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Keywords: Child Abuse Royal Commission

There are more than 200 results, only the first 200 are displayed here.

  • RELIGION

    Has the Catholic Church in Australia any credibility left?

    • Frank Brennan
    • 03 October 2013
    18 Comments

    'What a pope; what a man! ... The credibility of the Catholic Church has been enhanced with this new pope. We see in him many of the finest aspects of the presently battered and ageing Church.' Frank Brennan's presentation for Spirituality in the Pub, Pumphouse Hotel, Fitzroy, Vic. on 2 October 2013.

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  • MEDIA

    Marring the Cardinal's image

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 26 September 2013
    64 Comments

    The limitations of Marr's account are the obverse of its virtues. It sifts Pell's motives and words but not those of his critics, and simplifies complexities. The details are designed to imply character. Churches are empty or full depending on the needs of the plot; Pell does not speak but booms. If a cock crows in a distant farmyard it crows for the Cardinal alone. This makes for engaging reading, but demands careful judgment.

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  • MARGARET DOOLEY AWARD

    The ethics of paternalism in Aboriginal policy

    • Callum Denness
    • 25 September 2013
    3 Comments

    Following the abuse received by Adam Goodes from a teenage spectator in the AFL's Indigenous round, and the subsequent remarks made by Eddie McGuire, the country became embroiled in a debate about racism in modern Australia. Meanwhile, the Northern Territory introduced its Mandatory Alcohol Treatment Bill which, if passed, will see more Aboriginal people incarcerated. We were too busy describing the modern face of racism to notice.

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  • RELIGION

    The Pope who put a spring in our step

    • Frank Brennan
    • 20 September 2013
    11 Comments

    Fasten your seat belts. We are in for an exciting ride with this Pope. He's happy to make mistakes. He's happy to go with the flow. But above all, he is so happy in his own skin and in his religious tradition that he exudes the confidence that comes only from knowing that he is loved and forgiven, and not from thinking that he is always right and has all the answers.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Election day reflections on religion in the public square

    • Frank Brennan
    • 07 September 2013
    12 Comments

    How clever of you to choose the day of the federal election for me to offer these reflections.  I come amongst you, not as a publisher or journalist but as an advocate in the public square animated by my own religious tradition as a Jesuit and Catholic priest engaged on human rights issues in a robustly pluralistic democratic society.

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  • RELIGION

    Church-state issues and the Royal Commission

    • Frank Brennan
    • 04 September 2013
    2 Comments

    'The Towards Healing protocol is not a substitute for criminal prosecution of sex abusers. Nor is it a cheap alternative to civil liability for damages. It is a procedure available by choice to victims in addition to criminal prosecution of perpetrators or pursuit of civil damages for negligence by church authorities.' Full text from Frank Brennan's address to the Canon Law Society of Australia and New Zealand 47th Annual Conference, 4 September 2013 at Hotel Grand Chancellor Adelaide on Hindley.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Parent education is better than child protection

    • Michael Mullins
    • 02 September 2013
    6 Comments

    There are 60,000 children in the community whose lives are so dangerous at home that they need monitoring by government child protection services that are habitually stretched to their limits. But there would be less need for such services if governments put money into education programs that teach people how to be better parents.

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  • EDUCATION

    Paradox and possibility: The example of Francis

    • Frank Brennan
    • 13 August 2013
    1 Comment

    'You are the first generation of Catholic educators who will not have members of religious orders or congregations present in any number at all in your staff rooms and in your classrooms. Thus the need for lay Catholic educators to cultivate their spirituality while also being attentive to the demands of Church and the Church hierarchy.' 6th International Conference on Catholic Educational Leadership, Sydney, 13 August 2013.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sex abuse justice cannot be fast-tracked

    • Michael Mullins
    • 13 May 2013
    42 Comments

    Victims of church sexual abuse have suffered a setback with NSW Government moves to impose a ten year statute of limitations. For many victims, it takes much longer than ten years before they are ready to tell their story. If they are forced to speak before they are ready, they may speak half-truths or not speak at all. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Ensnared by sex abuse paranoia

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 02 May 2013
    3 Comments

    Kindergarten teacher Lucas' life falls apart after he is wrongfully accused of abusing a young girl. We might feel outraged at his persecution, yet are his persecutors really guilty of anything more than taking a victim at her word? Rather than a cautionary tale, Lucas' story is best viewed as a tragedy.

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  • RELIGION

    The healing God of the Royal Commission

    • Fatima Measham
    • 12 April 2013
    14 Comments

    The Church is unique among the institutions under scrutiny from the Royal Commission. The trust laypeople hold in priests and other vowed religious is not the same trust held in teachers, doctors and coaches. It is sourced from the stories that feed their faith. This is the context in which the betrayal must be understood. 

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  • RELIGION

    Church blame in the frame

    • Frank Brennan
    • 01 March 2013
    37 Comments

    There is a temptation to see justice, compassion and transparency as the obsessive concern of western liberals. They are much more universal than that; they are the contemporary, institutional rendition of gospel values. The unaccountable hiddenness of Vatican clericalism has reached its use-by date.

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