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Letting the Spirit guide our endeavours...
Dear Friends,
This is the last of our holiday emails. From tomorrow our new publishing year begins. All the portents are that it's going to be a good year despite all the doom and gloom in the wider world. Mind you after the media fracas of the past week caused by Benedict's inviting back the excommunicated SSPX bishops, and the proposal to set up a personal prelature for conservative Anglicans who want to come over to Rome, I expect by this time next year the institutional Church is going to be a heck of a lot less relevant in the world than it is now. These present developments will be "last straw" territory for many who will no doubt join the hundreds of millions who've already effectively given up regular participation. (These topics have created plenty of discussion in our forum over the past week.)
Given all this I have to confess I'm not sure any longer as to whether what we're doing at Catholica is trying to provide some "welcome back committee" or we're in the first wave of building whatever the Spirit has in mind that is going to follow the institutional Church most of us were brought up in. In these things I think all we can do is leave it up to the Spirit to guide our endeavour — and for us to remain comfortable wherever it might lead.
To conclude our January series here is the full table of the most read commentaries during last year with the ultimate honour going to Dr Ian Elmer's commentary on Greed from the 2006 Seven Deadlies series. Do you think the popularity of this topic might be somehow linked to the current economic downturn, and what caused it, by any chance? <Link to Ian's commentary>
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Rank |
Commentary (original publication date) — clicking the name takes you to the commentary |
Page Reads |
01 |
Dr Ian Elmer: From the Seven Deadlies series — Greed! (04 Oct 2006) |
31,889 |
02 |
Tom McMahon: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and all that "stuff"! (06 Sep 2007)* |
17,931 |
03 |
Dr Armen Gakavian: Perspectives on Spirituality and Religion written by young people Pt III (01 Jan 2007)* |
8,294 |
04 |
Bishop Geoffrey Robinson: Bishop Robinson's impression following his US Tour (03 Jul 2008) |
6,895 |
05 |
Catholica Poll: Who is perceived as the most effective Catholic Bishop in Australia? (21 May 2008) |
5,907 |
06 |
Vince Exley: Addiction and Grace (14 Jun 2008) |
4,980 |
07 |
Dr Andrew Kania: The Meaning of Death! (15 Jul 2008) |
4,762 |
08 |
News Story: A matter requiring urgent investigation in Perth (2 May 2008) |
4,164 |
09 |
News Story: Mahony bans Robinson & Vatican applies pressure too (15 May 2008) |
3,663 |
10 |
Dr Paul Collins: Analysis of Vatican document used for selection of Australian Bishops (28 Oct 2008) |
3,253 |
11 |
Peregrinus: Religion and Art Part II (17 Oct 2007) |
3,242 |
12 |
Michael Morwood Interview (7 Feb 2008) |
3,086 |
13 |
Bishop Pat Power's support for Bishop Geoffrey Robinson (24 May 2008) |
2,770 |
14 |
Amanda McKenna's review of Bishop Geoffrey Robinson's book (7 Sep 2007)* |
2,596 |
15 |
Peregrinus: The Abortion Debate Part II (23 May 2007) |
2,568 |
16 |
Peregrinus: Religion and Art Part III (24 Oct 2007) |
2,555 |
17 |
Audio conversation with Bishop Kevin Manning (14 Aug 2007)* |
2,316 |
18 |
Youth Perspectives: Benedict Coyne (26 Dec 2006) |
2,309 |
19 |
News Story: Bishop Geoff Robinson rejects criticism from Australian Bishops (16 May 2008) |
2,291 |
20 |
Dr Graham English: Catholic Religious Education in Australia — How & why it has changed (5 Jun 2007)* |
2,053 |
21 |
Dr Andrew Kania: This Meddlesome Priest (5 Jun 2007) |
1,997 |
22 |
Daniel Gullotta: How did the Emmanuel of Isaiah become linked to the Christ child? (13 Sep 2007) |
1,991 |
23 |
Fr Daniel Donovan: Response to improvements in Sydney Pastoral Plan (12 Feb 2008) |
1,874 |
24 |
Audio conversation with Fr Diarmuid O'Murchu (21 Jun 2007) |
1,842 |
25 |
Dr Ian Elmer: St Stephen and our earliest Christmas Feast (8 Dec 2007) |
1,756 |
26 |
Peregrinus: Where did the Bible come from? (12 Sep 2007) |
1,755 |
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*Items marked with an asterix were also in the top 20 commentaries for 2007 |
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Wishing you a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life and in our world.
Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher |
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