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What this is about...
Catholica Australia is a new
lay-led initiative which will be eventually seeking to reach out to the
educated sectors of society who have dropped out of contact with the institutional
Church. When fully operational it will be using innovative techniques
utilising tools provided by search engine companies to intersect with
that particular sector of society. At present Catholica
is building up a database of information that will become the principal
tool that is used for making contact with the audience we seek to serve.
This special series of commentaries on the Seven
Deadly Sins is part of the process of filling our databanks before
the real work can begin.
What you are going to find here is basically a series of reflections
written by a fairly diverse group of lay people each of whom has volunteered
to contribute their thoughts on the subject they have chosen to reflect
on and study over a period of a few weeks. They should be read not as
authoritative doctrinal edicts on these matters but as reflections of
mature adults who have been thinking carefully about these matters over
a long period of time but with more focused attention over the last couple
of weeks when we decided to run this series.
We will welcome alternative points of view being expressed as responses
in our forum provided they are not what we deem part of the problem that
has been driving people away from Catholicism. That is not a judgment
that is decided on political grounds but basically if the person is endeavouring
to force particular points of view on others or whether they are willing
to enter into vigorous discussion and themselves be open to challenge
on any arguments they might put forward. We do welcome orthodox and conservative
points of view provided they are expressed as persuasive argument not
as some weapon which is wielded to belt other people into submission.
Many of the issues raised by this series can be expected to be issues
on which many people might be searching for answers at some point in their
lives. The whole point of Catholica Australia
is that it seeks to create a community of educated lay people who have
themselves been through many of the ordeals that life throws up. The principal
writers are people who have at various points been distanced from the
Church, or questioning of the official answers. In this endeavour we are
seeking to have a conversation about our lives, our beliefs, and our spiritual
outlook in language that we believe is more likely to intersect with that
now vast population who are fairly remote from anything the institutional
Church has to say.
The series itself...
Here is a brief introduction to the Seven Deadly Sins which
is sourced from Wikipedia...
The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices
or cardinal sins, are a classification of vices used in early Christian
teachings to educate and protect followers from (immoral) basic human
instincts. The Church divided sin into two types: venial (forgiven through
any sacramental) and capital or mortal (meaning they can kill the life
of grace and risk eternal damnation unless absolved in the sacrament of
confession). Beginning in the early 14th century, the popularity of the
seven deadly sins with artists of the time engrained them in human culture
around the world. The generally accepted deadly sins are superbia
(hubris/pride), avaritia (avarice/greed), luxuria (extravagance,
later lust), invidia (envy), gula (gluttony), ira
(wrath), and acedia (sloth). Each deadly sin is opposed by one
of the corresponding Seven Holy Virtues.
Our writers will provide more detailed explanation as the series unfolds.
Over time there have been different orders of precedence in which the
seven sins have been classified. We have chosen to cover them in the same
order as they are treated in Wikipedia which broadly follows the
contemporary order of precedence. Here is a brief overview of the series
and our writers...
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Mon
2 Oct
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Lust
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Dawn Bowie is an attorney in Washington DC and a long-time
member of one of the international cyber communities that has been
one of the important catalysts for Catholica Australia. Dawn
is a convert to Catholicism. She was brought up as a Seventh Day
Adventist.
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Tue
3 Oct
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Gluttony
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Peregrinus is a lawyer recently migrated to Australia from
Ireland. He has a seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge of Catholic
church history and the ability at short notice to put his finger
on the facts that are needed in the many controversies that erupt
on internet discussion forums. He is based in Perth, Western Australia.
Peregrinus has agreed to be a member of the board which is being
established to provide a channel of financial accountability to
the philanthropic supporters of Catholica Australia.
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Wed
4 Oct
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Greed
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Ian Elmer is a lecturer in New Testament at ACU National
(formally Australian Catholic University). He is also a member of
The Centre for Early Christian Studies, and was recently
admitted into ACBA (Australian Catholic Biblical Association).
His research specialities are Paul and First-Century Christianity.
He is the author of published articles in the Australian Ejournal
of Theology and in Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church (a
publication of The Centre for Early Christian Studies). He
is currently completing a doctoral thesis.
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Thu
5 Oct
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Sloth
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Alan Simpson is a leading member of a number of the online
communities from which Catholica Australia evolved. He is
semi-retired and lives on a ranch in the wilds of western north
Texas, where he raises grass for cows, goats and sheep. Alan has
agreed to be a member of the board which is being established to
provide a channel of financial accountability to the philanthropic
supporters of Catholica Australia.
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Fri
6 Oct
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Wrath
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Wendy is making her debut as one of the lead writers for
Catholica Australia. She is employed in one of the diocesan
agencies on the East Coast of Australia and has had a long involvement
in parish and diocesan affairs. She has been a contributor to the
CathNews discussion board from its earliest days.
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Sat
7 Oct
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Envy
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Tom Scott is the pen name of the editor and publisher of
Catholica Australia, Brian Coyne. Originally from Western
Australia, Tom has been involved in public communications throughout
his working life, 25 years of it in Melbourne. Following a deep
family crisis in the early 1990s he returned to Perth and made a
commitment in 1994 to apply his skills in furtherance of the mission
of the Church. He moved to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney late
in 2005 and Catholica Australia is the further evolution
of the commitment made in 1994 and follows extensive work in the
last decade in cyber communications at both the technical and creative
levels.
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Sun
8 Oct
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Pride
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Rosemary Canavan lives in Adelaide. Her qualifications
include a Bachelor of Arts major in Psychology and two Bachelors
degrees in Theology, the most recent an Honours degree in New Testament
studies. She has two adult children. Rosemary has an excellent track
record of published articles for Church publications including the
Adelaide diocesan newspaper, Southern Cross.
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For your entertainment Cliff Baxter will also be taking some of
the members of his menagerie on a more satirical or humorous exploration
of the Seven Deadlies. Cliff is a journalist of long standing experience
in the secular media for the ABC, Fairfax, News Limited and as a freelancer
in Fleet Street. After his conversion to Catholicism he spent ten years
as the lead journalist for The Catholic Weekly in Sydney.
We trust you enjoy this series. We have a number of other series in development
over the next few months which will be promoted in religious media while
we continue to raise funds for our larger mission which will eventually
be taking place largely "behind the scenes" and through promotional
channels that are more likely to be intersecting with our target audience
than the channels the institution uses to communicate to its still practising
members.
Brian Coyne
Editor & Publisher
Catholica Australia
Photo Credits:
- Animations by Brian Coyne. Greed icon is taken from a wonderful website put together by Simon Knott which shows the history of Norfolk churches in the UK. The image is of bench end in the Church of St Peter and St Paul at Watlington. The website shows photos and has explanation about a number of these bench ends depicting the Seven Deadlies. This image is of Avarice – a man counting his money. www.norfolkchurches.co.uk.
[Index of SDS Special Series][Index of All Commentaries]
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