Thought provoking news coming up on Catholica

Dear friends,

Breaking news, but yet to be confirmed, is that one of the major organisations representing priests in this country has decided to support the petition to the Australian Catholic Bishops and they will be urging the lay Church to support it. I hope to be in a position to bring further information about this development later today.

Our lead commentary today takes the form of two letters from recent commentators, Frs Daniel Donovan and Kevin Murphy, expressing further views on Pope Benedict's recent decision to liberalise the rules regarding the celebration of the Latin Mass. <Click HERE to read the lead commentary>

Coming up on Catholica...

I conducted a lengthy and very enjoyable conversation yesterday with Bishop Kevin Manning. Bishop Manning agreed to this in-depth interview a few weeks ago exploring some of the issues that provide the bread and butter for many of the discussions we have here on Catholica Australia. I will probably publish the interview in two parts starting on Sunday or Monday. It will be published as an audio interview and I am only delaying publication as I would like to give Bishop Manning the opportunity to listen to the whole interview first in case there are any points he would like to clarify or expand on before it is released publicly. I do have a lot of confidence that what he has to say will be of great interest to Catholica readers and will lead to much further discussion across the broad range of issues we managed to cram into the hour. My chief dissappointment is that there are many other issues I would like to have raised with him but they will have to wait for another time. When you think about it, trying to condense down the 24/7 discussion that goes on in this place over an enormous range of issues, it is well-nigh impossible to condense all that down into a single hour. I was genuinely surprised at quite a number of different points at the perspectives he offered and have many further questions myself which I would love to explore in further depth with him at some point. Across the spectrum I think people are going to find things that excite them and things that disappointment them in what he has to say. I'd like to express sincere thanks for the way in which Bishop Manning opened up in this interview. It gives us an insight into the wider canvas of thinking he brings to his work as a pastoral leader in the Church.

Petition Update...

The online petition was up to 281 signatures this morning. <Click HERE to access the information page> and <Click HERE to sign the petition online>.

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

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher