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Section: Religion

  • RELIGION

    Who deserves charity

    • Susie Byers
    • 14 July 2009
    10 Comments

    The Pope's social encyclical comes at a time when Australian churches increasingly have to provide charity to those who have been failed by the state. For charity to constitute true giving, social organisations must also be prepared to commit politically.

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  • RELIGION

    Pope's 'seamless garment' bares green credentials

    • Neil Ordmerod
    • 10 July 2009
    2 Comments

    This week's release of the new social encyclical Caritas in Veritate expands moral teaching to promote a concept of 'human ecology' that covers both human life and the environment. It would seem that Benedict is not a climate change sceptic.

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  • RELIGION

    Pope confronts economic injustice

    • Bruce Duncan
    • 10 July 2009
    4 Comments

    The Pope's encyclical on social teaching is not a strident critique of capitalism, but it does confront abuses in the global economy. Benedict is critical of the free market ideology which extolled wealth creation but ignored the need for equity and social justice.

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  • RELIGION

    Swine flu and the Eucharist

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 03 July 2009
    7 Comments

    The swine flu saga has been of interest mainly because the responses to it have shown what Australians consider to be important. That is also true of the response within Australian churches.

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  • RELIGION

    The context of our sex abuse shame

    • Shane Wood
    • 29 June 2009
    2 Comments

    I am shocked and angered by the actions of fellow religious Brothers detailed in the Ryan Report. There were basic things lacking in our training that could have led to a very warped way of looking at oneself and the world.

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  • RELIGION

    Paradoxes of Christianity and Islam

    • Herman Roborgh
    • 25 June 2009
    4 Comments

    The scriptures of both Islam and Christianity are full of paradoxes. Some readers of paradoxes simply emphasise only one part of the paradox. Critics of Islam and of Christianity feast on one-sided interpretation of this sort.

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  • RELIGION

    Sharing our paradoxes: steps for a dialogue between Christians and Muslims

    • Herman Roborgh
    • 25 June 2009

    The scriptures of both Islam and Christianity are full of paradoxes. Some readers of paradoxes simply emphasise only one part of the paradox. (Full text of Herman Roborgh's Dialogue Australasia article, May 2009.)

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  • RELIGION

    Historical tensions visit women and the Church

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 18 June 2009
    13 Comments

    Many women religious fear the Vatican visitation of female religious congregations will take a negative attitude to feminist aspirations and to the changes brought about by Vatican II. They can find historical grounds for this fear.

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  • RELIGION

    Ryan Report: crimes of the 'human' Church

    • Julian Butler
    • 15 June 2009
    18 Comments

    Eventually the Vatican will have to stand in solidarity with the victims of abuse. The Church is capable of acting well and badly. To separate individuals from the Church diminishes the responsibility of the whole body.

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  • RELIGION

    The decline of Christianity in Australia and America

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 12 June 2009
    8 Comments

    In the Rudd/Obama era there are new parallels and convergences with regard to religion in Australia and the US. The figures may be on the slide, but rumours of the death of Christianity are greatly exaggerated.

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  • RELIGION

    The 'bad eggs' of Ireland's abuse scandal

    • Frank O'Shea
    • 05 June 2009
    24 Comments

    After a lifetime in schools run by religious orders, I am appalled to think abuse against children in institutions in Ireland was 'endemic'. I try to persuade myself that 'Brendan', the saintliest man I ever knew, cancels out the bad eggs.

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  • RELIGION

    Dialogue with Rowan Williams

    • James McEvoy
    • 04 June 2009
    7 Comments

    The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams offers a view of dialogue that transcends merely passing information on to a passive listener. True dialogue changes the speaker as much as it does the hearer, and poses a model for better understanding God.

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