100 :
03 Sep 2012

The Australian Episcopal Leadership and the Vatican... Spring has sprung down under. On Saturday, 1st September, Australia celebrated "National Wattle Day" – our national floral emblem. Occasional commentator on Catholica, Terry Fewtrell is President of the Wattle Day Association Inc. and sent us this commentary yesterday which reflects on why the wattle was chosen as our national floral emblem and what value it might have in helping forge a national vision for our future. Borrowing from the Australian painter, Sidney Nolan, Terry suggests we look at this flower "as a form of sacrament – a sign of something deeper about the land and its people." [more]

099 :
16 Jul 2012

"Geoff Robinson, Hebrews and the Mystique of Priesthood" There are now a few versions on the net of a lecture Bishop Geoffrey Robinson has given which seeks to address the underlying systemic failings that have led to the entire clerical abuse scandal. The latest one to appear is on the Elephants in the Living Room website in the United States which is a transcript of the address he gave at the Mercy Center, Farmington Hills, MI on 27th March this year. (We also have on our website a video of where Bishop Robinson outlines his arguments made at the ACARP Conference in Sydney in November 2010. See the links in the article where you can view, or read Bishop Robinson's arguments.) Scripture researcher Brian Pitts has been highly taken with a section of Bishop Robinson's lecture where Robinson challenges The Mystique of Priesthood based on scripture references in Hebrews. Brian Pitts seeks to expand on what Geoff Robinson has written with a wider analysis of the sections the bishop refers to. [more]

098 :
09 Jul 2012

Addressing the Disgrace in the Year of Grace... There was a time a decade or two ago when the men in one religious order felt so embarrassed about the mounting revelations in the press of the activities of a minority in their ranks that they felt embarrassed to call themselves brothers in public anymore, or to wear any distinctive habits or insignia in public. Those feelings have no doubt spread more widely. Today we bring you a commentary by one priest, youngish by today's standards, who is honest about his feelings but is also seeking to put forward some positive suggestions as to how the Church might emerge from this embarrassment with a little dignity. What do you make of the suggestions of Fr Peter Day? [more]

097 :
27 Jun 2012

Challenging some assumptions about the "Holy Spirit" Today's commentary from Brian Pitts was immediately triggered by the lead commentary from Dr Anthony Lowes that we published last Friday critiquing the structure of Church in Trinitarian and Kingdom terms. Brian Pitts is challenging much more than the critique of Church structure that is the focus of Anthony's series of essays. [We'll be publishing Part 2 on Friday.] He's challenging or questioning the entire accepted and received wisdom about where the Holy Spirit sits in this whole schema of Trinity, the beliefs of the Apostles and the Ancient Jews and ourselves. This is a commentary to blow away the cobwebs in your brain. It is not simply "off the top of the head" rebuttal but is part of the fruit of a lengthy personal research project Brian Pitts has set himself and which he mentioned briefly in the earler commentary he gave us in March this year. [LINK] This is a commentary that will challenge the assumptions and beliefs of many Catholica readers and no doubt send the temple police again firing off emails to the Vatican in complaint and fear that the sky is about to fall in on them. Be brave, hold on to your seats and set yourself for an exciting theological ride. It is a commentary that fits in beautifully with the concluding paragraph of Tom McMahon's commentary yesterday – which he had asked me to include at the last minute without any knowledge of this contribution from Brian Pitts waiting in my inbox. [more]

096 :
15 Jun 2012

A book reviewing the Mass Exodus out of the pews... No doubt spurred partly by the spate of other books by former priests we have drawn attention to on Catholica recently, we received in the mail yesterday a newly-released book by former Toowoomba Diocese priest, Jim Madden. Entitled "Eucharistic Blues: Reviewing the Mass Exodus" this book seems more an examination of the forces within Australian society, and within the Church, that have been driving the big exit out of the pews in recent decades. Dr Madden left the priesthood in 1978 and worked as an educator at secondary and tertiary level in Queensland up until his retirement. He earned his doctorate for a thesis on the history of the Pius XII Provincial Seminary at Banyo in Queensland. In a note to us he writes: "I had completed this book some years ago but re-reading it in the light of the unfortunate dismissal of William (Bill) Morris from his episcopal see in Toowoomba by Vatican authorities and in view of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council I thought it was worth looking for a publisher. I was fortunate enough to find an e-publisher who has made this book available as an e-book as well as in soft and hard cover editions." The new edition was published on 27th March 2012. This review of the book is by Emeritus Professor Paul McNally OAM, former Deputy Vice Chancellor at USQ. [more]

095 :
08 Jun 2012

The idea of Eucharist as Discipleship Meal... A retired Christian Brother in Florida, Tom Draney cfc, has sent us this very interesting response to the commentary we ran on 13th May by Sr Charlene Ozanick and John Chuchman "Why is this meal different?". Br Draney writes by way of introduction: "A Brother in Australia made me aware of Catholica and I have followed it on and off for some time. A recent paper on the importance of the meal in understanding caught my attention, because I have been advocating for a return to the Eucharistic meal for a number of years as a powerful lever to lift the institution towards reform." [more]

094 :
02 Jun 2012

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Priest... To be launched this afternoon in Sydney is a new book by retired NSW District Court Judge and former Catholic priest, Christopher Geraghty. There have been a spate of books over recent years from former high profile priests in Sydney who left the priesthood, moved into other careers in public service and academia, and have written of their spiritual journey. Kieran Tapsell, himself a former seminarian who left to become a barrister and solicitor, knew some of them, has read their books and is well placed to prepare this review of Chris Geraghty's new book entitled "Dancing with the Devil: A Journey from the Pulpit to the Bench". This is the third book by Chris Geraghty with a focus on his years as a priest. The reviewer concludes it is his best book yet and it provides great insight into the 'cover-up culture' presently causing a crisis internationally for the Catholic Church. [more]

093 :
08 May 2012

What if ... a pope said this... Fr Noel Fitzsimons, a retired priest in the Bunbury Diocese of Western Australia, sent in this intriguing short letter last week: "In the book, The Content of Faith from the writings of Karl Rahner, there is the extract which I enclose, viz, A Letter from the Pope in 2020. I do not know if Karl Rahner is a prophet, but the article did give me a glimmer of hope that one day some Pope would be brave enough to send such a letter to the Church and the world. It may be of interest to your readers. Keep up the good work." I did a quick search and found the book, published by The Crossroads Publishing Company in 1993 is still available on Amazon and Fishpond and so I have added it to our marketplace as it seems a good general introduction to the writing of Fr Rahner. This short essay, which must have been penned by Dr Rahner, well before 1993, would seem to be particularly relevant at this moment in history where the wheels seem to be falling off the institutional cart more seriously than at any previous point in time. What Karl Rahner writes here would sit well with thoughts we've published by many others in recent times including what Bishop Geoffrey Robinson said in the recent interview he had with Ingrid Shafer. [more]

092 :
01 May 2012

Is the Institutional Church Dying? Starting on Pentecost Sunday the Australian Bishops have proclaimed a "Year of Grace" and in October the Pope has procalimed we will begin an international "Year of Faith". These seem also linked in with a new push coming from the Vatican for Re-evangelization and New Evangelization. Coming up this month Garratt Publishing are sponsoring a series of workshops in Sydney and Melbourne on the New Evangelisation led by US speakers Br Louis DeThomasis FSC and Dr Phyllis Zagano and also featuring local speakers Fr Frank O'Loughlin and Sr Rosemary Lawson RSM. Catholica is happy to promote these events on behalf of Garratt Publishing (see disclosure statement at the end of today's commentary). Today's lead commentary is the opening chapter of Br Louis De Thomasis's book Flying in the Face of Tradition. What he argues here fits very well with the ongoing conversations we've been having on Catholica and provides an overview of what he intends opening up for exploration in his seminars in Melbourne and Sydney this month. [more]

091 :
20 Mar 2012

A Priest educated by Zulu culture... Today's commentary from Brian Pitts will possibly come as an "eye-opener" or "mind-opener" to many of you. As you'll find at the end it is also likely to be perceived as a tease. You're probably going to want Brian to explain a lot, lot more of what he means in this final paragraph. Hopefully we can twist his arm to provide us with that "more". The essay is a rendering of a testimony Brian gave last Wednesday to a small group of Catholica readers who had gathering in Perth, Western Australia for a social get-together. It's partly a story that relates his experience as a missionary over ten years to the Zulu people of Southern Africa and, more so, a story of his own search for an understanding of the Christian story of Jesus. Brian contributes to our forum under the pen name "Beehive". [more]

090 :
10 Mar 2012

Book Review: "Goodbye Father" by Richard A. Schoenherr Dr John N Collins has been following Tom McMahon's series of commentaries on two models of priesthood with much interest — and has contributed some of his own thoughts in our forum. He was particularly interested on Wednesday last [LINK] when Tom mentioned a book by Richard A. Schoenherr Goodbye Father: The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church. Dr Collins has himself been a contributor to discussions on the nature of priesthood at an international level and has written two books on the early history of the priesthood in the Church. Dr Collins had written this review back in 2002 around the time Richard Schoenherr's book was published but this is the first time it has been published. While acknowledging the valuable perspectives modern disciplines such as psychology and sociology bring to our understanding of the nature of priesthood, Dr Collins argues we also need to remember the theological dimension. [more]

089 :
06 Mar 2012

The Trials and Tribulations of an Irish Priest in Papua New Guinea Today's commentary came as an attachment to a disturbing email we received a week or so ago from an Irish priest who has worked in Papua New Guinea for 30 years. Now in his late 70s Fr John Glynn has had a tough row to hoe judging from what he reveals in his story. In the Catholic Forum we have posted the covering email [LINK] from Fr Glynn which provides further context to what you will read in this commentary. [more]

088 :
05 Mar 2012

Book Review: Catholic Bioethics for the New Millennium by +Anthony Fisher Bishop Anthony Fisher, who trained as a lawyer before entering religious life is widely seen as the future leader of the Catholic Church in Australia. His particular realm of expertise within the institution is bioethics — a subject on which he has lectured widely and on an international canvas. He has recently published a book on the subject through Cambridge University Press: Catholic Bioethics for the New Millennium. One of our regular commentators in the Catholica Forum, James volunteered to review the book for us. James, who is himself a retired lawyer and a former seminarian, but now largely sceptical of much in Catholic teaching, reviews this important book which endeavours to outline contemporary Catholic teaching in the realm of Bioethics. In this review he challenges both the Bishop's arguments and also what he sees as the inconsistencies in institutional thinking today in these important aspects of life. [more]

087 :
23 Feb 2012

Some Confronting Questions at the Start of Lent: This commentary from Timothy Schmaltz in Phoenix, Orizona, only arrived in our email box this morning but it is arresting enough to displace the commentary we were planning to bring you today. Tim went to Church yesterday, as he does on Ash Wednesday each year. He ended up coming away with a bevy of confronting questions that he'd like to share with all of you who read Catholica. [more]

086 :
10 Feb 2012

Mark Day interviews Matthew Fox When Cardinal Josef Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, few Catholics were aware of the central role he played for decades in reversing the reforms of the Second Vatican Council — to restore the Catholic Church to its status as an authoritarian monarchy and a system impervious to change from below. Few authors have told this story as well as Matthew Fox in his new book, The Pope's War. Fox, an outspoken progressive theologian, was forced out of the Dominican Order in 1988 by order of Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith. The author of more than 23 books, Fox continues teaching and exploring the big spiritual questions today. Mark Day interviewed him recently for Catholica. [more]

085 :
02 Feb 2012

The Purple Culture... Steve Boehrer was in Rome the day Angelo Roncali was elected Pope John XXIII. He stood in the Piazza San Pietro, watched the white smoke puffs, and felt hope for his Church. He was 25 years old then, a veteran of the United States Navy, anxious to finish his seminary studies and be ordained. He was subsequently ordained, earned a doctorate in theology, became chancellor of a diocese, but later, like many, came "to see the light" and left the priesthood. Like many of us here at Catholica he really did buy the forward-looking vision of Vatican II discerned by the majority of the Bishops of the world. He has been aghast at the steady march of the minority, reactionary element amongst the hierarchy who have left no stone unturned to undo the vision discerned by the majority of bishops at Vatican II to turn the clock back. In this commentary he explores some of what he is attempting to explore at greater length in his novel, The Purple Culture. [more]

084 :
29 Dec 2011

Why is this convoluted translation only foisted on English-speaking Catholics? Fr John McSweeney is now in his nineties and Pastor Emeritus at Kingsgrove Parish in suburban Sydney. Originally ordained in Ireland he's been working in Australia since 1945 save for a brief stint in Japan to help with the reconstruction after the Second World War. One of the priests who was an enthusiastic supporter of the forward looking hermeneutic of Vatican II which saw Catholicism reaching out to embrace the world, today he expresses disillusion at this latest attempt to undo that forward looking perspective in this new translation of the English Liturgy. He argues that pastors ought not burn or bury their old missals just yet as they may become relevant again when Rome discerns the mistake it has made. He argues there is a good precedent for Rome changing her mind. [more]

083 :
19 Dec 2011

Two priests critique the George Weigel panegyric to Cardinal George Pell... Today we present two contrasting albeit critical responses to the panegyric by George Weigel in praise of Cardinal George Pell we drew to your attention last Friday that was published in the conservative American journal, First Things. Both have been submitted to Catholica by priests: Fr Eugene Ahern is based in Melbourne and Fr Daniel Donovan is located in Sydney. [more]

082 :
08 Nov 2011

Lifting the general quality of music used in the Church... Music plays a critical role in the liturgical life of the Church but there is often an expectation with people engaged in creative work that they render their services for nothing. We don't expect the stone masons and those repairing the roof of a church to work for free, nor the lawyers and accountants who undertake work for the Church, so why does a different standard apply to those who render work that might be considered equally vital to the life of a church community? The Australian Pastoral Musicians' Network has recently been formed to give greater support for those engaged professionally in any way with the production of liturgical and other music used in the pastoral mission of the Church and to enable greater sharing of skills and professional support to those engaged at the local level in voluntary and unpaid capacities through workshops, networking and the production and sharing of various resources. Today's lead commentary comes from the Australian Pastoral Musicians' Network and is designed to provide greater general knowledge about the matter of music copyright. New technologies are having a significant impact on copyright law and practise. The APMN is also organising workshops to better educate those involved with music ministry at the local level about copyright and to highlight the justice issues involved. The first of these, for the Sydney region, will be held next Saturday week. A major aim of the APMN is to lift the levels of excellence in music used in worship, retreats and catechetical and education settings through a better sharing of skills throughout the institution. [more]

081 :
11 Oct 2011

Building a community in the absence of a regular priest.... We're taking a break from our Exit Stories this Tuesday to bring you an uplifting story from a small Catholic Community, in fact now an increasingly ecumenical community, in Queensland that is too isolated and small to have a regular priest. Here a group of lay people have decided to take charge of their own spiritual life and this is what they have achieved. This report was sent to us by Margaret and Tony White on behalf of the St John Bosco Catholic Community at Kenilworth in the Caloundra Parish in Queensland. It is from addresses members of the St John Bosco Community gave to the people at one of the other communities in the Caloundra Parish at Beerwah. Is this the future shape of the church as the supply of priests continues to decline? [Note: It's not quite true that no priest is available as implied in the headline. The official Parish Priest from Caloundra, Fr John Dobson, visits monthly to celebrate Mass. He is exceedingly supportive and encouraging of the community at Kenilworth.] [more]

080 :
10 Oct 2011

The Australian Episcopal Leadership and the Vatican... The first subhead in today's commentary, "A shepherd who refused to become a sheep" comes from the commentary published here last Thursday by Fr Mike Fallon about the Scot's Cardinal Thomas Winning. We've left it there because it could equally apply to the Bishop who is the real focus of today's commentary from Terry Fewtrell. Terry is looking at the case of Bishop Bill Morris who will be conspicuously absent from the presently happening visits of the other Australian Bishops to Rome for their ad liminas. Terry Fewtrell argues though that the case of Bishop Morris, and how the other bishops respond to Rome could be crucial for the future of Catholicism in Australia. [more]

079 :
06 Oct 2011

One Cardinal who attempted to curb the ecclesial politics... Such are the space limitations imposed by the print media that when Edinburgh priest, Mike Fallon, submitted this essay to The Tablet recently [Not available online], he felt that it was edited to the point where it lost its bite. Seeking a place where it might be published in full he submitted it to us here at Catholica. It's a compelling story of one Cardinal who attempted to stand up for the authority of the National Bishops' Conferences of the world against the power of the Roman Curia and the "ecclesial politicians" who will do their bidding. [more]

078 :
30 Sep 2011

A layman challenges the argument about infallibility Part 2 In this lengthy argument, which we have split into three parts, US lay writer, Edgar Davie, looks at the history of the notion of infallibility and a couple of instances where the institution has seemingly broken the founding principle on which the entire notion is based. Today we present the third and final part of his argument. [more]

077 :
23 Sep 2011

A layman challenges the argument about infallibility Part 2 In this lengthy argument, which we have split into three parts, US lay writer, Edgar Davie, looks at the history of the notion of infallibility and a couple of instances where the institution has seemingly broken the founding principle on which the entire notion is based. Today we present the second part of his argument. [more]

076 :
19 Sep 2011

Remembering Robinson's Dream... Today's commentary arrived in my mail box unexpectedly yesterday from an Australian friend, and former student, of Dr Hermes Kreilkamp. Dr Kreilkamp has been reading Bishop Geoff Robinson's book on power and sex in the Catholic Church and become enthused by the dream Bishop Robinson outlines in that book. In this commentary he urges all of us to take up that dream and turn it into a reality. The dream: "God's love and mercy can heal every wound within the Catholic Church." ...BMC, Editor [more]

075 :
16 Sep 2011

A layman challenges the argument about infallibility Part 1 As Edgar Davie argues in this commentary, the question of Papal Infallibility — long a stumbling block for people of other faiths, is being questioned in a variety of ways today within Catholicism. Certainly not by those who have elevated some sense of faithfulness to the magisterium to first commandment status but in wider Catholic circles there is increasing discussion with some prominent personalities receiving their marching orders for questioning the issue — such as Hans Küng and Paul Collins — and others, such as +Geoffrey Robinson challenging the concept of 'creeping infallibility'. In this lengthy argument, which we have split into three parts, US lay writer, Edgar Davie, looks at the history of the notion of infallibility and a couple of instances where the institution has seemingly broken the founding principle on which the entire notion is based. [more]

074 :
02 Sep 2011

Some thoughts on the upcoming 2012 Synod for New Evangelisation What will the Catholic Church look like in, say, 100 years time? Do you think it might look anything like the Church that we have inhabited? Next year the Bishops of the World are meeting in a Synod that could go a long way to shaping the answers to those questions. Helen from our Catholica Forum Community alerted us to these thoughts posted by Fr Paschal Kearney CSSp on the website of the WA Cyber Christian Community Inc which explores some of the possibilities. [more]

073 :
01 Sep 2011

A Te Deum for William Morris Despite the efforts of the small protesting remnant who believe they alone are God's chosen ones, and despite the Australian Cardinal's continuing criticism of the man in Ireland recently, the wider faithful, of the Diocese of Toowoomba in Western Queensland, supported by priests and bishops from further afield, travelled from afar to vote with their feet last Sunday to exhibit their support for their greatly loved pastor and colleague, Bishop William Morris. Dr Michael Furtado was there to witness the event and provided us with this report. [more]

072 :
23 Aug 2011

Codependency and the church... Today's commentary comes from a post I came across in recent days on Len Swidler's Katholica list. The writer works in the corporate consulting world but blogs on religious affairs under the title "Questions from a Ewe". She has given us permission to republish this reflection on Catholica. It is a succinct commentary that introduces a topic, codependency, that might be particularly relevant to some of our recent discussions on Catholica concerning the various crises facing institutional Catholicism. ...BMC, Editor [more]

071 :
01 Aug 2011

On lecturing hierarchs about "Gospel values" Today's commentary is an exchange of correspondence between a member of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Perth and the Dean of the newly refurbished St Mary's Cathedral in that city. It is correspondence that fell off the back of a truck and landed in my email box. I get a lot of correspondence like that and most of it never gets published. This letter though might have got a run because it discloses some interesting statistics about the recipients of welfare assistance in one of the most affluent capital cities of Australia. Then, when I read the Monsignor's reply, and particularly its last line — "In future please don't try to lecture me about Gospel values"! — I thought this definitely has to get a run. I wrote to the original letter writer, Patrick Durack, whom I happened to remember from school days, but he wasn't the source from which I'd originally obtained the correspondence. Patrick was more than happy for me to publish the exchange. In the present climate (i.e. the Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny's address to the Irish Parliament and the leaders of the Church in the Vatican) we, the lay people who have witnessed our church being stolen from us and handed over to a tiny remnant minority who are identified by the manner in which they process their insecurities, are fed up to the back teeth with your collective arrogance. We no longer believe in your "ontological differences" to the rest of humankind because your own behaviours demonstrate arrogance and that you are no different to all the rest of us as you struggle with the vices, ego drives, and insecurities of all of the rest of us. Get your collective act together or very soon you are not going to have any congregations apart from this pathetic remnant you spend all of your lives appeasing and stroking. Your responsibility is to be educating, leading and uplifting the people of God, not constantly stroking the lizard brain insecurities of some remnant! ...BMC, Editor [more]

070 :
29 Jul 2011

Will praying for solutions to climate change work? Climate change is one of the big concerns that seems to be driving up fear levels in human society and one of the seeming contributors to a rise in fundamentalism. Thanks to the magazine of the Australian National Council of Priests, The Swag, I came across a promotion for a new discussion paper written by Fr Charles Rue. Beautifully produced, and available for download as a pdf document, by the Columban Fathers, this document puts forward suggestions for discussion on how Catholics might respond to the problems posed by climate change. As his model for a response, Fr Rue suggests we might usefully adopt the YCW methodology of See-Judge-Act. To encourage wider circulation of this most useful discussion paper I include below the forward written by the presenter of Australian's most respected religious affairs television program, Compass, Geraldine Doogue (pictured). On the way to reading what Geraldine has to say — and hopefully the entire document (which I also recommend as a most useful reflection on many things in its own right) — a big question occurs to me: Fr Rue suggests prayer as one of the responses to the challenges posed by climate change. I do really wonder about this — and quite apart from Peter Kennedy's comment on the Judith Lucy program on Wednesday night that "prayer doesn't work"? What do we expect from our prayers — that God might swoop down and clean up our mess; or extend his long hairy arm down to turn back the clock on the forces in physics and science that drive the natural cycles of cooling and warming that the planet endures? I'm a big skeptic. If we bugger this planet I simply do not believe God will intervene to fix up our mistakes. I do think prayer has another great value in this context. It focuses our mind collectively, it gives us strength and hope that we might find both the scientific and political solutions that may be forced by climate change whether it is human-induced or whether we are in a long natural cycle of global warming that will have devastating consequences for food production, property values and all manner of things. What are your views on this problem of climate change: do you believe God will fix everything up if we mees our planet up too much? Do you believe we have a responsibility to be concerned about climate change — whether it is human-induced or occurring because of a natural cycle? What's your view of the usefulness of prayer in a matter like this? What do you think of Fr Charles Rue's suggestions about adopting the YCW mantra or methodology of See-Judge-Act? Here's Geraldine's recommendation and I also encourage your reflection of the issues raised by Fr Rue and the Columbans. ...BMC, Editor [more]

069 :
05 Jul 2011

Clerical Abuse: How much is Celibacy to blame? In today's lead commentary Minneapolis-based investigative journalist, Joe Rigert, questions why the recently released John Jay College investigation into the causes of clerical sexual abuse downplayed the role of celibacy. Rigert says that while the US researchers rejected celibacy as a cause "an expert panel in a government study of sex abuse by priests in southeastern Ireland agreed unanimously that mandatory celibacy contributed to the abuse problem". [more]

068 :
02 Jul 2011

Lessons from the American Catholic Council &149; Today's commentary is a follow-up to Fr Daniel Donovan's essay yesterday [LINK] on the lessons that might be learned from the unjust excommunication that was inflicted on Fr Leonard Feeney SJ in 1953, and subsequently overturned in 1972 by Pope Paul VI. There are a number of reasons for presenting this commentary today: (i) it provides another perspective on the lessons to be learned from Leonard Feeney; (ii) it is an interesting set of ideas on the subject of what defines our Catholicism; (iii) it might provide a wider introduction to the full range of of topics that were discussed at the American Catholic Council held on the Pentecost weekend 11-12th June 2011. The immediate focus of today's commentary are two extracts from the inspiring address Mr James Carroll gave on the Saturday afternoon at the Conference on the subject Why am I a Catholic? Reclaiming the Commitment of the People of God. We also provide links to transcripts of other addresses given at the Conference by Sr Joan Chittister and Dr Hans Küng and other resources from the Council. [more]

067 :
16 Apr 2011

What are the ideal qualifications for a priest in today's world? Today's lead commentary is a section of The Wilkinson Report that the author, Peter J Wilkinson, ended up leaving out of the formal report. Peter sent it for our consideration as a valuable discussion starter on what are the qualifications needed to be a priest today. [more]

066 :
15 Apr 2011

Fundamentalism offers women, the Church, God or anyone nothing... Our lead commentary today is a review of a valuable new academic study entitled "Women and Fundamentalism in Islam and Catholicism" by Sr Trish Madigan OP who, in her 'day job' is Coordinator of Ecumenism and Interfaith initiatives in the Broken Bay Diocese here in New South Wales. Her PhD thesis has been published recently by the academic publishers, Peter Lang Publishers. The reviewer is Newtown Parish Priest Fr Peter Maher. This is gutsy work — both the study this woman has undertaken and the daring of this priest to take on the review. Fundamentalism offers nothing to women and nothing to God or the Church — indeed to anyone much except the remnant who place such a premium on emotional certitude at the expense of actual truth and the discerning of where the Spirit is leading humanity. [more]

065 :
08 Apr 2011

Time for a Catholic Revolution? Joe Rigert today questions if it is time for a Catholic Revolution along the lines of the revolts opening up in the Middle East against tyranical rulers and governments. Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea posed a similar question recently in NCR. Our position here at Catholica, argued in today's email, is that while reformation is desirable a revolution is a waste of energy — and highly unlikely to garner popular support. Is it not better to let the whole mess collapse into a heap, or a remnant, and build something afresh from the ashes? [more] | [Catholica's counter proposition]

064 :
01 Apr 2011

The dangerous world of dogmatism! Today's commentary has come about in an unusual way. Some months ago the editor came across a book by Judy J Johnson while adding new products to the Catholica Spiritual Marketplace. Titled "What's so Wrong with being Absolutely Right: the Dangerous Nature of Dogmatic Belief" the editor simply added it because the title might be of interest in some of the discussions we've been having on Catholica. It was the author herself, Judy Johnson, who saw it listed on Catholica and offered to provide a short commentary providing an introduction to this intriguing area of study. Dr Johnson is Associate Professor of Psychology at Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta in Canada. There's enough material in this commentary to keep you thinking for a month of Fridays! [more]

063 :
21 Mar 2011

Should John Paul II be made a saint? Minneapolis-based investigative journalist Joe Rigert today questions not only if there is too much haste involved in the canonisation of the late Pope John Paul II but if he ought be considered for canonisation at all given his dismal record in cleaning up the scandal of childhood sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Mr Rigert has previously co-authored a commentary on Catholica with Richard Sipe calling for the resignation of Pope Benedict on similar grounds [LINK]. [more]

