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Keywords: Social Contract

  • RELIGION

    Greater transparency will evolve the Church

    • Frank Brennan
    • 24 May 2012
    44 Comments

    Bishop Morris wrote at considerable length to Archbishop Chaput, in a highly respectful and fraternal tone. To be fair to Chaput, I will quote his breathtaking response in full. It illustrates what still passes for due process and pastoral care in the Roman Church. We have to insist on something better. And with greater transparency, we will get something better.

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  • RELIGION

    John XXIII's half century challenge

    • Frank Brennan
    • 27 March 2012
    3 Comments

    Full text from Fr Frank Brennan SJ's address 'Bringing the modern world into contact with the vivifying and perennial energies of the gospel (John XXIII's half century challenge)' at the Catalyst for Renewal Dinner, Hunters Hill, 23 March 2012.

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  • RELIGION

    Justice, the Church and the Ignatian tradition

    • Frank Brennan
    • 19 March 2012

    Text from Fr Frank Brennan SJ's Lenten presentation 'Justice, the Church and the Ignatian tradition' at St Ignatius Parish, Norwood, 13 March 2012 and St Michael's, Clare, 14 March 2012.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Wayne Swan, Clive Palmer and the gospel of wealth

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 09 March 2012
    10 Comments

    Mining in Australia has assumed the mantle of the untouchable, so much so that taxing its proceeds is deemed by some to be unpatriotic. What matters to Swan is maintaining the idea, however illusory, that Australia remains an equal country. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Jobs lost to the office evolution

    • Paul O'Callaghan
    • 30 November 2011
    7 Comments

    If you walked into a public service office in the early 1980s, you'd see typing pools, mailrooms and whole floors full of people doing routine clerical work. People with disabilities were disproportionately employed in low level positions. Today, most of those positions have gone.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Mainstreaming evil

    • Michael Loughnane
    • 11 November 2011
    20 Comments

    Journalist Hannah Arendt noted that Nazi 'desk-murderer' Adolf Eichmann did not lack a moral compass — his conscience simply spoke with the 'respectable voice' of society. The case raises questions about whether we might be 'silent witnesses to evil deeds' in our society today.

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  • EUREKA STREET/ READER'S FEAST AWARD

    Buying and selling skin

    • Meg Mundell
    • 03 August 2011
    7 Comments

    In her field some ethnic markers can be overlooked, but skin colour has an undeniable influence on earnings. These are suspicious times. Even the new finance minister, whose grandmother was Aboriginal, caved in to pressure and became noticeably lighter prior to his new appointment.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Resist shock jock 'judge bashing'

    • Fran Hogan
    • 21 February 2011
    3 Comments

    I had anguished over a particular sentence which was the subject of days of media comment. One of my fellow judges stuck his head around the door and said, 'Neil Mitchell says you are right.' This I found unsettling. Then he added, 'But don't worry, Derryn Hinch says you are a disgrace.' Phew!

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Challenging Frank Brennan on gay marriage

    • Rodney Croome
    • 26 November 2010
    14 Comments

    I'd hoped a reformer and humanist like Frank Brennan would understand that in this world of disposable relationships, valuing love, commitment and inclusion must be our paramount goal. Instead, he has reverted to orthodoxy when confronted with a change that troubles his Catholic conscience. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Football hero's homeless grace

    • Brian Doyle
    • 10 November 2010
    6 Comments

    Former local sports hero The Hawk took up residence on the town football field. A reporter came looking for a tale of woe but didn't find it. People leave him sandwiches, the kids who play lacrosse set up a screen so his tent won't get peppered by stray shots, and cops drift by to make sure no one's giving him grief.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    France shows Australia how to protest

    • Bronwyn Lay
    • 26 October 2010
    6 Comments

    In Australia a mass strike is unimaginable. The bureaucratic hoops required before a strike can be considered a legal 'protected action' are Kafkaesque. Therefore strikes have become small, localised and limited to issues of contractual entitlements.

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  • RELIGION

    Poverty and plenty: where do Christians stand?

    • Frank Brennan
    • 22 March 2010
    2 Comments

    Text from Fr Frank Brennan SJ's presentation Poverty and Plenty: Where Do or Should Christians Stand? at the Centre for an Ethical Society as part of the 2010 Series Forum at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, 17 March 2010.

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