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Keywords: Laity

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  • RELIGION

    A controversial graduation address

    • Bill Uren
    • 11 December 2024

    A contentious graduation speech at Australian Catholic University laid bare divisions between traditional Catholic values and modern sensibilities. The backlash, marked by audience walkouts, underscores broader challenges facing the Church.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Is peace possible?

    • Justin Glyn
    • 10 December 2024

    Peace is hard to define, harder to achieve, and almost impossible to sustain. In a world obsessed with profit, simplistic narratives, and selective outrage, peace feels like a lofty ideal rather than a realistic goal. But what would it take to make peace more than a buzzword—and a true global reality?

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  • RELIGION

    How the Synod quietly redefined disability in the Church

    • Justin Glyn
    • 30 November 2024
    2 Comments

    The Synod on Synodality has quietly rewritten the Church’s relationship with disability, shifting from a legacy of marginalisation to a vision of equality and dignity. This historic move acknowledges past failings while championing the rights of disabled people as full participants in faith and society. But does the rhetoric match reality?

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  • RELIGION

    The quiet revolution in women's roles in the Church

    • Joanna Thyer
    • 07 November 2024
    3 Comments

    At the World Synod in Rome, four women joined to advocate for ordaining women as deacons. Though the topic remains off the table officially, the message highlights the Church’s internal conflict between traditional values and growing calls for inclusion and change.

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  • RELIGION

    Francis’ Church may be more transparent and accountable, but don’t call it democratic

    • Bill Uren
    • 04 September 2024
    6 Comments

    The Synod on Synodality begins its second session in October. And while the synodal process may involve consultation, Pope Francis is keen to remind those hoping for reform that teaching authority remains with the Pope and bishops. As the Pope has insisted on a number of occasions, the Church is not a democracy, and the synod is not a parliament.

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  • RELIGION

    In future Church governance, hierarchy meets partnership

    • John Warhurst
    • 03 September 2024
    8 Comments

    Lay-led organizations, once marginalised, are now ascendant in the Church, challenging traditional hierarchies and redefining what church might look like in future. Ministerial Public Juridic Persons (MPJPs) have a growing influence, and for some, hold the potential for a more inclusive, lay-led Church.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Government delivers lacklustre response to Disability RC

    • Justin Glyn
    • 14 August 2024

    The Federal Government response to the Disability Royal Commission is in. Out of 172 recommendations, only 13 have been fully accepted. These included many reforms that were already partially in progress. Disability advocates can, perhaps, be forgiven for being underwhelmed. 

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  • RELIGION

    Vatican document focuses on process, not problems

    • Bill Uren
    • 30 July 2024
    7 Comments

    The Vatican's new Instrumentum Laboris outlines the path forward for the Synod on Synodality, but with a heavy emphasis on process over substance. While it acknowledges the need for greater women's involvement, it firmly reinforces the authority of the Pope and bishops, raising questions about the true potential for change.

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  • RELIGION

    Is another Catholic school shutdown on the horizon?

    • John Warhurst
    • 03 July 2024
    8 Comments

    In 1962, Goulburn was the centre of national attention when Catholic schools closed in protest over a lack of government funding and control. Students overwhelmed public schools. Could this happen again? An Australian archbishop suggests it as an option if religious freedom in Catholic schools is threatened.

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  • RELIGION

    Everyone agrees we should protect the vulnerable, but who exactly are they?

    • Justin Glyn
    • 03 July 2024
    3 Comments

    None of us — even those experiencing vulnerability, whether temporary or resulting from a permanent infirmity of some kind — should be perceived as an object of protection; instead, each one of us is a collaborator in our own care, and in the care of others.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Sins of the fathers

    • Ken Haley
    • 29 March 2024
    2 Comments

    Recent years have made clerical child sexual abuse a badge of shame within Australia’s Catholic hierarchy, and rightly so. But Anne Manne’s new book, Sins of the fathers, will give pause to those who blame these offences on the rule of hieratic celibacy.

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  • RELIGION

    What is the purpose of the RE classroom in a secular world?

    • Ann Rennie, Bernadette Mercieca
    • 09 February 2024
    5 Comments

    Today, the claims of Christianity are no longer common knowledge among a Catholic student cohort that comes from many faith traditions and none, but the Catholic school has a place for them all. Has the classroom become the ecclesial face of the Catholic Church in the 21st Century?

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