Great discussions...
Sunday, 12th December 2006
Second Sunday of Advent

Dear friends,

It's a great pleasure to welcome Andrew Kania to Catholica as one of our lead commentators. You can always expect plenty of meat in Andrew's commentaries and his first is a good illustration of his style. Drawing both on a grounded knowledge of scripture and Catholic thinking as well as a broad understanding of contemporary literature, art and culture, Andrew's reflections tend to both bring you snippets of information you never knew before as well as ideas that make for excellent reflection.

I should also point out that there are a couple of very interesting discussions going on in both the public and members forum at the moment. Vince started the one in the public forum — it's looking at why the Mass has declined as an event that draws people. In the Members' Forum Alex had started an interesting conversation on discussion boards and then sent me an article by Ruth Gledhill from yesterday's Times OnLine entitled "Evil-minded parishioners making life hell for clergy". That has fired this particular discussion on quite a lot.

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

A tougher seasonal reflection... Christmas in many ways today is the season in which we celebrate our affluence and success. Andrew Kania takes us on a more sobering reflection of The Plague of Affluenza. [more]

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher
Catholica Australia