036 :
31 May 2007

A Rev Hannibal Lecter in a Cheap Cardigan! Cliff Baxter returns with a powerful commentary to draw attention to Markham Nolan's review of a powerful new documentary about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Mr Nolan's review is reproduced courtesy of The Irish Echo newspaper. [more]

046 :
30 May 2007

Amazing Grace? Peregrinus gave this commentary the headline "Amazing Grace?" with a sense of wry emphasis on the question mark. He personally hates the song but he also explores the questions surrounding the grace attached to the song's author, the Rev John Newton – a man credited with helping to end slavery. Are there lessons we might take on board today from the story of John Newton and his conversion to Christianity? Do we suffer from a similar blindness? [more]

024 :
29 May 2007

Would Jesus get a better deal from us? Andrew takes a look at mob behaviour and bullying. Why do people engage in the behaviour? Have we learned nothing since the time of Jesus? [more]

017 :
28 May 2007

Let us be tongues of fire, criticising and energising... We publish an audio file of Sr Susan Connelly's public address to the New Pentecost Forum. [more]

007 :
27 May 2007

The Spirituality of Thomas Merton IV Over the next two weeks, in the fourth and fifth excerpts from his essay on the Spirituality of Thomas Merton, Fr Collins examines how Merton's ideas developed between the late-1950s and mid-1960s on what is actually happening in the mystical (ecstatic) experience. What's the relationship between the natural and supernatural in the realm of mystical experience? [more]

039 :
26 May 2007

Factionalism... Ian Elmer examines the divisions in the early Church as means of trying to understand that unity is hard to come by — in Paul's time or our own. [more]

045 :
23 May 2007

Abortion and The Law ~ Part II... Peregrinus concludes his elegantly argued exploration of the difficult territory that Catholics need to negotiate when coming to an understanding of how moral law interacts with the formulation of civil law. [more]

023 :
22 May 2007

Living the spiritual life in a secular setting... Last week Andrew ended his commentary with a brief reference to the former secretary to the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld. What Andrew didn't tell you is that he has a particular affinity with Mr Hammarskjöld. At present, Andrew is packing up all his possessions in Perth and moving with his wife and young son to live in Oxford for a year where he has been invited as a visiting academic at Oxford University to write a book on Dag Hammarskjöld.* Today he shares a little of what brought fame to this famous Secretary-General of the United Nations following his death in a plane crash in 1961. I am pleased to report to you that Andrew hopes to continue filing articles for Catholica when he has settled in in Oxford and, in the meantime, he has given us a series of wonderful reflections which will run over the next four Tuesdays while he makes the transition to the UK. This series is a mixed collection of reflections on different aspects of life looked at from a spiritual perspective. Today's commentary sits very comfortably with the observations I was writing about yesterday concerning the spirituality of Opus Dei which endeavours to view spirituality as part and parcel of our secular lives. _Editor. *See further information in the introduction to Andrew's commentary. [more]

016 :
21 May 2007

What can we learn from Josemaria Escriva, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens? Brian expands what was initially going to be simply a review of John L Allen's book on Opus Dei into a related but wider discussion of the issues raised by militant atheists, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, in two major media events over the weekend. [more]

006 :
20 May 2007

The Spirituality of Thomas Merton III Fr Collins tackles two principal issues in this third excerpt from his essay on the Spirituality of Thomas Merton. In the first part he's exploring how Merton saw spirituality in relation to science, particularly psychology, and in relation to the other great religious traditions in the world. In the second part he explores how Merton responded to the counterculturalism of the 1960s and particularly the endeavours by some to induce mystical experiences via drugs and halluncinations. [more]

038 :
19 May 2007

Change of pace... This week Ian Elmer has a change of pace ... and focus. His commentary examines the evidence against the recent television documentary which claimed to have found the lost tomb of Jesus of Nazareth. His commentary reads like a good detective story trawling through and comparing the evidence. [more]

001 :
18 May 2007

Draft Pastoral Plan needs serious re-write suggests Academic... The Archdiocese of Sydney recently circulated a Draft Pastoral Plan for public discussion. A pdf copy of the draft document is available on the Archdiocesan website. The feedback being picked up by independent religious journalists and commentators around Sydney is that at the parish level there is disquiet about the draft plan. Fr Daniel Donovan, a lecturer at the School of Religious Education at ACU National was approached by a number of parishes to provide a critique of the Draft Plan. His conclusion is that the draft is seriously flawed and needs to be taken back to the drawing board for a major re-write. He argues the document is theologically flawed and needs to pay far greater heed to official Vatican documents and the accepted teaching of the Catholic Church. In his critique, Fr Donovan cites a number of significant Vatican level documents which would urge a different approach to be taken to what has been proposed in the Draft Pastoral Plan for Sydney. We publish here the critique Fr Donovan has provided to the parishes that requested it. [more]

044 :
16 May 2007

Abortion and The Law ~ Part I... This week Peregrinus begins a beautifully thought-through and argued commentary seeking to establish with more precision what the authentic Catholic view is in regard to State legislation regarding abortion. [more]

022 :
15 May 2007

A reflection on the price we are asked to pay... The price we are asked to pay in the pursuit of truth, and of God, can be high. Andrew, with the help of a few other famous commentators on the human condition, examines this vexed question about the price of discipleship. [more]

016 :
14 May 2007

The changes to the Catholica Australia website In the email today the editor has a few comments on the developments at Catholica Australia. [more]

005 :
13 May 2007

The Spirituality of Thomas Merton II In this second excerpt from his essay on the Spirituality of Thomas Merton, Fr Collins explores Merton's thinking on the otherness of spirituality — it is a process of learning to detach oneself from the attachments of the world, including ego. [more]

037 :
12 May 2007

Controversy shaped the Church and our beliefs Continuing from his reflection last week, Ian Elmer argues that the triumph of the Nicene orthodoxy also marks the beginning of the "Roman Catholic" church as a distinct religious institution, which ironically really only occurred` as the result of a long and heated theological debate about Christology. There is in this historical event clear parallels to today as we again debate what it means to be a church that claims to be "Roman", "Catholic" and "Apostolic". As Santana says "those who are ignorant of history are bound to repeat it". [more]

302 :
11 May 2007

Changes to the Catholica website... We're in the middle of making some significant changes to the Catholica website. A preview of the new home page is now available online and we'd appreciate feedback from visitors. Click the image above to see the draft of the new front page or read the editor's post yesterday on the discussion forum. To appreciate why musician, Matt Zarb makes it to the front page of Catholica today you can read today's email commentary. [more]

043 :
09 May 2007

Go, the Mass is ended! This may seem at first to be a curious reflection that Peregrinus leads us through. It is well-worth the investment though for the interesting facts he unloads on the way to exploring the attitude we are encouraged to gird ourselves with when we walk out of our Church each Sunday. [more]

021 :
08 May 2007

The nature of our religious quest... This is a particularly thought-provoking reflection by Dr Kania on the nature of our spiritual quest. It is a plea for a more mature form of faith expression than the often parodied picture of religiosity that is presented in the media — and which some religious people give cause to the media to parody. He argues: "God calls for an awareness of self, an awareness of neighbour, an awareness of Him, rather than flagellation, which can become a source of morbid enjoyment and pride." [more]

015 :
07 May 2007

Learning from accidents... Brian Coyne witnessed an horrific car accident yesterday less than 600 metres from his home. In this commentary he explores what lessons we might learn from accidents. [more]

004 :
06 May 2007

The Spirituality of Thomas Merton I It is with deep feelings of gratitude that we are pleased to present this serialised series of reflections by Fr Patrick Collins on the spirituality of Thomas Merton. The entire essay runs to over 12,000 words and we will be presenting it in bite-sized portions over the coming Sundays. Fr Collins has previously written for Catholica on the Spirituality of Thomas Merton and you will find links to those articles HERE. [more]

036 :
05 May 2007

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]

295 :
04 May 2007

Making the Church Our Own... Professor Len Swidler is about to release a new book entitled "Making the Church Our Own — How we can reform the Church from the ground up?". The editor of Catholica is sceptical that the Church can be reformed "from the ground up". What do you think? [more]

042 :
02 May 2007

Reading Jesus in context... Still exploring this intriguing territory our discussions seem to have focused on in the past week or so, Peregrinus today explores how we need to read Scripture, and interpret Jesus, in context — in the context of the times in which Scripture was written, and in the context of our own time. [more]

020 :
01 May 2007

The sublime in simplicity... This week Dr Kania embarks on a delightful suite of reflections that provide practical insights into applied spirituality. In large measure spirituality, and general good health, is linked to the frame of mind through which we view life. Andrew's reflections are broadly looking at those things which help form our mindset or "frame of mind". As always, along the way, his essays also provide interesting historical observations. [more]

014 :
30 Apr 2007

Drawing attention to three interesting articles... Not so much a "take" today, Brian Coyne simply draws attention to three interesting articles. Two of them are concerned with moral aspects of the climate change debate and the third concerns the place of meditation in the moral and spiritual development of young people. [more]

290 :
29 Apr 2007

Pope Benedict's view of Jesus... Today the editor invites readers of Catholica to read the review of Pope Benedict's new book, Jesus of Nazareth, that John L. Allen has published in National Catholic Reporter. [more]

035 :
28 Apr 2007

Exploring the development in Church thinking on this Mystery of the Christ... Continuing this present fascinating discussion that has been going on in both our lead commentaries, and in our forum, today Ian Elmer takes us on a new tack. His commentary today explores the controversial process the Church went through over centuries to try and refine its understanding of the two natures of Jesus. [more]

287 :
26 Apr 2007

On computing and our imaging of God... As well as some self-indulgent comments on his fascination with computer programming, and the power of these pieces of technology, the principal purpose of the editor's email commentary today is to draw attention to a post Ian Elmer has written in our forum overnight that is worthy of being treated as lead commentary. Ian explore how our image of God helps form our behaviour. [Ian's post in our forum]

041 :
25 Apr 2007

Jesus in his own words... Peregrinus takes a different tack on the issue that has been under discussion on our forum concerning the identity of Jesus. He invites us to reflect on Jesus' own self-descriptions of his identity. [more]

019 :
24 Apr 2007

Marriage III: The Sexual Devolution... Andrew Kania centres this final commentary on Christian marriage around the plot of Anatole France's 1912 classic, "The God's will have Blood". Dr Kania concludes by wondering: "perhaps society as a whole has taken the form of Elodie Blaise, knowing that she is spiralling downward, but unwilling to grasp that one reality for the sake of having to admit to themselves or others that a gross error of judgement has been made; or perhaps for fear of having to forgo that sweet forbidden fruit, which she knows is poisoning her, but to which she has now become so accustomed." [more]

013 :
23 Apr 2007

Trying to better understand what we believe... Something he wrote earlier in the morning on the CathNews discussion board triggered Brian Coyne into this exploration of how the task of writing helps us better articulate what we believe, and why. [more]

283 :
22 Apr 2007

Ruth makes a comeback... The editor has been tied up with further technical development of the Catholica website and hence no regular commentary today. In place of a full lead commentary Ruth has something to say about Alex and Ian's exchange on the discussion board about Doubting Thomas. [ruth's view animation][email commentary]

034 :
21 Apr 2007

What can we learn from a doubting Thomas? Ian Elmer is back from his holiday in fine fettle with this fascinating and provocative reflection on what we can learn from the Doubting Apostle, Thomas. [more]

281 :
20 Apr 2007

The confusing picture we present of Jesus... Isn't the picture the Church presents of Jesus confusing? What is the true picture of Jesus? Is he none of these things, all of these things, or some super-amalgam of the lot? What is your picture of Jesus? Is your picture the correct one? [more]

040 :
18 Apr 2007

Re-visiting one of the foundational stories of belief – Part II... In this second part of his commentary on the story of Adam and Eve, Peregrinus is exploring different understandings of what the story is meant to convey. In particular he examines what is meant by the expression "the tree of knowledge of good and evil"? [more]

018 :
17 Apr 2007

Marriage II: As Christ loved his Church... In what one suspects many may view as an excessively masculine side analysis of marriage, Dr Kania continues his exploration of the meaning in this Christian Sacrament. [more]

012 :
16 Apr 2007

This behaviour is morally objectionable... The news on the weekend that yet another priest in Australia is the subject of a witch hunt by the self-appointed "thought police" is the pits. It's time for the rot to stop. What is just as objectionable is when some in the leadership echelons of the Church encourage this behaviour or fail to stand up for their staff. [more]

012 :
15 Apr 2007

Building a sense of "communio"... Brian Coyne, borrowing a line from Bishop Justin Bianchini, argues in this commentary that "communio" is part of the core business of the Church, and of what we are endeavouring to achieve at Catholica. But how do we build "communio"? Can it be imposed, or is it something organic that grows from the people? [more]

011 :
14 Apr 2007

The Requiem Mass and Funeral for John Briggs... As our lead commentary for today we're pleased to bring you the eulogies and the homily given on Friday, 13th December 2007 at the funeral of John Briggs. Also included are some photos from the Requiem Mass and the Graveside. [more]

273 :
12 Apr 2007

Our tribute to a special man... As tribute and remembrance to one of the foundational members of this cyber parish, John Briggs, who passed to the next life on Easter Monday, in the email commentary for today we have republished the last post to Catholica. It is a short but moving reflection that has much to say about the inner journey to meaning and truth we are all engaged in. [more]

039 :
11 Apr 2007

Re-visiting one of the foundational stories of belief – Part I... Peregrinus submitted his commentary for this week from his homeland of Ireland where he is presently taking a short holiday. In it he goes back to explore different readings of one of the key foundational stories in our understanding of our base nature — the story of Adam and Eve and the notion of Original Sin. [more]

017 :
10 Apr 2007

Marriage I: Aspects of Love... This week, Dr Kania begins a new three-part series exploring different aspects in the Christian understanding of marriage. [more]

010 :
09 Apr 2007

A tribute to a priest who helped define the Australian character... The Editor of Catholica is spending a few days in the Riverina town of Narrandera over Easter. It's the home of legendary priest and poet, Fr Patrick Joseph Hartigan, who wrote under the pen name, John O'Brien. Brian's commentary today takes the form of a small tribute to Fr Hartigan. [more]

028 :
08 Apr 2007

What is Spirituality? Due to an error on my part I had originally scheduled an Easter Sunday reflection here from Fr John O'Keefe. He had submitted a whole series of reflections which I have been posting on the discussion forum through Lent and up until Good Friday. Very late in the piece I discovered that his list did not include one for Easter Sunday when I thought it did. In its place I am republishing Fr John's wonderful reflection on Spirituality which we originally published on 19th September 2006. Fr John is a Vincentian priest based in Sydney. ...Ed. [more]

033 :
07 Apr 2007

The Resurrection – fact, fiction, or future event? For our Holy Saturday lead commentary, Ian Elmer seeks to open our minds and hearts to the ultimate significance of the Resurrection away from the sorts of discussions that go on endeavouring to portray the resurrection if Jesus as some kind of resuscitation. [more]

266 :
05 Apr 2007

Easter 2007... Catholica will remain open throughout the Easter period and we expect to maintain our regular publishing schedule. We will be endeavouring to maintain a vigorous dialogue in our forums throughout this time of heightened liturgical significance. Whether you are on the road or having a quiet time this Easter we wish special blessings on you and your loved ones. [more]

038 :
04 Apr 2007

The meaning in the Mystery of the Resurrection... In this commentary for Holy Week Peregrinus explores the different Gospel accounts of the Resurrection in search of the meaning in the Mystery. [more]

016 :
03 Apr 2007

Applying conscience to moral dilemmas... In this concluding commentary to his series looking at applied conscience, Dr Kania, returns to the example of Metropolitan Andrii Sheptyts'kyi, the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church from 1900 to 1944. Sheptyts'kyi's story has been little known in the Western world until the last twenty years following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Dr Kania suggests he stands as a tall leader following the dictates of conscience to be "his brothers' keeper" in the protection of Jewish people from State persecution. [more]

009 :
02 Apr 2007

The journey to the Resurrection... Following his wedding last Friday evening to Amanda McKenna, Brian Coyne links this all back to the song that started the journey which itself has special connection to Holy Week and the spiritual journey that we're all making this week. The reflection contains a large song file which probably won't be easily accessible by dial-up users so I've provided a text only link as well. [more][text only version]

032 :
01 Apr 2007

A Reflection on the Passion of Mary... As we enter the holiest week of the Christian calendar Ian Elmer suggests that of the many images presented by the Passion of Jesus Christ "there is none more poignant than the image of Jesus' grieving mother standing at a distance, watching as her son is stripped of his dignity, publicly humiliated, tortured and executed". Today he invites us to reflect on the Passion through the eyes of Jesus' mother. [more]