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Keywords: Youth Services

  • AUSTRALIA

    Reflections on Gillard's atheism

    • John Warhurst
    • 17 October 2011
    10 Comments

    Gillard's atheism puts her in stark contrast to her immediate predecessors Kevin Rudd and John Howard. We consider several implications of Gillard's position, including her relations with church-state issues and community attitudes towards gay marriage and euthanasia. 

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  • RELIGION

    What difference does it make now that Mary MacKillop is a saint?

    • Frank Brennan
    • 14 October 2011

    Mary visited Rome as a young religious woman when she was being persecuted by local bishops for being too independent. She got a good hearing from the Pope and great assistance from Fr Anderledy who became the Superior General of the Jesuits. If only Bishop Bill Morris could have received the same sympathetic hearing.

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  • RELIGION

    Making friends not foes of rights and religion

    • Frank Brennan
    • 13 September 2011
    5 Comments

    The Church of the 21st century should be the exemplar of due process, natural justice and transparency. While there can be little useful critique of the final decision of Pope Benedict to force the early retirement of Bishop Bill Morris, there is plenty of scope to review the processes leading up to it.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Students in sex work

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 16 June 2011
    4 Comments

    In May a German study revealed that one in three students in Berlin would consider sex work as a means of paying for their education. We've seen similar phenomena in Australia. In Sleeping Beauty, Lucy is a university student who finds herself drawn into working a bizarre niche in the sex industry.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Mixed Budget blessings

    • Paul O'Callaghan
    • 11 May 2011
    7 Comments

    The Budget contains a number of positive measures to promote mental health, employment and training. But without greater investment in individualised support for job seekers and those on disability support pensions to assist their transition to work, we are not likely to see major change.

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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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  • 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

    Condoms only a possible first step to AIDS prevention

    • Paterne Mombe
    • 26 November 2010
    1 Comment

    Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges the relative moral value of a prostitute showing concern for protecting others by using condoms. But it is far from being sufficient. For him, it is not really the way to promote HIV prevention. One would say: the finality does not justify the means.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Brian's story

    • Tony Vinson
    • 25 October 2010
    4 Comments

    My mother never really coped while I was growing up. My dad died when I was seven and she had a nervous breakdown. My sister got murdered when I was about 15. She had just turned 18. That's when my life rolled out of control. 

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Kids in custody

    • Graham West
    • 06 October 2010
    9 Comments

    Young people should be held accountable for their actions. But that does not explain how almost 80 per cent of those on remand in a detention centre in NSW will not end up with a custodial sentence. If custody is a last resort, how can we get the balance wrong 80 per cent of the time?

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  • RELIGION

    Christian sect's gay snub

    • Andrew McGowan
    • 16 July 2010
    17 Comments

    Gay and lesbian youths are at greater risk from suicide and mental illness, and from religious and other forms of exclusion than from their own sexuality. Jesus cared less about the risk he might 'promote' Samaritanism than about the need to promote an ethic of unconditional acceptance.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Election year mental health test

    • Simon Rice
    • 12 July 2010
    6 Comments

    Advocacy from the likes of esteemed psychiatrist Professor Patrick McGorry continues to highlight Australia's mental health system crisis. If Julia Gillard wants to lead on this issue, she will need to further the Coalition's $1.5 billion electoral commitment to mental health services.

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