062 :
19 Mar 2011

The problem with foreign priests... Long time member of Catholica and contributor to our forum in non-public ways, Nick Agocs, has a long and enviable record of involvement both in the Church and in dealing with migrant issues. In 2006 his work was given recognition by the Western Australian government's Office of Multicultural Interests with a "Multicultural Community Service Award". The citation to that reads "Nick Agocs has been instrumental in initiating and providing high-level input to multicultural policies and programs at government, community and national levels, which has improved service delivery to all migrant groups over a substantial period of 30 years.". Nick is also President of the Benedictine Oblates associated with the Benedictine Monastery at New Norcia. A first generation migrant himself, Nick is upset at a number of people who in the public debate about the crisis in the priestly vocations in this country have attempted to use the racist tag against those who are critical of the present policy to import foreign priests to meet the pastoral needs of the Australian people. In particular in this commentary he directs his criticism at Fr Maurizio Pettena CS who recently expressed his view on a CathNews blog. [more]

061 :
12 Mar 2011

The frustrating pathway seeking peace and reconciliation... Today's lead commentary comes from a woman in the Lismore Diocese of Northern New South Wales who has been described by one solicitor as a "Right Old Lismore Girl" and another barrister as "The Grandmother from Woop-Woop". What we publish is her story told in a letter to one of the journalists at the Telegraph newspaper in Sydney who in early January did a feature story on the Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell. Her letter would have been judged as too long to publish in the Telegraph but we don't have space restrictions here and Marlene (Del) Burgess's story will "touch the hearts" of many readers of Catholica. By way of introducing herself to me, Del, wrote: "Brian, I thought you might like to read this. I am an uneducated woman but my letters keep going out to whomever I feel should be told what is going on and I am trying to have my say and overcome the abuse that was done to me. My letters have been to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Australia, the Pope, George Pell and of course the Bishop of my own Diocese, Geoffrey Jarrett". Marlene's letter today is being published as she wrote it albeit that we have corrected a few typographical errors and shortened (mainly split) some sentences to make them more readable and grammatically correct. Links are provided in the article to the two articles in The Sunday Telegraph that stirred Del up to write to the journalist who put together the first and long feature article on George Pell. [more]

060 :
11 Mar 2011

'Racist' – a Catholic paradox The Wilkinson Report on the crisis facing the church and the priesthood in Australia has drawn a lot of interest. It also drew the usual responses from the elements in the Church who seem to fail to understand that the Holy Spirit and Our Lady Help of Christians have been answering the call for vocations for decades. There were some particularly vicious taunts of racism directed at people, including Dr Paul Collins one of the people responsible for helping organise the study, who questioned the wisdom of importing priests foreign to the Australian culture to fill the gaps. Dr Jane Anderson has been upset enough by these bloggers to pen this response... [more]

059 :
04 Mar 2011

"Is Our Institutional Church Unjust?" What a way to end this week. On Tuesday we blew all of our previous readership figures right out of the water with a close to 300% increase in unique visitors. There's a God-incidence in all this I tell ya — I honestly didn't plan any of this. I just sit here and deal with whatever comes in my door or via my email inbox. This commentary today by Emmy Silvius is really powerful. I notice from a Google scan that Emmy has been around for a while — for example she's written previously for Online Opinion. I think today though, after you've read this commentary which, perhaps somewhat timidly at least compared to the content she entitled "Is Our Institutional Church Unjust?" I think we might be introducing to you a powerful new voice for women. Congratulations, Emmy. This is powerful stuff and I anticipate it will find a massive and very receptive readership. ...Editor [more]

058 :
25 Feb 2011

Spirituality vs Religion... Now here is a new voice to Catholica exploring a topic that we often visit in our community from a fresh perspective. Emmy Silvius is a lay theologian working in the social services area and has a passion for social justice. From a previous discussion on Catholica Emmy found a pdf document of an address given by Dr David Tacey in 2003 to a group of Religious Educators arguing that Spirituality and Religion are becoming disconnected and they need to be reconnected. (Emmy provides a link to that in her footnotes and David Tacey's paper is also worth revisiting). What Emmy Silvius is essentially arguing in her commentary is how religion and spirituality might be reconnected. Spirituality is not just a selfish, individualistic pursuit, it has a community aspect. As she says in her opening line: "Spirituality is about connecting from the heart"! [more]

057 :
11 Feb 2011

Fixing the problems the Church faces... Angus MacIntyre from Antigonish in Nova Scotia returns today with another reflection on the institutional church's efforts to re-invent itself in the wake of its present and recent crises. He argues for a new approach if the institution is serious about re-establishing itself as an organisation to be taken seriously by wider society. [more]

