Celebrating Christmas with Catholica...

Dear Friends,

For our weekly readers could I just repeat two bits of news from yesterday. Firstly the Catholica Spiritual Marketplace has been getting a heck of a lot bigger. For our growing readership in New Zealand you can now order online through your country's largest online retailer, Fishpond. This will bring significant savings to you in shipping and postage costs while your purchases, provided they're through the marketplace pages, will help us grow Catholica as a place of independent Catholic commentary. Similarly readers in Australia can now access Fishpond's distribution centre in Australia bringing significant savings for deliveries in Australia. If you purchase more than $49 worth of goods in one transaction postage is FREE.

For our now large readership in the Northern Hemisphere we have today been approved as an associate of amazon.com and will be able to bring you all the benefits offered by Amazon and a small portion of your purchases will also help us in making Catholica a more effective voice in the world for that now large sector of the Church who, while still thinking of themselves as "Catholic" are less than impressed with where the institution itself seems to be heading and have largely given up participation in the regular liturgical and sacramental life of the Church.

The second piece of news concerns our publishing schedule over Christmas and January. Our forums never go on holiday so there will be something happening on Catholica throughout the Christmas and holiday season. I will be taking a bit of a breather from preparing commentaries everyday. We will publish a daily commentary up to and including Christmas Day than I'll have a complete break until New Year's Day. During January we'll re-publish each day the most read commentaries in a countdown to the most popular commentary. During January the daily e-Bulletin will take a rest and I'll only publish a weekly e-Digest each Saturday that will include the succeeding episodes from Robert Blair Kaiser's novel. Today's episode is an imaginative television panel discussion between some of the current, and recent, big name players in American Catholic Church politics — for example, Sister Joan Chittister, Father Richard John Neuhaus, and Cardinals Roger Mahony and Ted McCarrick.
<Link to today's excerpt from Kaiser's novel>
www.catholica.com.au/gc3/rbk/018_rbk_191209.php

The Nativity Narratives... The entire Jesus' story is hugely puzzling — particularly the Gospel narratives that attempt to provide context to the arrival of Jesus in our human midst. In today's commentary Dr Ian Elmer seeks to explore the contradictions between the various Nativity Narratives. He seeks to explain how some of them arose but the thrust of his commentary seeks itself to outline the context of what Jesus represents to us. <more>

The 4th & 5th Crusades & the Children's Crusade... This week and next week, Robert Blair Kaiser gives a brief overview of the personalities and issues at the focus of each of the Crusades. <more>

A way forward for harmony between the Peoples of the Book: Part 1... Today's commentary gels in so well with the recent Parliament of World Religions held in Melbourne, and the lengthy discussions we've been having in this community on the embarrassment of the Crusades and other behaviours in our Church. Dr Andrew Kania's commentary is the first part of the thought-provoking address he gave at Oxford University on the 4th December which draws on the wisdom of a 15th century modern, Nicholas of Cusa, seeking to encourage interreligious dialogue, rather than conflict and competition, between the Peoples of the Book. This is accessible theology, and interreligious politics, for the hardest of hearts. Immerse yourself and feel uplifted with a little hope. <more>

25.2: The lead-up to the Council of Chalcedon... Tom Lee's commmentary today is largely setting the scene for the great Council of Chalcedon. The politics leading up to that Council were convoluted. We saw some of that last week and it continues in the commentary today. We also see emerging here the divisions between the Eastern and Western parts of the Church. <more>

Aspects of Life I #24… Here is Francis' own introduction to the last Chapter of his book which we will bring you today and next Sunday: There are so many aspects of life that I have thoughts about. In my thinking I perceive them in light of my knowledge that God is All-That-Is and that I am but one in That and in the loving extension in oneness of God in all of humanity and in all of what we call creation. That for me is covered by the word Creation. <more>

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

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher