007 :
12 Feb 2011

Is the Eucharist real? Bill Farrelly has a wonderful ability as a writer to pose the questions we've probably all thought about at one time or another but never really answered. To be a bit colloquial though; he's a bugger — because he never answers them either! He provides wonderful reflections though — that probably do cause you, as the reader, to come up with an answer. [more]

006 :
05 Feb 2011

On Being Good, but not too Good... You've got to hand it to Bill Farrelly: he poses some fascinating questions — without attempting to impose absolutist answers. Do any of us really want to become perfect, just like we imagine God is? How do we respond when evil and the consequences of the bad behaviour of others come knocking at our door? What is a truly 'God-like' response? This is a thought-provoking commentary without easy answers. [more]

005 :
29 Jan 2011

Playing around with the impossible... We've had a fair dose of sex on Catholica this week and it continues this weekend with commentaries from Bill Farrelly and John Chuchman tackling the subject from different perspectives. Bill's commentary today looks at the problem of promiscuity when boredom sets in in our relationships. He suggests it's an increasing problem in society — and obviously there are a lot of unsatisfied people out there judging by the advertisements on late night television and the number of dating sites in cyberspace. While he doesn't think the genie can be stuffed back in the bottle at the societal level, his reflection is more about what we can do in our personal relationships... [more]

004 :
22 Jan 2011

Do not abandon the already born... The abortion and right to life debate in society seems to have been taken over by the extremists and taliban in the Christian churches. It is no longer about saving the unborn but seems to have become some game to prove "we Christians or believers know God's rules and all the rest of you in society are pagans". This hysteria is not reducing the incidence of abortion in the world but closing down the ears of the world to any reasonable discussion about the sanctity we ought accord to human life. In today's commentary Bill Farrelly pleads for us to reduce the emotional hysteria and restore a little sanity and reason to the public debate... [more]

003 :
18 Dec 2010

Thanks Anyway, I prefer the Mystery! Here's another piece of God-incidence: honest to God Bill Farrelly sent us this commentary some weeks ago, long before the discussion Vynette has triggered on Catholica about the mystery of the Virgin Birth. What Bill writes though fits in so well with that discussion and no doubt will fire the discussion up even further. He takes the question wider though to ponder: why are we human beings so afraid of mystery? [more]

002 :
06 Dec 2010

The Trouble with Women! Bill Farrelly enters the lion's den with the headline he chose for today's article. Fear not, gentle souls, he has come to smite a certain type of man — funnily enough, the sort that are often seen parading around in dresses. Bill's trying to curry favour with the other half of humanity — and making a few hard-hitting points at the same time. It's doubtful though if the men in dresses might be capable of listening yet. [more]

001 :
27 Nov 2010

Getting a better fix on sex... Please welcome Bill Farrelly to the pages of Catholica. Bill is a former Sydney Morning Herald journalist who, like a lot of us more mature lay Catholics, has a few questions about where the Church seems to be heading these days. His question today is as much directed at God as it is at any hierarchical leaders. Yes, God, why did you have to organise it in this way? [more]