Laying real rubber on the spiritual road!
Friday, 8th December 2006

Dear friends,

As a result of the significant disruption we have experienced in the last 48 hours through a malicious invasion of our server by unknown individuals I have been busy installing a new forum. I am unable to publish lead commentaries today because of the commitment of time to these technical matters. I do invite you to register to use the new forum and to read the more detailed updates I have provided this both as a lead post in the new forum and on the home page of the old forum. [Click here to visit the old forum site][Click here to register as a member of the new forum].

I encourage everyone to re-register their membership in the new forum.

Coming up in the next few days we have a continuing feast of brilliant reflections. On Saturday, Ian is in the Christmas spirit of the season and Cindy too — she's actually been partying this past week. On Sunday we'll bring you Andrew Kania's first contribution to Catholica. (Andrew also asked me to point out that the Church he belongs to is one of the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome.) On Monday Wendy is back with more from the fascinating series she's been giving us.

We are greatly blessed with the qualities of all our writers and, indeed, of the quality of the contributions to the forum as well. I have to be frank and say that I still don't have a clue how in the dickens we're going to fund this all next year but somehow the Good Lord has gotten us well past the initial seven weeks that I thought we had funding for when we first started. We are now well into our sixth month of operation.

Fr Mick Kelly (CEO of Church Resources) used to complain that communications was the last item on the Church's agenda to get a few crumbs from the financial table. That's basically why he set up Church Resources so that there would be an adequate budget for communications. Today he might have the budget but as we see in so many ways he still has his hands tied behind his back because of all the shenanigans that goes on in internal Church politics in trying to actually say anything much that can communicate anything of substance to a spiritually hungry world out there. The demise of OnLine Catholics and Catholic New Times underscores that this work we are engaged in is fragile and requires as great personal sacrifices that have been the hallmark of all missionary activities down through the ages. We might have our critics sitting back in the comfort of their loungechairs — or sitting in front of their computers, or secure in their paid sinecures in the institutional Church — as our advertisement in the secular media below demonstrates we're actually "out there" now laying real rubber on the spiritual road!

Have a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life, and in our world.

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher
Catholica Australia