What do you look for in a priest?

Dear Friends,

I've been away in Perth for ten days for the wedding of my youngest son. Originally I had intended continuing to publish the weekly email last Sunday but we ended up staying in a Hippie household with a bunch of young people and no internet access and decided to take a complete break from the internet. Hence this delayed commentary from Sunday.

I certainly feel refreshed after the break and I think most of our readers are going to enjoy what Tom McMahon offers for reflection today. This exploration of priesthood seems to be a powerful theme that is emerging in many conversations at the moment and I notice it is attracting a significant response in our forums. A few days ago in Perth, Amanda and I recorded an extended interview with Michael Morwood which I will publish in segments over coming weeks and some of what he has to say intersects very much with exploration that so many of us seem to be interested in at the moment of what we are looking for in those who guide us spiritually. The theme you are also going to find has another resonance in the material we will be publishing in the near future from Tom Lee from his mammoth exploration of the First 500 Years of Christianity. Please do not hestitate to join the conversations in our forums. To access the discussions in the members' forum you need to log in. Over coming days I hope we might open up a little further the discussion I've already started on the subtle shifts in direction we'll be engaging in with Catholica when we begin publishing properly from next Saturday. For our weekly readers, we will revert to our normal pattern on Saturday of sending out the weekly version of the commentary on that day. <Read Tom McMahon's commentary>

PLEASE NOTE: I have decided to close my mobile telephone account and so the number no longer appears on new pages on our website or on the emails. We basically suffer from reception difficulties in this particular spot where we are located in the mountains and it has never been entirely satisfactory. Unfortunately the number will continue to appear on some of the archived pages of our website. If you need to contact me by phone the best way to do so is via our landline number of (02) 4753 1226 [International callers replace the (02) with the international prefix (612)]

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

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher