066 :
18 Feb 2013

Reception of the Whitlam Report reveals shades of the Pope Formosus trial... The scandal of the Church cover-up of clerical abuse continues to sap the morale of the institution. In this commentary Fr Daniel Donovan compares the recent Whitlam report commissioned by two NSW Bishops to the blame heaped on a dead Pope centuries ago, Pope Formosus, whose cadaver was exhumed and put on trial. Donovan argues: "It would be better for all involved if the Whitlam report was conveniently forgotten because it seems to have found exactly what it was expected to find with a convenient twist of blaming a dead Bishop who was in fact implementing Church policy by 'sitting on his hands'." [more]

065 :
31 Dec 2012

Is this Conference on Vatican II an exercise in Orwellian Newspeak? The great English writer George Orwell must laugh to himself at how the predictions in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four have become realised in practice: the constant prying eyes of television cameras in public places, the concept of "Big Brother" re-incarnated as reality television pulp to seduce the masses, and, perhaps most of all the way in which language is constantly turned on its head in meaning through the wonderful invention of "Newspeak". Fr Daniel Donovan today examines the Australian Cardinal's latest initiative to re-interpret the meaning and conclusions of the Second Vatican Council in a Conference he is promoting in Sydney in May next year. He asks if this is another great Humpty-Dumpty Conference seeking to re-write history by those who seized ecclesial power in wake of the Second Vatican Council? [more]

064 :
13 Dec 2012

The state of the Church today is an utter disgrace... The state of the Catholic Church in the world today is an utter disgrace with nearly 90% of the educated people of the world absenting themselves from the pews and the assistance that their Church is meant to provide to them in navigating the challenges of life. Here at Catholica we believe this situation, in significant measure, can be blamed on inadequate ecclesial leadership and the sort of behaviour illustrated in this commentary by Fr Daniel Donovan where the hierarchs bend over backwards to respond to the insecurities of these tiny minorities variously labelled as the Temple Police, the Frozen Chosen, the Liturgical Nazis, the Pharisees, Neanderthals, and other disparaging but sadly accurate names. Tens of thousands of people in the broad mainstream of the Catholicism can file petitions to Rome seeking clarification about important issues of belief and the silence is deafening in the way they are ignored. One Pharisaical member of the Temple Police puts in a complaint and these gutless leaders we have today turn the Church on its head to pacify and appease these people described by the Pope himself as "little people" and "simple people". The role of our ecclesial leaders is to be educating these people, not cementing in their emotional insecurities and their need to elevate the search for certitude over the search for the divine truth about life. It is time for the rot to stop! Fr Donovan writes today of his own experience in being hounded by these often anonymous nobodies who have wreaked enormous damage on the Church and on human civilisation by their depriving the Church from being an effective voice in wider society. [more]

063 :
28 Nov 2012

A Church in search of a Vision – Part 3 In this conclusion to his present series, Fr Daniel Donovan argues that the present thrust of Benedict's policy to reach out to the disaffected Anglicans and other minority groups is not going to rebuild the church and orient it towards building the kingdom. The policy has inherent theological problems and the evidence from the recent overtures to the Anglican minorities is that it is simply not working. What is the vision that might re-orient the institution to the authentic vision of Jesus Christ? [more]

062 :
27 Nov 2012

A Church in search of a Vision – Part 2 What an unmitigated tragedy it is today watching the Church collapse in a heep, or as journalist, Robert Mickens, has described it in a new video, "implode"? In today's commentary by Fr Daniel Donovan, which sits well with Robert Mickens' analysis [LINK], you'll find much historical "meat" that helps explain how this institution under its current and recent leadership has gotten so much off track and is in a crisis every bit as substantial as the political and economic crisis facing the European Union. [more]

061 :
26 Nov 2012

A Church in search of a Vision – Part 1 Fr Daniel Donovan in this three-part commentary offers a global perspective of some of the challenges facing Catholicism in light of the cultural and financial crises facing the original home of Western Catholicism, Europe. Fr Donovan argues "that both the Christian Story and Vision can be incarnated in all cultures and that it is always deleterious to evangelisation when it carries foreign cultural trappings.". What is the vision of Jesus Christ that Catholicism has to offer the world? [more]

060 :
01 Oct 2012

What is the place of the veneration of relics in Evangelisation today? A preserved arm and hand of St Francis Xavier is presently touring Australia for veneration by the faithful as part of a Year of Grace initiative sponsored by the Australian Catholic Bishops. In today's commentary Fr Daniel Donovan offers some scepticism on the value of relics as a tool for evengelisation or catechesis in a country like Australia today. [more]

