in the quality of candidates available or a deliberate endeavour to impose on the world a particular style of Catholicism? [more]

208 :
19 Feb 2012

The mythological aspect of life and belief III In this third part of a new series of mini-commentaries Tom McMahon takes us to Mount Olympus for an all-too brief look at the Ancient Greek Deities. Tom's commentary might be "mini" but the links we provide to National Geographic, Wikipedia and other sites could occupy your for days. Way back in the mists of human history what are the origins of this human need for gods? When humans first started thinking about gods, what were the images and ideas they had? [more]

066 :
19 Feb 2012

Ponderings of a fellow traveler on Life's Journey 7: The Triune God of Love: We started this series from John Chuchman back in the middle of December and this is the last of this series of ponderings. We have added a "series navigation" line to the top and bottom of each Pondering as you might like today to go back and tackle the whole series as a set of connected reflections on this theme of the religious quest as a search for the ultimate in love. [more]

027 :
18 Feb 2012

A theology for the new millennium: Chapter Ten (Part 4) "Ourselves & Prayer" (Conclusion to the Book) Today's commentary from Fr Peter Dresser is the conclusion to the entire argument he has slowly been unfolding over the previous twenty-six segments of his book that we've serialised. WARNING: If you believe theology was something invented by God back around the time of Adam and Eve, or even at the time of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and the only people allowed to interpret it is the pope and some "committee" in Rome, this commentary will probably be very upsetting to your cosmos. For the rest of you who have been perplexed by the seeming collapse of belief in the world, and trying to sort out your own spirituality in this challenging millieu we are now in, this commentary today may come as a huge breath of fresh air. Today's conclusion to Fr Peter Dresser's book God is Big. Real BIG! will more than probably cause the intelligent reader to go back and re-examine their own theological beliefs at the most profound level: what is your fundamental understanding of the nature and purpose of Jesus in giving us insight into the Spirit of God in our lives? Is our concept of God one of someone who wants to be appeased or is our concept of God one who invites us into a sharing of the Divine insight not so much through sacrifices to the deity but through learning and our endeavouring to understand the nature of the Divine? [more]

010 :
17 Feb 2012

How do we integrate Christ into our lives? Another powerful commentary today. This time from Fr Kevin Murphy which follows beautifully from the discussion yesterday sparked by Emmy Silvius's commentary on Catholica [LINK]. Christians and Catholics protest that we "love Jesus", or want to "follow Jesus", but how to we integrate that into our lives in practical ways? [more]

007 :
16 Feb 2012

Where does Christ fit in Evolution? It could be claimed that all of us are searching — searching for the answers to the meaning of life. Is there anyone in the world who would pretend to have all the answers? A theme common to almost every commentary we've published on Catholica is this theme of a writer searching. Our lead commentator today, Emmy Silvius, tackles the big question: how do we fit our theologies and the Jesus' story into what we're learning about the cosmos and these relatively recent understandings like evolution? This is a commentary where almost ever sentence is electrically charged and scary to hold. Fabulous territory for quite reflection. [more]

207 :
15 Feb 2012

Two Models of Priesthood II From whence did these two models of priesthood emerge — the Trentan "liturgical/sacrament-dispensing priesthood"; and the Vatican II/First Century/Twentieth Century "Jesus' servant'priesthood"? That's essentially what Tom McMahon explores in this second part of this series. Today's commentary is also a useful refresher in some recent world, and ecclesial, history with plenty of fascinating links to further exploration in Wikipedia and other places. [more]

2018 :
14 Feb 2012

Lend us the benefit of your thoughts on this... Today on the Catholic Forum James has written an insightful review into an insightful new book that may be of great interest to readers of Catholica. James, is the "insightful reviewer" and the author is the former Professor of Philosophy at St Columba's Seminary at Springwood, and one-time rector at St John's College at the University of Sydney, John Burnheim. John Burnheim subsequently left the priesthood and eventually became Professor of General Philosophy at the University of Sydney and a self-described "secular humanist". The relevance of this to readers of Catholica is that what is written in this review might help provide insight into why Catholicism is in such a crisis today — why so many educated people in the world have ceased listening to the institution and participating in the sacramental life of the institution. The discussion the editor started yesterday on the evangelization endeavours of Fr Robert Barron is continuing to draw a large readership. On the forum this morning the editor has posed a series of questions that might be addressed to a range of authorities concerning who sets the communication agenda in the institution today — and asks if there is any discussion whatsoever in the higher reaches of episcopal, religious institute, educational and university administration level of what in the dickens the message they are trying to transmit about Jesus, about God and about the Church and what methodologies they will employ to do it? [James' review] | [Questions for Catholic Universities .... and Bishops...]

2017 :
13 Feb 2012

Lend us the benefit of your thoughts on this... On the Catholica Forum today the editor is "stirring the possum" about a new evangelisation initiative about to sweep Australia seemingly aimed primarily at a young adult audience. Fr Robert Barron, a charismatic youngish priest who has produced a lavishly produced video series entitled "Catholicism ... it's your story", is coming to Australia promote the series to priests, Catholic university students, teachers and religious. George Weigel describes the series as "The most important media project in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States". You can view the promos for the video series and a promotional video for his Australian tour on our forum at the link below. The editor of Catholica expresses his doubts this is going to work. It's "more of the same" — more of what we've been fed for the past 40 years, a return to Catholic triumphalism that has seen nearly 90% of the baptised across the face of the educated world cease listening to what the Church has to say. And the exit rate for young people has been much worse than the exit for the general population despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on events like World Youth Day. When will the hierarchs learn that these sort of evangelisation endeavours do not work? In the forum the editor has attempted to put some arguments giving evidence for why these initiatives are bound to be a repeat of the failed efforts of the last half century. He also advance some arguments as to what might work in the alternative. It's now over to you to challenge the viewpoints he has put forward and to express your opinions. There'll probably by no bishops interesting in listening to your opinions but plenty of other people would value being able to read a wide cross section of opinions on a "hot" topic like this. Do you believe a promotional endeavour like this one featuring Fr Robert Barron is likely to succeed where all the other efforts, including the billions of dollars spent on Catholic schools and universities over the last half century have failed? [more]

065 :
12 Feb 2012

Ponderings of a fellow traveler on Life's Journey 6: The Mystery of God as Love: John Chuchman's reflection today perhaps fits especially well with the sort of questions Tom McMahon poses in his new Sunday series on Mythology. Love is a "mystery" we find difficult to explain with words, so also is this entity we trying and condense into expressions like "God" or "the Spirit". These "mysteries" of the Divine and Love seem inextricably linked. [more]

206 :
12 Feb 2012

The mythological aspect of life and belief II In this second in a new series of mini-commentaries Tom McMahon today invites us to think of the spiritual world view held by American Indians and Ancient Egyptians. His series is partly inspired by the National Geographic book, "Essential Visual History of World Mythology" and he begins today with a further explanation about what he hopes to achieve via this exploration. [more]

026 :
11 Feb 2012

A theology for the new millennium: Chapter Ten (Part 3) "Ourselves & Prayer" Now only if we could have far more homilies on Sacramental theology like this instead of all the hand-wringing and phrase-skwirming we often encounter from hierarchs attempting to evade the hair-splitting and note books of the Pharisees and the Temple Police. Today's excerpt from Fr Peter Dresser's book God is Big. Real BIG! is focused on a discussion we have been having for a long time here on Catholica: the meaning of Sacrament in today's world. We commend it as an excellent contribution to that wider discussion. [more]

086 :
10 Feb 2012

Mark Day interviews Matthew Fox When Cardinal Josef Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, few Catholics were aware of the central role he played for decades in reversing the reforms of the Second Vatican Council — to restore the Catholic Church to its status as an authoritarian monarchy and a system impervious to change from below. Few authors have told this story as well as Matthew Fox in his new book, The Pope's War. Fox, an outspoken progressive theologian, was forced out of the Dominican Order in 1988 by order of Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith. The author of more than 23 books, Fox continues teaching and exploring the big spiritual questions today. Mark Day interviewed him recently for Catholica. [more]

049 :
09 Feb 2012

A new critique of the new translation... Here's a new critique of the new translation of the Roman Missal — this time looking at the translation in the context of a Funeral Liturgy. In this extensive 3-part analysis, Fr Daniel Donovan, breaks apart the New Text of the Second Eucharistic Prayer. Parts 2 and 3 will follow tomorrow and on Saturday. [more]

2012 :
08 Feb 2012

A great discussion on some very fundamental belief stuff... A fabulous discussion has been growing in our forum partly triggered by a post Enda wrote yesterday on where we're all going with this "religion and belief" stuff, Vynette Holliday's commentary yesterday (which I screwed up by only publishing the first half of and it has only been today that I've published the heart of her entire argument in her conclusion), and also a letter from Bishop Bill Morris which has been published in today's Age newspaper which sharply criticises a letter published in that same newspaper by Archbishop Denis Hart. Morris's letter drives to the heart of this issue of "authority" which is at the heart of all of these discussions. [Link and Discussion about +Bill Morris's response in the Age to ++Denis Hart] | [Enda's string: Is it "Are we there yet?" or "When do we start?"] | [Discussion on the notions of "Redemption" and "Authority" flowing out of Vynette's commentary]

021 :
07 Feb 2012

Questioning the understanding of Papal Primacy Part 12... Vynette Holliday returns today to add a few more thoughts to this extended mosaic she's slowly been trying to unravel concerning the origin of our beliefs in the primacies of St Peter and the subsequent popes. Vynette's analysis is a more detailed academic analysis than many we publish here on Catholica but stick with it and we'll see where this all ends up. [more]

025 :
06 Feb 2012

A theology for the new millennium: Chapter Ten (Part 2) "Ourselves & Prayer" This is a commentary for the 86% and those who are seriously thinking of joining them. It was actually written a decade ago and you might well ask if the situation has improved for any of us in that time? It's a tragedy what has happened to the Church but Fr Peter Dresser writes with considerable optimism: we desperately need a new theological understanding that better accords with people's lived experience of their relationship with God and their understanding of the relationship the Creator calls humankind into. [more]

205 :
05 Feb 2012

The mythological aspect of life and belief I Tom McMahon has proposed a new series of mini-commentaries this year, which we propose to run on Sundays. Drawing from the National Geographic book, "Essential Visual History of World Mythology", Tom describes these commentaries as "an experiment that the little boy from 15th Street who happened to become a Catholic priest will offer weekly during the coming months of the year 2012. The issue of religion is humanly complex found in verbal traditions and written texts. Hopefully this series will shed light on the historical human adventure into the realm of the Divine Mystery. All information herein is offered in condensed form, allowing the reader to go into further investigation." [more]

064 :
05 Feb 2012

Ponderings of a fellow traveler on Life's Journey 5: Being in Love: There was an article in Zenit yesterday [LINK] asking if it is possible to make the Church's message "brilliant and attractice". Some argued in response that it's no longer possible [LINK]. What John could be thought of as doing in this series is trying to make the Jesus' message "brilliant and attractive". All of us engaged in the process of "pondering" — asking ourselves questions about what it all means; what our own lives mean; how we might better live our lives; or simply "be happy"? These are the sort of questions John Chuchman has been pondering in this series. The connecting central word in last week's ponder, this one today and the two to come is the word "love". [more]

106 :
04 Feb 2012

A quintessentially "Catholic" homily... In the Members' Forum of Catholica yesterday I broke a piece of Good News for the benefit of our forum members and I'd like to share that a little more widely today with you, our loyal subscibers. ...BMC, Editor [more]

085 :
02 Feb 2012

The Purple Culture... Steve Boehrer was in Rome the day Angelo Roncali was elected Pope John XXIII. He stood in the Piazza San Pietro, watched the white smoke puffs, and felt hope for his Church. He was 25 years old then, a veteran of the United States Navy, anxious to finish his seminary studies and be ordained. He was subsequently ordained, earned a doctorate in theology, became chancellor of a diocese, but later, like many, came "to see the light" and left the priesthood. Like many of us here at Catholica he really did buy the forward-looking vision of Vatican II discerned by the majority of the Bishops of the world. He has been aghast at the steady march of the minority, reactionary element amongst the hierarchy who have left no stone unturned to undo the vision discerned by the majority of bishops at Vatican II to turn the clock back. In this commentary he explores some of what he is attempting to explore at greater length in his novel, The Purple Culture. [more]

204 :
01 Feb 2012

Two Models of Priesthood I By way of his own introduction Tom McMahon writes: The following was first written back at the beginning of January while I was unaware Brian was not going to publish any commentaries until February. I used January to read and in particular to study the entirety of Fr. Peter Dresser's GOD IS BIG, to clean up the mess in my "den of thieves" in preparation for the February visit of Marilyn and John Chuchman, to play with our grandchildren despite a torn left meniscus, and to touch up the following... [more]

013 :
31 Jan 2012

Advice for Pilgrims on El Camino de Santiago... During April last year Dr Graham English undertook the famous Santiago de Compastella Pilgrimage across the top of Spain. This pilgrimage is today possibly the most famous of all pilgrimages in the world. In English it is called The Way of St James. The numbers undertaking the pilgrimage have been ballooning in recent decades and it is estimated that nearly 300,000 individuals undertook the pilgrimage last year. In this commentary Graham shares something of his experience and also provides practical advice for others who might be thinking of making the trek. [more]

063 :
30 Jan 2012

Ponderings of a fellow traveler on Life's Journey 3: Being Human is Questing: Back in the 1980's Tina Turner released a song under the title "What's Love Got To Do With It?" [YouTube]. It's a song title burned into the hearts of many. Turner subsequently used the title for a documentary about her life [Wikipedia]. Today's reflection from John Chuchman could be thought of as attempting to provide an answer to that question. Love is claimed to "make the world go around". In the Christian context we see our existence rooted in Divine Love... [more]

024 :
29 Jan 2012

A theology for the new millennium: Chapter Ten (Part 1) "Ourselves & Prayer" Today we begin the final chapter of the serialisation of Fr Peter Dresser's book searching for "a theology for the New Millennium". The theme of this chapter is the place of prayer in our lives today. What he writes today dovetails beautifully with Vince Exley's reflection yesterday [LINK] mapping the massive changes in our understanding of our place in the cosmos since Sacred Scripture was first written down. What relevance does Jesus have in this new world so much dominated by scientific insights and new technologies? [more]

014 :
28 Jan 2012

What do we really believe today? Today's reflection from Vince Exley serendipitously fits in with a brilliant and lengthy conversation we've been having in the Catholica forum in recent days entitled "Searching for New Ways to be Catholic" [LINK]. Vince wrote this a few days before that conversation started. Catholica attracts a more mature readership many of whom are no longer prepared to put up with the religious bullshit anymore. They no longer have to please their parents, or the pope, but they're seriously trying to find answers to the meaning of Life. That's essentially what this whole discussion is about today: "What do we actually believe today" in the privacy of our own minds and away from trying to impress bishops and trying not to stir up the temple police? [more]

023 :
07 Jan 2012

A theology for the new millennium: Chapter Nine (Part 4) "God, Our Universe & Ourselves" As foreshadowed at the conclusion of last week's excerpt, Fr Peter Dresser today explores the question: "What is the nature of this heavenly kingdom?". What follows our earthly death? Perhaps challengingly for many of us he observes: "Interestingly enough it has generally been the teaching of the Church that we are saved not as individuals but as a community." [more]

062 :
01 Jan 2012

Ponderings of a fellow traveler on Life's Journey 3: Being Human is Questing: Welcome to the New Year. Our deep hope is that it is a bounteous year for you. Whatever field you find it is your lot to plough our hope is that when you arrive at this time next year you might be able to exclaim in joy: "It has been a fruitful and productive year. I feel myself to be a more fulfilled person than I felt at the beginning of 2012." John Chuchman's reflection today fits beautifully with a theme that seems to be emerging across the whole of what we do here at Catholica: none of us can own the Divine exclusively. None of us can have an exclusive claim to know "the mind of God"; we are all on a journey of discovery — questing to understand the meaning of our individual lives, and of Life. [more]