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Keywords: Priesthood

  • 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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  • RELIGION

    Why I still love the Catholic Church

    • Frank Brennan
    • 15 July 2013
    6 Comments

    Sean Faircloth, a US director of one of the Dawkins Institutes committed to atheism, raised what has already become a hoary old chestnut, the failure of Francis when in Argentina during the Dirty Wars to adequately defend his fellow Jesuits who were detained and tortured by unscrupulous soldiers. Being a Jesuit, I thought I was peculiarly well situated to respond. I confess to having got a little carried away.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Abuse cover-ups perpetuated priestly mystique

    • Ray Cassin
    • 29 May 2013
    66 Comments

    One consequence of mandatory celibacy has been the creation of a priestly mystique: a notion that the priest is a man set apart. When bishops say that cover-ups were attempts to avoid 'scandal', they are really talking about their fear of what might happen if priests were no longer thought to be special.

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  • RELIGION

    Church and ordained ministry in the 21st century

    • Frank Brennan
    • 23 May 2013
    2 Comments

    Fr Frank Brennan's keynote address at the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn Clergy Assembly, St Clement's, Gaylong, on 22 May 2013

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Abbott's animal charms

    • Barry Gittins and Jen Vuk
    • 03 May 2013
    5 Comments

    Casting a Victorious PM Abbott as a puppet of Pell and Howard, or a fiddler with women's rights, seems risible; Abbott is bound by social restraints after all. Nonetheless, there is something ominous in David Marr's droll observation: 'His values have never stood in his way.'

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The unknown unknowns of the sexual abuse royal commission

    • Ray Cassin
    • 14 January 2013
    57 Comments

    It can't denied that the chief impetus for the creation of this royal commission has been the appalling record of concealment of abuse in Catholic institutions. If that record did not exist, the royal commission would not exist. And Catholics — especially bishops and major superiors — cannot evade this fact by complaining.

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Rebuffing the religious right

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 16 November 2012
    4 Comments

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  • RELIGION

    Advice to Bishops on Royal Commission

    • Geoffrey Robinson
    • 16 November 2012
    70 Comments

    There has been a bland assertion in places that obligatory celibacy has not in any way been a cause of abuse. Few people believe this assertion, and personally I find it impossible to deny that it has been a significant contributing factor. Unless obligatory celibacy is put on the table for discussion, the question will not go away.

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Rebuffing the religious right

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 16 November 2012

    Obama's election win was a rebuff to America's ultra-conservatives, including the religious right. Extremists in this camp see the Second Coming as imminent, and view God as vengeful and violent. John Dominic Crossan has spent his adult life trying to lead Christians to a more thoughtful and educated view of the Bible.

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  • RELIGION

    Vatican II then and now

    • Frank Brennan
    • 24 September 2012
    10 Comments

    'Looking to the future, I want to focus on the role of the laity in the growing absence of priests. And I want to insist on the need for due process, transparency and respectful dealing within the Church.' Full text of Fr Frank Brennan SJ's presentation 'Looking Back and Looking Forward Over Church and Life on the 50th Anniversary of Vatican II' at the Spirituality in the Pub Goulburn Valley Annual Dinner, 21 September 2012.

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    The Vatican's Facebook guru

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 21 September 2012
    4 Comments

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    The Vatican's Facebook guru

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 21 September 2012
    2 Comments

    Last weekend's Muslim riot in Sydney, prompted by a YouTube trailer for an anti-Muslim film, illustrated the disturbing power of new media. As secretary of the Vatican department responsible for the Church's social communications, Monsignor Paul Tighe grapples daily with the dilemmas and promises of new media.

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