Have you ever worked in an organisation with "company men"?

Dear friends,

Have you ever been in the situation of working in an organisation run by "company men"? In one sense no company could survive without them. They are the people who keep "the wheels turning" in most organisations. Unfortunately they are not the people who move an organisation forward and when an organisation becomes top heavy with "company men" the great danger is that the "company men" actually become the one's chiefly responsible for causing the wheels to start falling off. They're the one's who say to all the innovators "no, no, you can't do that", or "no, no, you can't say that", and "think of your future, lad (or lassie)? You have a bright future with Acme Gadgets if you don't make waves and you just toe the party line and do as you are told!". Just look at the Liberal Party around Australia today and it gives a good picture of the story. Taking advice from Jesus himself, I suspect we are not going to see many "company men" in heaven. They'll all have had their rewards in this life in the form of their big superannuation payouts. I think there are probably a lot of people in our Catholic Church who ought to spend a little time in reflection on this parable of Jesus.

And our reflection today comes from someone who is anything but "a company man". Sadly it will be his last for a while as Ian Elmer has been called to higher things and the long voluntary commitment he has made to Catholica since we started has come to an end. Catholica is not an academic journal and in the new year Ian will be moving on to write for academic journals where his work is subject to the "peer review" which is essential to further consolidate his credentials now that he has been awarded his doctorate. I trust the readers of Catholica will join me in extending our deep appreciation to you, Ian, for the enormous contribution you have made to Catholica Australia in our first 18 months of publishing. We will certainly look forward to seeing your work in more august journals around the world and, from time to time, borrowing from them to publish here. Ian, we are already aware of the wonderful reputation you have established amongst the young people you have been teaching. It has been wonderful having here in Catholica two gifted teachers like yourself and Dr Andrew Kania who both have exceedingly high rapport with young people as teachers. We need many more like you who can open up "the Good News of Jesus Christ" in a world that has been closing its ears to his "Good News". We wish you well in now going on to enthuse much larger audiences. Just watch out for "the company men" but don't worry about them. Jesus didn't and look what happened to him — The bastards crucified him! They'll enjoy their rewards all the while sneering at the stupid idiots like Amanda and myself who don't worry about our superannuation and keepin' our noses clean. We have never been under any illusions that sooner or later they'll be back to try and crucify us a second, third and fourth time around. Just keep your eye on "the main game": "Jesus" and "the pursuit of ultimate truth"! Ian's final commentary for us today is a joy-filled Advent commentary looking at the guy who helped start all this Christmas caper, St Stephen. <Read Ian's commentary for Advent>

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

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher