EDITOR'S ROUND-UP

Saturday, 04 October 2008

Leaving an indelible impression on civilisation…

Dear Friends,

Cliff Baxter posted a superb piece of contemporary writing from Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone seeking to understand the Sarah Palin phenomenon in American politics. Naomi Wolfe had another superb piece examining the phenomenon in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning [LINK: "Don't be fooled, Palin is Bush in pumps"]. (My gut sense is that Sarah Palin will be remembered in 10 or 20 years time more in the mould of Pauline Hanson rather than a Margaret Thatcher, a Germaine Greer, or a Paul of Tarsus — a "passing phenomenon" rather than as a person who left an indelible impression on civilisation.)

In our lead commentary today Ian Elmer is looking at the nature of St Paul's legacy. In recent days, Benedict was seeking to play down the controversial side of Paul's leadership. That has prompted Dr Elmer to examine in closer detail the relationship between Paul and Peter and the issue of where Paul stood in relation to the authority or primacy of Peter. <Link to Ian's commentary>

Francis Brown shares the story of his spiritual journey… The lengthy discussion thread in our forum last week "Why so cognitive?" started by Nicholas (See post#17017), set Francis Brown off on his own spiritual reflection. He wasn't sure how it might fit with the flow of the thread and emailed it to the editor for a second opinion. It's a pretty frank confession of his own spiritual journey and fits so well with our desire here at Catholica to encourage the "sharing of our stories" that we asked Francis if he minded if we ran it as a lead commentary… <more>

Teaching the Faith or Memorising the Catechism? There is a putsch on coming from some political sectors, and others searching for certitude and simplistic answers within the Catholic Church to take religious education back to methodologies that might have been successful in earlier epochs in history where the broad body of the faithful had far more limited education, and where different social conditions prevailed. Fr Daniel Donovan has been searching around in the archives also. In this commentary he brings to our attention a pioneer from the early 20th Century, Canon Francis H. Drinkwater, still lauded in professional education circles for his insights into the problems facing religious educators, parishes and parents today in the challenge of "passing on the faith". <more>

O Captain, my Captain! (cf. Proverbs 17: 6) As our world reels under unfolding financial uncertainty that may have its origins in flawed political leadership, it is entirely coincidental, but greatly prescient, that Dr Andrew Kania had submitted this commentary on leadership and fatherhood. It looks at the example of the father and son team of the Theodore Roosevelts, Sr and Jr, which has perhaps some echo to the George Bush, Sr and Jr, duo whose reign is coming to an end in some ignominy. This commentary is thought-provoking towards a discussion on what sort of models of leadership and fatherhood might be most appropriate for the world we inhabit today. <more>

8.4: The Gospel of Matthew… When anyone writes a book today we have the advantage of listening to interviews with the author on radio or television — or reading interviews in magazines — which give us some insight into the person who wrote what they wrote and why. We don't have that advantage with many of the authors of our Sacred texts. In many cases the real authors are completely anonymous to us. Today we publish the continuation of Tom Lee's mammoth personal endeavour where he set out to try and understand what he believes and why by examining the origins of Christianity. His focus today is on the writers of the Gospel of St Matthew. <more>

Station stop "Confirmation" In his own introduction to today's commentary Tom McMahon writes: "Our train of thought now approaches territory CONFIRMATION … guard your spiritual wallets … there is no way that we can envision newness without ploughing through the debris of the old … the salt has lost its flavour; the territory is marked with ermine red." <more>

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

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher