Tag: Dr Philippa Martyr

Do you know who the Holy Spirit is? Could you recognise Him in action? The Plenary Council set out to discern what the Holy Spirit...

I think the Plenary Council was in some ways a success for all the wrong reasons. It showed the divisions in the Church in...

As many will know, the Plenary Council motions on women in the Church all failed to make the required two-thirds majority to pass on Tuesday afternoon.

The Framework for Motions (May 2022) has appeared. This document is supposed to guide the July session of the Plenary Council. I’ve read it, and...

The Vatican recently released a document on Catholic schools called The identity of the Catholic school for a culture of dialogue. Among other things, it’s a template for Catholic bishops across the world to take responsibility for deciding exactly which of their local schools can use the ‘Catholic’ brand.

Grumpy Catholics will find a solution to what ails them in Lauds, the morning prayer of the Divine Office

I was relieved to hear that the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) has already rejected the proposal in The Light from the Southern Cross for a national centre for Catholic leadership.

I was at an ordination to the diaconate recently, on the Sunday of Lent when we celebrate the Transfiguration. I find that any kind of ordination is usually very moving, but I really enjoyed this one.

The Archdiocese of Chicago has now released details of its parish restructure. This is a good opportunity for the Church in Australia to start making notes.

The next round of the Plenary Council kicks off in July, so I have read the First Assembly’s Proposals document (December 2021) to bring myself up to speed. Compared to the virtual First Assembly sessions I briefly attended, this document is much better. If you remember, members of the First Assembly were given 16 questions […]

I’m celebrating Christmas this year by quoting – for the first time – a John Lennon song in The Catholic Weekly. (My apologies to Paul Catalanotto, who hates this song).

A colleague told me the other day about a funeral she’d attended. The deceased was an older man, a high achiever, well educated, retired, with a family he loved. He had a bit of dementia and a few other health issues, and he was absolutely hating the feeling of losing his strength. So he committed […]