Vinnies under fire from Australian Services Union... Cliff Baxter broke this news story early on Friday morning regarding concerns from some members and employees of the Society, backed by the Australian Services Union, over alleged plans to "corporatise" the Society. <more>

Draft Pastoral Plan requires serious re-write says 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>

Abortion and The Law! 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>

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. Dr Andrew Kania, with the help of a few other famous commentators on the human condition, examines this vexed question about the price of discipleship. <more>

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

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>