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Author: John Warhurst

There are more than 200 results, only the first 200 are displayed here.

  • RELIGION

    Religion and politics Sydney-style

    • John Warhurst
    • 14 November 2023
    11 Comments

    Religion and politics are frequent bedfellows. Despite many clerics and bishops holding strong political views, and many lay Catholics being active within political parties, the successful embrace of synodality depends upon finding middle ground, and leaders who respect a diversity of views.

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  • RELIGION

    What connects the Voice and the Synod of Bishops?

    • John Warhurst
    • 18 October 2023
    9 Comments

    This month we navigate the dual milestones of a failed constitutional referendum and the First Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. Seemingly disparate, these events converge in debates over tradition, leadership, and discourse. Their outcomes promise to shape the nation's spiritual and secular contours for generations.

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  • RELIGION

    In the chorus of Yes, why aren't the bishops joining in?

    • John Warhurst
    • 14 September 2023
    46 Comments

    As the Voice Referendum campaign intensifies, many Catholic groups rally behind the Voice. But Australia's church leaders remain above the fray, maintaining neutral positions. As the lines between faith, politics, and indigenous rights blur, should the bishops be more prescriptive on how to vote?

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  • RELIGION

    Catholic schools: Australia's ecclesial future?

    • John Warhurst
    • 15 August 2023
    43 Comments

    In Australia, Catholic schools are thriving amidst declining parishes. As the Synod on Synodality looms, can these institutions, grappling with a diverse, increasingly secular student body, reshape the future of the Catholic Church in Australia?

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  • RELIGION

    Synod working document encourages cautious optimism

    • John Warhurst
    • 05 July 2023
    11 Comments

    As the Vatican releases the working document for the first Synod on Synodality, reactions within the Catholic community are mixed. While many applaud its open approach to divisive issues, others deem it too progressive or insufficiently thorough. Australian bishops encourage engagement, but the road ahead poses significant challenges.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Existential church-state hospital crisis

    • John Warhurst
    • 01 June 2023
    25 Comments

    Amidst escalating tensions, the ACT government's move to acquire Calvary Public Hospital is facing strong backlash from the church. With claims of hasty decision-making and allegations of anti-religion bias dominating the discourse, this crisis highlights the societal shift towards secularism and questions the role of religious entities in managing public services.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Frank Brennan and an Indigenous Voice to Parliament

    • John Warhurst
    • 04 May 2023
    20 Comments

    Frank Brennan's book An Indigenous Voice to Parliament: Considering a constitutional bridge is an urgent contribution to this important national debate around the shaping of the Voice and the referendum question. It is a book concerned with what’s likely to be successful rather than a manual on how to vote. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    'Cultural Catholic' lives of public service

    • John Warhurst
    • 31 March 2023
    2 Comments

    This life story of Tanya Plibersek, as told with great sensitivity and empathy by Margaret Simons, is a valuable reflection upon the engagement of a progressive modern woman with two of the great institutions in Australian history: the Labor Party and the Catholic Church.

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  • RELIGION

    Cardinal Pell's parting salvo raises questions for the Australian Church

    • John Warhurst
    • 31 January 2023
    17 Comments

    Last year, the late Cardinal George Pell anonymously published a memorandum that criticized Pope Francis and his vision of a synodal church and condemned the Synod as a ‘catastrophe’, Cardinal Pell's memo signals building tensions between different visions for the future of the Church in Australia.

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  • RELIGION

    Best of 2022: Distinctive Catholic voices in the election campaign

    • John Warhurst
    • 12 January 2023

    The Church must speak up to be relevant, but those who seek to ‘speak for the church’ must be brave. They risk exposing themselves to claims of bias unless they stick to a very narrow agenda and speak in extremely measured terms. Yet if they are too bland they risk being irrelevant to the sharp end of political debate and their intervention becomes little more than a symbolic ritual.   

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  • RELIGION

    The Plenary Council is dead, long live the Synod of Bishops

    • John Warhurst
    • 06 December 2022
    3 Comments

    The Synod of Bishops, to which all People of God in Australia have now had their attention redirected after the Plenary Council, is another gigantic exercise in consultation and discernment undertaken by the Church. The possibilities for progress are inspiring, but also hedged around by enormous pressures of time and capacity. In a sense it is the Plenary Council writ large. 

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  • RELIGION

    Catholic political leaders: Does faith matter?

    • John Warhurst
    • 15 November 2022
    16 Comments

    Australia is awash with politicians who identify or are identified as Catholic. And Catholic media always take some interest in Catholic politicians whatever their political stripe. But what does this mean to have Catholic politicians from a theologically and ideologically diverse church? 

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