At the Notre Dame University Australia campus in Fremantle, the seed bed of five decades of political controversy, moral misunderstanding and ecclesial division were examined in-depth at a conference entitled: 1968: Five Decades On. The conference also marked the 50th Anniversary since the promulgation of Blessed Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical Humanae Vitae. One participant commented: […]
By now, tens of thousands of Australian people have expressed their anger and horror at the rape and murder of the young and talented Melbourne comedian, Eurydice Dixon. It is right that her name, her feisty intelligence and her lop-sided smile live on more strongly than the chilling and depersonalised image of a lifeless shape […]
The Preamble to the Irish Constitution begins: “In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred “ There was bitter irony for many around the world to awake on Trinity Sunday 2018, with the […]
Although the 104 year-old veteran botanist, Professor David Goodall, was a willing star in his own celebrity assisted suicide in Switzerland, the flurry of headlines, smiley pre-suicide photo snaps and the apparent “scientific rationality” of his decision should cause us disquiet. On 10 May David Goodall, with a small entourage accepted the ministrations of the […]
During this last week in Ireland, the highly charged and internationally supported “Yes” Referendum campaign, stepped into overdrive. As the Referendum date on 25 May draws closer, well-known Irish actors and rock stars, often ex-pats, have joined the chorus calling for the repeal of article 40.3.3 (the 8th Amendment) of Ireland’s Constitution. The 8th Amendment (voted […]
When my father died, through all the tears and grief, I remember how dazed my family all were by the number and types of people who came to his requiem. There were many well known faces of course but also those we had never before known. What came through again and again, were the comments […]
In the Second Part (of the Second Part) of his Summa Theologiae (question 129), Saint Thomas Aquinas explores an intriguing quality of character he calls “magnanimity” (literally: big-spiritedness). To do this he draws upon the more ancient classical thought of “The Philosopher” – Aristotle, Socrates and Cicero but he also moves beyond them. St Thomas […]
It is marmalade making time again. The dank, cold and late-Winter regional gardens are lit up by hope-giving globes and ovoids of fluorescent citrus: lemons, cumquats, grapefruit and, best of all, Seville oranges – those flattish but elegant packets of bitter-sweetness. There is something of the lost-arts and civilisation about marmalade making. And because it […]
Dr Edward Sri the widely published theologian, best-selling author and presenter will bring the Catholic faith alive from 7-12 September with over 20 events and talks around Sydney and Melbourne. Dr Sri’s multi-media tour entitled The Catholic Faith Explained (see the program), organised by the rapidly growing Sydney-based Parousia Media, is like his vocation, aimed […]
Sometimes, when logical argument fails to persuade and when the issue is complex, the only way to deal with unbearably large and serious moral drama is with absurdist humour or cutting satire. Dean Swift, Flannery O’Connor and G K Chesterton were just a few of the creative Christians who had acute and serious reasons for […]
Friday 23 June marks the Church’s Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus this year. The celebration is a moveable feast tied to the Feast of Corpus Christ and it celebrates mystical insights into the mystery of God’s love in Jesus Christ: “These two loves to us impart, Divine love in a human heart” as […]
Eastertide, those liturgical days spanning from Easter Sunday to Pentecost, can be a puzzling period for us embedded in a very secular understanding of time and history. By week five or six of the Easter period, we can experience Paschal-tide fatigue. We put away the vivid iconography and purifying practices of Lent and Holy Week […]
