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I respect the work of exorcists who offer appropriate pastoral care to those acutely troubled. I also believe it is not generally helpful to give prominence in the churches to demonic possession and exorcism.
It is 30 years this week since Catholic radical Dorothy Day died. She was a quirky woman who lived on the margins of Church and United States society. Her life was lived in harsh conditions, but the way she put its elements together was sweet and attractive.
Many same sex couples tell us their relationship is identical with marriage. We can ensure non-discrimination against same sex couples while at the same time maintaining a commitment to children's right to be born of and reared by a father and a mother.
Pope Benedict's remarks on condoms have offered rich pickings. Speculation arose whether his statement heralds the collapse of Catholic condemnation of contraception. But the Pope's words were less significant for their content than for their style.
This week it was reported that the canonisation of Mary MacKillop boosted enquiries at Australia's Catholic Enquiry Centre by 63 per cent in the past year. The saturation media coverage of the event suggests the Church may not be as much 'on the nose' as is popularly thought.
Predictions that massive numbers of Anglicans will become Catholic seem far-fetched. Certainly, the Anglican communion is sharply divided by proposals to ordain women Bishops and to ordain as Bishops men in openly homosexual relationships. But only some of those opposed would feel any attraction to Rome.
In the 1970s Latin American theologians began to explore the connections of faith to a public world marked by great injustice. Some of them initially criticised such popular expressions of faith such as devotions, fiestas and processions. The miracles dimension of the coverage of Mary MacKillop's recent canonisation uncovered a similar tension.
Cardinal Pell, with whom I have voiced disagreement, preached superbly at the mass of thanksgiving after the canonisation of Mary MacKillop. 'She does not deter us from struggling to follow her.' As we wrestle with the common good, let's make a place for all our fellow citizens.
There is an emerging Aboriginal middle class. The contested questions in those communities relate to the expensive delivery of services including health, housing and education. The contested issue in the urban community is over self-identification as Aboriginal by persons of mixed descent.
Those who believe a good society must be built on respect for human life at its beginning and end must work to change public attitudes. Such an approach needs to be based on respect for the freedom of women whom child bearing and rearing touch most intimately.
Mary MacKillop's face is on the Sydney Habour Bridge, at least temporarily. Is she becoming one of the clichés for Australia, alongside bushmen and Hills Hoist mums in our catalogue of national identity?
It is possible to represent MacKillop as a brave woman, a feisty woman, her own woman, a feminist before her time, a woman who resisted clerical tyranny, a scourge of pedophilia and an activist for the poor. Each of these descriptions misses what was central in her.
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