TWO MAJOR STORIES TODAY!

Dear friends,

I'm publishing in the early hours of this morning as Cliff has brought in a major and exclusive breaking news story that might give Catholica a scoop. Even prior to him delivering his story at 10 past 1 this morning we already had a major story with Fr Daniel Donovan's critique of the Draft Pastoral Plan for the Archdiocese of Sydney. Click HERE or the Vinnies headline below to go straight to Cliff's breaking story or read on and get an overview of the other major story regarding the Draft Pastoral Plan for the Sydney Archdiocese.

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 on our website today the critique Fr Donovan has provided to the parishes that requested it. <more>

Finally just a quick technical note to those who read their emails in web browsers such as Google, Yahoo or Hotmail: I am aware of an intermittent problem where some of the crossheads do not show up. I just want to assure you I am working on the problem. It is really queer though as it only seems to have this hiccup on some days. As far as I am aware it should not affect people who read their mail through email programs such as Outlook, Outlook Express, or Netscape.

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Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life, and in our world,

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher