On the crisis of leadership in the Church…

Dear friends,

Today's lead commentary by Fr Daniel Donovan is potentially explosive. At its core Fr Donovan endeavours to break apart the nature of the crisis in participation and morale being experienced by the Church, both locally and internationally. It is a potentially explosive analysis with his revelations of a recent Open Letter to the Priests of the Archdiocese of Sydney from Dr Dennis Dubro, the former Bursar at the Opus Dei-managed Warrane College whose letter "warns of the dangers of Opus Dei and its unbridled activity and power in the structures (and worship) of the Local Church". Fr Donovan is concerned at the appeasement that seems to be underway at a high level in the Church for dissident elements who at every turn have endeavoured to undo the work of the Second Vatican Council. Fr Donovan charts how at a number of significant levels there has been a decisive shift away from the spirit and intent of what the collective Church Fathers charted as the future for the Church at the Second Vatican Council. He concludes by arguing that the responsibility of the Church's bishops is "to uphold with courage and imagination the work of Vatican II so that God's Spirit might continue to renew the whole earth" and not be engaged in this constant "appeasment of the disaffected". <Click HERE to read Fr Donovan's commentary>

While I broadly agree with Fr Donovan's arguments I take a slightly more nuanced view. As there is other news I'd like to share here though I'll expand my views on Fr Dan's commentary and the Crisis in Leadership in our forum.

On Wednesday night Amanda and I shared an enjoyable meal and long, invigorating conversation at Circular Quay with Dr Racelle Weiman and her husband, Shimon. Dr Weiman is Executive Director of the Institute for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue at Temple University in Philadelphia and she has been visiting Australia for the recent International Conference of Christians and Jews. Dr Weiman was interviewed yesterday by Rachael Köhn for her program "The Ark", which will be broadcast this coming Sunday, 29 July at 3.45 pm. If you have been following the series presently screening on Compass about developments in interfaith sharing — which is a significantly different development to the older notions of ecumenism most of us are more familiar with from recent decades — this significant new development in sharing and conversation between the different faiths has in large part been sparked by the Institute at Temple University which Dr Weiman now leads and which was founded originally by Professor Leonard Swidler. We are hopeful that our conversation on Wednesday night will open up significant opportunities in coming months for Catholica Australia to participate in what is now a very international conversation and which we expect will be of significant interest and excitement to the people who are attracted to what we are endeavouring to achieve here at Catholica. The Institute of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue seeks to foster a very adult conversation between different faiths where no one is endeavouring to "convert" anyone else but we are seeking to understand the different faith and cultural perspectives different communities of people around the world have. The hope is that all people will feel affirmed and strengthened in their faith by this dialogue rather than feeling threatened or challenged by people who might have different perspectives. I do recommend that you try and catch Dr Weiman's interview with Rachael Köhn on Sunday if you can or you can always listen to it on the ABC website at: www.abc.net.au/rn/ark/. Here's the explanation from the ABC's website of what the interview is about…

Torah in Space: The first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, had a personal mission on the U.S. space shuttle Columbia. He took up a little Torah Scroll that his Physics professor Joachim Joseph received when he had a secret Bar Mitzvah as a boy in the Nazi concentration camp, Bergen Belsen. But the Columbia blasted apart while re-entering the earth's atmosphere on 1 February 2003 and the crew perished. Ramon's personal mission would be completed by Dr. Steve macLean on the space shuttle Atlantis in 2006. Racelle Weiman of Temple University, Pensylvania, tells the story.

Finally today don't forget the third part of Peregrinus' series on Divorce which we are drawing attention to each Friday. Today's part examines the Protestant perspectives on Divorce and the hows and whys of why the Protestant churches took a different theological perspective. If you haven't already read this commentary I'm sure you will be surprised at the information Peregrinus is able to bring you. <Click HERE to read Pere's commentary on Divorce>

We are publishing early today as other media may be interested in the information in Fr Donovan's commentary. There will also be some disruption to our normal publishing schedule in coming days as we are travelling to Lismore on Sunday for the funeral of our grandson. We expect to publish each day though. It's just that the publishing times might not follow the normal lunchtime pattern.

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

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher