EDITOR'S ROUND-UP

Saturday, 15 November 2008

Our bishops have to start leading instead of appeasing…

Dear Friends,

We've been having much discussion in recent days on Catholica as to the nature of Church — how do we, as Church, interpret what God asks of his people, and his Church? Different groups of people have different opinions — and they're all prepared to die to defend their interpretations. In today's lead commentary Dr Ian Elmer takes us right back to the First Council of the Church where these sorts of disputes first came to a head — The Council of Jerusalem. Dr Elmer draws the link between those events almost two millenia ago and events happening today right around on the other side of the world in Australia. Will our ecclesial leaders reward the "spies and tattletales" or will they act with courage as the leaders did at the First Council? <Link to Ian's commentary>

Clerical-Sex, Blackmail, and the link to Sexual Abuse… That other great American clerical campaigner on behalf of the victims of sexual abuse, and on greater accountability by the institution and its leaders, Fr Richard Sipe, in this new article argues for more honesty by the institution and greater efforts to eradicate the travesty of the sexual abuse of minors. <more>

Dispassionately assessing the legacy of Pius XII… Catholic historian, Dr Paul O'Shea was accorded a significant honour last Sunday evening by being invited to deliver the Reichspogromnacht/Reichskristallnacht Com-memoration Service at the Great Synagogue in Sydney. We are pleased to publish his address on Catholica in two parts. His address, to a mixed Jewish and Christian audience sought to provide an insight into the Catholic thinking that formed Pope Pius XII's worldview towards the Jewish people. It also provides a summarised overview of the political and diplomatic exigencies that helped mould the public policy positions taken, or not taken, by the wartime pontiff. <more>

The Outward Sign of Inner Grace… Tom McMahon has been challenging us for a long time now in his series questioning the meaning of Sacraments in our present age. There can be little doubt, given the declining use of the Sacraments, that people do not attach the same importance, or meaning to Sacraments that they once did. In today's commentary Dr Andrew Kania looks at the meaning of Sacrament from a more orthodox or traditonal perspective. What do we need to rescue from these perspectives if Sacrament is to again have significant meaning in the lives of the broad masses? At its heart, Andrew suggests Sacrament is "The Outward Sign of Inward Grace". <more>

9.3: The Gospels as Liturgy III… Today Tom Lee wraps up his Chapter that has been inviting us to read the Gospels in a completely different light — not as a history lesson as we traditionally understand history in the Western mind but as liturgy and history as seen from the Jewish perspective. He opines that we can discover an entirely different meaning when we do this. His commentary today begins by exploring how we (The Christian Church) lost contact with this original perspective out of which the Gospels were put together. <more>

Who is on which train? In this imaginative scenario Tom McMahon is picturing the Roman Catholic Church today as two trains stuck on two different tracks. Essentially neither of them are going anywhere at the moment. One has the potential to go somewhere but ahead of the other only lies a set of twisted tracks. He takes a look inside the carriages of each train today to see who is aboard each train. <more>

A reflection on the US election result? Further to Tom McMahon's recent mini-commentaries on the US Presidential Election contest, he has sent us this short post-election reflection penned the morning after the result was announced. <more>

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

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher