Food for lots of thought

Sydney
2 March 2003

Food for lots of thought

Pope calls for peace fast on Ash Wednesday

Café bid to curb violence

Supper guests share their stories with archbishop

Sex-change marriage challenge

Archbishop's plea for asylum seekers

Changing the guard at Vinnies

Why East Timor refugees should be allowed to stay

Seminars on Theology of the Body

Project Compassion 2003 - Lenten campaign to break the 'chains of slavery'

Aid work in Kiribati wins Bill a 'thank you' from Govt

Christian ideals can 'guide us to share'

Australian Marist takes over as Cardinal Newman diaries editor

Editorial: Saint of the surgery?

Letters: Beat of a different drum?

Conversation: Fr John Flader, adult education director and Opus Dei priest - Teaching adults more about Catholic faith

A writer puts things in perspective

Right or wrong, it's a matter of ethics

Three in one: A parish with something for everyone

600 million children living in poverty

Bishops stage rally for Hunter jobs

Poet gives credit to Mary MacKillop

New home, chaplain and a youth ministry team

Mass, flags set celebrations in train

Food for lots of thought

Lauren Kermond stacks the pancakes up for the start of Project Compassion

Pile 'em high and eat 'em up! It's a perfect stack of pancakes to load up with jam and cream, or whatever indulgence takes your fancy. It's what Shrove Tuesday is all about.

Pancake Tuesday, as it is also known, began as a way of using up all the goodies in the larder so people were not tempted to break their Lenten promises during the six austere weeks to come.

It also makes a fitting contrast with the penance of Lent, which, in turn, prepares us for the joy that is Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The everyday joy that is the freedom to enjoy such good food is also a fitting subject for reflection in respect of Caritas' Lenten campaign this year.

This focuses on Freedom from Slavery and although it is mainly concerned with specific issues, such as freeing child labourers and child soldiers, it also seeks to focus our minds on poverty and what it must be like not to be able to feed one's family - one of the reasons families are forced to send their children out to work rather than to school.