Who says religion and politics don't mix?

Dear Friends,

Particularly for our readers outside Australia could I alert you to the news that the past week has seen incredible scenes in Australian domestic politics in the two major political parties. What has been unprecedented for this country is that most of the prominent players have been Catholics. The leader of the Opposition in the Federal Parliament, Malcolm Turnbull, got unceremoniously dumped by his own party over Climate Change policy and replaced by another Catholic, Tony Abbot, from the hard right in the party. Meanwhile In the NSW Labor Government another whole gang of Catholics were involved in a palace revolt on the other side of politics and have chosen an American-born feminist theologian, Kristina Keneally, as their saviour and Premier of New South Wales. It has been an extraordinary week and I was reminded of this when doing the layout for Robert Blair Kaiser's commentary today which has much to say about internal "American Catholic politics" albeit in a fictionalised manner. The other big news of the week has been the release of the Murphy Report in Dublin, Ireland detailing the mishandling of sexual abuse by the bishops. Again that is highly political. The Church might not be a democracy but as the fictionalised Cardinal Mahony suggests in today's commentary we Catholics sure know how to play politics.
<Link to today's excerpt from Kaiser's novel, "Cardinal Mahony">
<www.catholica.com.au/gc3/rbk/016_rbk_051209.php>

On an altogether more pleasant note religion is a big topic on the agenda down under at the moment because the Parliament of the World's Religions is meeting in Melbourne at the moment and getting good coverage in the quality media. Here's a link to the official website which will provide some of the flavour...
<www.parliamentofreligions.org>

How realistic is this dream? One of our other regular commentators, Dr Andrew Kania, is delivering an address at Oxford University tonight. Today though by the wonders of these new technologies we are able to bring you an address delivered at Oxford in the Year 2040 by the recently retired Pope John XXIV. The 'tehnology' is actually the creative, perhaps over-optimistic, mind of one of our other commentators, George Ripon. By way of introduction, George writes: "I first got into print on the Church Reform under the heading "Breathe" in the Online Catholics in issue 62, 20 Jul 2005. I had a dream and I'm at it again with a look into the future under a new pope, a dream or maybe a vision? No one can stop our dreams and dreams can lead us in many directions. Sadly the reality is different but we must maintain 'Joyful Hope' unless this is abolished in the New English translations." <more>

Does God condone war and genocide? Today's commentary from Dr Ian Elmer sits very comfortably with the discussions Tom McMahon, Robert Blair Kaiser and others have been sparking over a considerable time on Catholica about our moral understanding of aggression and just war. Ian goes back to examine a puzzling passage from the Old Testament where God, or YHWH, appears to countenance genocide on a mass scale. Is there another way in which this Biblical account ought be read? <more>

La crociata, non si fa piu—No more Crusades! Today Robert Blair Kaiser introduces us to one religious leader who was dead against trying to sanctify acts of aggression. His name was Pope John XXIII. His advice fell on largely deaf ears as Kaiser explains. <more>

Faith-Based Diplomacy... Dr Andrew Kania today delivers a lecture to students at the elite British boys' school, Eton College, who next year will be moving on to study at Oxford or Cambridge Universities. Catholica is proud to be able to bring you the text of his lecture at around the time Andrew will be delivering it on the other side of the world to a group of young people who will be in the leadership sectors of the future. <more>

24.3: What are Catholic Christians to do if part of the Church goes wrong? A little bit of a potpourri in the excerpt from Tom Lee's manuscript today. We're still in the fifth Century. He provides a wrap on St Patrick in Ireland and the marauding of Attila the Hun further to the East. In the middle there is the story of Vincent of Lerins — the first person to try and formulate in a written way a process for dealing with heresy. It is a surprisingly modern set of ideas that do not sit well with the heresy-hunters of today. <more>

Faith, Love and Kingdom #20… Chapter 14 from Francis Brown's book today is a longer reflection on the themes of innocence, forgiveness and the ideas of goodness and evil that we carry within us. It intersects comfortably with the discussion we've recently had on Catholica of our sense of worthiness. At the end we've included an excerpt from Gina Ogilvie's song, "Worthy" from her album "Gift of Grace". <more>

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

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher