Keywords: Special Religious Instruction
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael McGirr
- 22 November 2024
3 Comments
There’s this other place that is neither heaven nor earth but which you might find in the car park of the third busiest KFC in Melbourne, waiting for your son to finish his shift. A bin beside the car is overflowing with all the packaging that comes with fast food, not to mention the remains of poor dead chooks whose life it is hard to imagine.
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RELIGION
The recent Vatican instruction terminating the celebration of the Tridentine Mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral is a prime example of Vatican officialdom overriding local episcopal authority. Let us hope that in a more decentralized Church some traditional obstacles to ecumenism may be removed without respective ecclesiastical loss of face on the part of the contributing Churches.
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RELIGION
One might submit that a Plenary Council is a cumbersome instrument to ascertain the genuinely representative views of the Catholic Church in Australia. Many of the canonical strictures regarding the membership, agenda and process of the Council will dampen the original enthusiasm for the Council that provoked over 17,500 submissions.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 15 January 2019
40 Comments
When Parliament resumes, one outstanding item of business will be Penny Wong's bill dealing with religious schools' capacity to discriminate against students on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. I support the bill subject to the proviso that religious schools should remain free to teach their doctrine respectfully and reasonably.
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RELIGION
- Kevin Donnelly
- 31 August 2015
23 Comments
Various state based legislation argues that education in government schools should be secular in nature, but it does not rule out a place for religion in the general curriculum. To argue that religions should have a greater place in the school curriculum is not to proselytise. Rather it is to recognise that, while we are a secular society, students need to encounter a more transcendent sense of life that incorporates a strong moral, spiritual and ethical dimension.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 18 March 2013
3 Comments
Change is upon the Church. Just recall the scene when the new pope emerged on the Vatican balcony. He appeared with none of the papal trimmings of office, and did not once did he refer to the papacy. Could something of this new papal style help Catholics engage more creatively with their fellow citizens? Text from Frank Brennan's lecture 'How Can the Catholic Church Contribute to a Better Culture for Life?'
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RELIGION
- 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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EDUCATION
- Fatima Measham
- 29 July 2011
7 Comments
The stoush over school ethics classes recalls the war in US schools over 'creation science' and its place in the curriculum. Christians should support programs that give students opportunities to think deeply about what it means to be a human among other humans.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 19 March 2010
4 Comments
The challenges and opportunities are to fund equitably all
networks in education and to ensure that robust morale and community
engagement are hallmarks of all parts of the network, including state
schools and emerging schools such as Muslim schools.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 09 February 2010
'Tonight I want to reflect in light of the National Human Rights
Consultation how we as Church can do better in promoting justice for
all in our land. Full text from Frank Brennan's 2010 McCosker Oration, 'The Church as Advocate in the Public Square: Lessons from the National Human Rights Consultation'.
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EDUCATION
- Teresa Russell
- 29 September 2009
20 Comments
According to NSW education policy, if a parent wants their child to opt out of religious education, that child is not
entitled to any instruction during
this period. An alliance of parents and educators is pushing for an ethics-based alternative to religious education.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Peter Steele
- 06 July 2006
Peter Steele looks at poetry about the birds and beasts.
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