News & views
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The cleric as algorithm & influencer
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Terry Fewtrell, in an earlier article posted in ARC News, listed implications for parishes and dioceses of the final document from the Synod on Synodality. https://australianreformingcatholics.au/synodality-jun-26/ In this article, he warns of clerics who are taking up the role of influencers and leading their congregations on the easy path of doing nothing substantial with Synodality. “Plenty…
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Church Tradition and Governance
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The following two articles look at the recent reactions of some bishops to Church Synods and Councils where tradition has been developed. Some American bishops are pushing back against the recent Synod on Synodality that promulgated the practice of synodality. We also have bishops of the SSPX refusing to acknowledge outcomes of Vatican II re the…
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Australian Catholics and Australian War Preparations
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Recent wars involving Australian forces have not met the criteria for ‘just war’ and it seems unlikely that future wars would either. How should Australian Catholics respond?
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Women in Church history
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To most Catholics the actions of Popes Francis and Leo in appointing women to curial positions with significant authority appears as progress toward the recognition of women in the Church. It is not a serious breach in the wall of male clericalism and falls far short of the true equality that progressive Catholics would want.…
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Humanity Unfolding: Where I Differ with Pope Leo XIV on the Human Person and AI
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Ilia Delio writes about Pope Leo’s encyclical, Magnifica humanitas: “Magnifica humanitas—”magnificent humanity”—is at heart an invitation: it asks a distracted, accelerating civilization to consider what it is before deciding what it wants to become. Read on its own terms, the encyclical is a powerful moral guide, precisely because it refuses to be merely reactive. Leo delivers…
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NATSICC Sunday
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This week is NAIDOC week. Sunday July 5 was NATSICC Sunday. NATSICC, the National Torres Strait and Indigenous Catholic Council, represents Australian Indigenous Catholics. This year the Day also celebrates the fortieth anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s powerful address to the Indigenous community at Alice Springs. It speaks just as powerfully to our own…
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NAIDOC reflection
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As I take my morning walks I typically listen to a podcast. On Sundays that is Soul Search from ABC Radio National. The content varies substantially from week to week but is mostly interesting and sometimes inspiring. Occasionally I will feel a need to follow up and learn more about a topic. This is NAIDOC…
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Principles of Catholic Social Teaching
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A post by Julie Rubio on the Catholic Moral Theology blog picks up on Pope Leo’s discussion of the principles of Catholic social teaching in Magnifica Humanitas. The post notes that different sources offer different lists of principles but that the Pope has presented a structure in which “human dignity and rights are now understood…
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I’m a Catholic woman who was allowed to preach at Mass—until it was banned
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The Vatican has rejected a request from the German bishops for special permission to allow lay men and women to preach homilies during Mass. Although the following article focuses specifically on women, it helps us appreciate what lay people can bring to preaching, and what is lost when their voices are silenced by the institution.
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Another view on Just War Theory
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This piece by Michael Wee makes a strong case for moving beyond just war theory. Modern warfare uses technologies that deliver devastating force at distance making it difficult or impossible to limit the effects to combatants. Civilian populations and the environment suffer damage that may have effects for generations and it is difficult to see…