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Men's control over Christian women's religious lives has grown vastly over the centuries. Perhaps MacKillop might have agreed with Virginia Woolf, 'The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.'
The Australian Anglican Church is divided on questions of women's ordination, sexuality, lay presidency and liturgical texts. But the recent assembly in Melbourne was relatively polite, although the question of the conservative, evangelical Sydney Diocese's relationship with the rest was never far from the surface.
Groups concerned for asylum seekers are now faced with bad Australian policies on asylum seekers like the regional processing centre and a harsher regime of detention. They should reject the policies but cooperate with governments to minimise the harm caused to asylum seekers by them.
The aftermath of the election gave play to the mythical Australian preference for the underdog as people enjoyed the Greens' and Independents' day in the sun. There is an intriguing contrast to be drawn between this and the life of Mary MacKillop, who will become Australia's first saint.
If British MPs think that, on balance, support for the Pope is a vote-winner, they are probably right. That tells us a great deal about the views of ordinary British people — as opposed to the views of the relatively small band of metropolitan 'opinion-formers' who work in the media.
It's not that Catholicism has nothing to answer for, but the problem is that caricatures quickly become facts. Many Catholics have learned to 'cop it sweet', but there comes a point where you have to say something. The papal visit to the UK might just be it.
Throughout more than 30 years of killing and maiming in Northern Ireland, the media and governments maintained that the unrest was a political conflict. Though virtually everyone on one side was Catholic and those on the other were Protestant, nobody dared call it a religious war.
The naming of participating in women's ordination as a crime against faith os disconcerting. I recently attended the ordination of a woman friend in another church. The celebration was prayerful and joyful, and promised to be the prelude to a fruitful ministry by faithful and committed candidates.
If Caravaggio hadn't been such a drunken, violent, criminal, he may never have been human enough, disturbed enough or repentant of enough sin to produce the most arresting, influential and remarkable sacred art in the history of the Christian West.
Gay and lesbian youths are at greater risk from suicide and mental illness, and from religious and other forms of exclusion than from their own sexuality. Jesus cared less about the risk he might 'promote' Samaritanism than about the need to promote an ethic of unconditional acceptance.
Some commentators have latched on to Benedict's encyclical Caritas in Veritate as a new 'third way' between socialism and capitalism. This is a remarkably bad idea.
Archbishop Denis Hart's letter of apology for sexual abuse by Catholic priests drew a variety of responses. Some expressed gratitude, others found it inadequate. The letter and responses invite broader reflection on the place of letters of apology by leaders of churches.