059 :
28 Jun 2012

A more adult discussion of morality, ethics, reconciliation, forgiveness and sin... Fr Daniel Donovan's commentary today was triggered by his reading of the recent glossy Pentecost 2012 Message offered by Cardinal George Pell to the people of Sydney on Forgiveness and Sin. In part what Fr Dan writes is a critique of the shallowness of the Cardinal's attempted catechesis but I suggest it is rich in adult insight. If the institution instead of attempting to treat the vast bulk of their baptized constituency as "simple people"* and "little people"* who had to be "spoon fed" their beliefs at around the level one educates children in a kindergarten, and instead attempted the sort of adult conversation you'll find in this commentary from Dan Donovan I think we'd all be in a far better place. As a preliminary to Fr Dan's commentary readers may care to read the full text of the Cardinal's thoughts on the subject on the Sydney Archdiocesan website HERE. [*They are Pope Benedict's expressions – see my expanded introduction on the Catholic Forum HERE] ...Brian Coyne, editor [more]

058 :
24 May 2012

"Councils have Visions; Popes have Agendas; and Cardinals Collude!" Part 3 Fr Daniel Donovan concludes his three-part analysis today with the observation that "unless the lessons of history are heeded, the Church renewal might well be on the brink of another disastrous papal venture". Is this the conclusion we can draw from comparing what happened in the wake of the Second Vatican Council to what happened in the wake of the Council of Trent? [more]

057 :
23 May 2012

"Councils have Visions; Popes have Agendas; and Cardinals Collude!" Part 2 What Fr Daniel Donovan writes today are tales we were never taught in a Catholic school or, if they were, in the most fleeting of ways. Following on from his commentary yesterday, Fr Daniel today explores in more detail the goings on in the immediate aftermath of the Council of Trent. This is preparatory to his final commentary tomorrow which compares all this to the situation we are witnessing today. [more]

056 :
22 May 2012

"Councils have Visions; Popes have Agendas; and Cardinals Collude!" Part 1 In what is possibly the most engaging analysis we have yet published on Catholica, in a three-part essay we'll publish over the coming three days, Fr Daniel Donovan uses the tools humankind has developed through understanding of the human psyche and modern educational theory to explore why the modern Catholic Church is failing to get its messages through to the majority in its flock. [more]

055 :
27 Mar 2012

"The Church in Canterbury Tales: Is it a metaphor for today?" Part 2 Fr Daniel Donovan concludes today: "Corruption had besmirched the Church and the failure to embrace a program of reform and renewal resulted in the Protestant Reformation in the Sixteenth Century and the division of Western Christianity. The Church today is no longer European and it risks further reformations while so ever it seeks to employ past strategies which failed then and will most certainly fail again in the new Millennium. Chaucer's Tales testify to the fact that the Church throughout history has become enmeshed in political struggles and sought out the powerful and wealthy rather than defending the 'anawim of Yahweh — the powerless and poor'". [more]

054 :
26 Mar 2012

"The Church in Canterbury Tales: Is it a metaphor for today?" Part 1 Fr Daniel Donovan has been investigating the history of the Church at the time of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and finds some parallels to the crisis the institution is facing today. In this two-part commentary he also draws on the insights of Phyllis Tickle the acclaimed American religious writer who argues that Christianity has a giant rummage sale every 500 years and we're in one of those periods now. Part 2 of this commentary will follow tomorrow. [more]

053 :
19 Mar 2012

The Oxymoron of "Retired Priests" Fr Daniel Donovan recently received an invitation to the Inaugural Retired Priests' Forum in Sydney. It set him to wondering if the term "retired priest" might be an oxymoron? He suggests a more honourable term might be "senior clergy". [more]

052 :
24 Feb 2012

Pastoral Plans: Are they an exercise in the Emperor's 'New Clothes'? Here at Catholica we are often critical of the institutional endeavours that seem more designed as "make work" endeavours – i.e. "make out you are busy in case Jesus (or His Holiness) visits the factory floor" — rather than actually doing whatever they proclaim is supposed to be taking place, such as "evangelisation. Today's commentary from Fr Daniel Donovan take the blow torch to another "make work" exercise: Diocesan Pastoral Plans. Read on; you'll be entertained, if not enlightened! And again the footnotes are almost a second commentary within themselves. [more]