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Section: Religion

  • RELIGION

    Trust at stake in Toowoomba

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 16 May 2011
    38 Comments

    The treatment of Bishop Bill Morris risks further blurring the image of the Church. The story told of a good man who encouraged his church, who was resolute in dealing with sexual abuse, but was removed in an untransparent process, will confirm many in their distrust of the Church.

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  • RELIGION

    Papal power in Toowoomba

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 05 May 2011
    54 Comments

    Modern societies rightly put much weight on transparency. Its absence is taken to discredit the institutions in which it is lacking. After the forced resignation of Bishop Morris it will be even harder for Catholics to win a hearing on issues that affect the public order.

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  • RELIGION

    Coming clean on cluster munitions

    • Frank Brennan
    • 04 May 2011
    15 Comments

    We now know that, in the name of the US alliance, our Government attempted to scuttle the significance of the UN Convention on Cluster Munitions. Thus far the Greens are the only party to take the point, and the only party in full sympathy with the Vatican on this issue.

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  • RELIGION

    Human faces of Toowoomba conflict

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 03 May 2011
    69 Comments

    Bishop Bill Morris' announcement that he had tendered his early retirement under Roman pressure will arouse debate in and outside the Catholic Church. In these first days of controversy, it may be helpful first to reflect on the impact that the action has on the people most affected by it.

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  • RELIGION

    Eyeballing injustice

    • Frank Brennan
    • 02 May 2011
    1 Comment

    Jesuit Social Services recently set up a project in Alice Springs to resource the local parish and local Aborigines who want to take more control of their own lives. If we are to get our teeth into issues of acute injustice, we need to eyeball both the decision makers and those affected by those decisions.

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  • RELIGION

    Beatifying the Polish Pope

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 29 April 2011
    15 Comments

    John Paul II was as much a Polish Catholic as Mary MacKillop was Australian. His moral force eroded the legitimacy of the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe. The controversy about his beatification is not about his virtue or historical significance, but about his legacy to the Church.

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  • RELIGION

    Atheist's Easter guilt

    • Debi Hamilton
    • 21 April 2011
    7 Comments

    My exposure to the Bible gave me a store of rich language and evocative imagery, a sense of history, and illustrations of moral principles. Does it matter that I know something of the story of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, come Easter, and my children only think of holiday? Well, yes.

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  • RELIGION

    Uncomfortable Easter and Anzac Day

    • Andrew Hamilon
    • 21 April 2011
    10 Comments

    Good intentions are not sufficient to give life meaning. Easter's significance comes not from Jesus' choice to die, but in God's gift of raising him from the dead. In the Anzac story, it may be comforting to say young soldiers died that others may live, but the comfort is too easy.

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  • RELIGION

    Liturgy translation 'suprisingly good'

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 13 April 2011
    48 Comments

    Liturgy has always aroused strong passions. In the 19th century, some London churches served by Anglican priests who wore lace were stoned. So it is not surprising that the introduction of a new translation of the Catholic Mass should be turbulent. 

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  • RELIGION

    Health and ethics

    • Frank Brennan
    • 06 April 2011
    7 Comments

    We need clever strategic and moral thinkers among our health professionals, who can engage with the demands of an aging population, with the gap in life-expectancy between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, and with the increasingly politically correct debate about euthanasia.

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  • RELIGION

    Palm Island cops dodge justice again

    • Frank Brennan
    • 05 April 2011
    20 Comments

    Queensland's deputy police commissioner has said there is no need for disciplinary action against any Queensland police officer over the Palm Island death in custody case. Justice is beyond the reach of Queensland Aborigines, while the police remain a law unto themselves.

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  • RELIGION

    Does Catholic identity matter?

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 31 March 2011
    43 Comments

    In a recent speech titled 'The Fall of the Christian West', American Cardinal Raymond Burke was concerned with Catholic identity. Questions about identity fix our attention on the group to which we belong, when Christian groups should instead begin by looking outwards.

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