056 :
31 Jan 2011

A plea for greater lay involvement in the running of the Church... Angus MacIntyre in Antigonish, Eastern Canada, read Fr Eric Hodgens' recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald and the discussion that has been generating on Catholica [LINK] on Cardinal Pell's proposal to import the "Catholics Come Home" marketing initiative from Chicago. Angus has been agitating for more lay involvement in Church governance in his Diocese of Antigonish, which you will remember has been involved in considerable embarrassment following the arrest of their previous bishop for possession of child porn. The Diocese is also presently involved in a massive sell-off of Church properties to pay legal obligations in a class action brought against it for sexual abuse by clergy. While Mr MacIntyre's article in one sense is directed to lay people in Canada — this and a further article are being published in New Catholic Times — readers elsewhere in the world will find much value in what he writes because this article well illustrates the crisis the Church is facing right across the Western world. Some of the support material available with this article (see the links at the end and further material we've published on the Catholica Forum HERE) are a commentary on how the bishops still seem to be floundering in their attempts to restore a little credibility to the mission of the institution. It reinforces some of what Fr Hodgens and others have been saying but from a perspective around the other side of the world. [more]

055 :
04 Dec 2010

Mandatory Celibacy: Is it an ancient, uncorrected heresy? Part 2 This is the second part of the extract from Edgar Davie's book examining, through the very logical thinking an engineer might bring to the subject, where the Church teaching on Mandatory Celibacy for the priesthood came from, and whether it might be mandatory celicacy that is a major contributor to the present clergy sex crisis? Mr Davie's conclusion, after a long study, is that Mandatory Celibacy actually conflicts with what Jesus Christ thought and taught and is an ancient Gnostic heresy that has never been corrected in the Western Catholic Church. [more]

054 :
03 Dec 2010

Mandatory Celibacy: Is it an ancient, uncorrected heresy? Part 1 Edgar Davie is NOT a theologian. He's a retired civil engineer and realist portrait artist based in Tennessee. He's also a committed and actually rather conservative lay Catholic who takes his faith very seriously. He has recently published a book examining, through the very logical thinking an engineer might bring to the subject, where the Church teaching on Mandatory Celibacy for the priesthood came from, and whether it might be mandatory celicacy that is a major contributor to the present clergy sex crisis? Mr Davie's conclusion, after a long study, is that Mandatory Celibacy actually conflicts with what Jesus Christ thought and taught and is an ancient Gnostic heresy that has never been corrected in the Western Catholic Church. [more]

053 :
29 Nov 2010

Bill Nelson's story... Today we present a commentary that was given to me at the recent ACARP Conference by Bill Nelson (the pseudonym he used in Chrissie Foster's book "Hell on the Way to Heaven"). This is a speech Bill gave at the launch of Chrissie's book back in early September. Bill was the first victim of Fr Kevin O'Donnell who went to police and started the ball rolling that eventually led to the uncovering of the full depth of the deeply damaging behaviour this paedophile was engaged in — damaging to so many innocent children and their families, damaging to the Church he represented, damaging to the reputation of all priests and bishops, and damaging to the set of ideals, principles and beliefs held by all the baptised. ...Editor [more]

052 :
23 Oct 2010

The discussion on the priesthood of the future... For a change today we thought it might be useful to hear from the boss — the one who largely sets the agenda for Catholicism in the world these days, Pope Benedict XVI. A few days ago the Vatican Information Service published extracts from a letter he has addressed to seminarians. We re-publish it here as it might provide a useful counterpoint and food for thought in the lengthy discussion we've been having on Catholica on the entire subject of priesthood. The readership of Catholica includes a significant number of mature people of a similar age to Pope Benedict — some former seminarians and priests, some still serving, and many who have made the whole journey of raising children to adulthood and who today question where our ecclesial leadership is taking us and what sort of priesthood they are endeavouring to form to serve society in the future. We welcome continued thoughtful discussion and reflections on the wide canvas of what kind of priesthood an increasingly educated society is looking for in the future. [more]

051 :
04 Sep 2010

A Sad Farewell... In some ways it might be argued that the third major crisis Catholicism is enduring in Australia besides the exit out of the pews, and the decline in vocations, is the decline of an intellectual lay elite. The 'best and brightest' have been amongst the first to head for the exit doors. For those with their ears to the ground of what remains of any lay intellectual elite in Australia there has been a rising level of consistent criticism over recent years of the attempts of the Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney to control the agenda of Catholic higher education in this country. The man has not encountered much opposition. Occasionally some of the criticism has emerged in the secular press such as the recent discussion of what has been happening in the training of Catholic doctors in Sydney which received brief mention in the Sydney Morning Herald (see link in the body of the commentary below). While the Church does today employ many more professionally qualified people in academic positions than it was ever able to do in the past, one of the sad things in the present climate is that if they value their jobs they have to quickly learn to mind what they say in public. Today's commentary is by a brave member of the Christian Brothers who is prepared to speak up a little about what has been going on. Br Shane Wood's commentary tells a little of his recent experiences at the remote Broome campus of the University of Notre Dame but it also touches on the wider concerns that are usually discussed 'sub rosa' in those circles that still do have some concern for the general direction Catholic higher education seems to be heading in in this country. [more]