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Keywords: Benedict

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

  • RELIGION

    We need a pope who can handle the truth

    • Brian Lucas
    • 11 March 2013
    15 Comments

    Effective chief executives are those who work with collaborators who are better at most things than they are. The next pope needs to collaborate with the best theologians, communicators, diplomats and administrators, and have the strength of character to surround himself with those who will not defer to his status but tell him the truth.

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  • RELIGION

    The Vatican's tragic farce

    • Desmond O'Grady
    • 11 March 2013
    2 Comments

    The internationalisation of the papacy over the past 35 years has been accompanied by an Italianisation of the Vatican media coverage, particularly in Benedict's reign. Vatican coverage reads like Italian political stories with smear campaigns, back-biting, wild accusations and turf wars.

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  • RELIGION

    Benedict's legacy of faith and reason

    • Joel Hodge
    • 11 March 2013
    4 Comments

    The deepest desire that humans have is for the sense of self found in happiness and fulfilment. Benedict held that reason, as the faculty that allows us to be aware of ourselves and understand the meaning of things, is directed not just toward knowledge but toward a deep and critical comprehension of what it means to be fully human.

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  • RELIGION

    Pope for a polarised Church

    • James McEvoy
    • 11 March 2013
    6 Comments

    Traditionalists turn to the leadership for tighter control over doctrine, liturgy and practice. Progressives look to the leadership for removal of constraints in the same areas. The Church needs a pope with an engaged, open stance, sensitive to the struggles of contemporary seekers and not pushing pat answers.

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  • RELIGION

    Lay Catholics can be cardinals too

    • Constant Mews
    • 11 March 2013
    26 Comments

    The College of Cardinals is meant to be a representative assembly. If the Church is serious about reforming its governance it would do well to revisit the major constitutional reforms established in the 11th century, restoring the category of cardinal to those in the Church below the rank of bishop, and even to lay men and lay women.

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  • RELIGION

    The fable of Benedict's red shoes

    • Philip Harvey
    • 06 March 2013
    14 Comments

    It's hard to trace the rumour that Benedict's shoes were designed by Prada. Perhaps it was just a mischievous allusion to The Devil Wears Prada. Benedict is a wily fox, which is why we can be sure his red shoes were there to invite symbolic interpretations. Only thing is, red shoes have a life of their own.

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  • RELIGION

    Church blame in the frame

    • Frank Brennan
    • 01 March 2013
    37 Comments

    There is a temptation to see justice, compassion and transparency as the obsessive concern of western liberals. They are much more universal than that; they are the contemporary, institutional rendition of gospel values. The unaccountable hiddenness of Vatican clericalism has reached its use-by date.

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  • RELIGION

    Anatomy of a papal scandal

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 28 February 2013
    17 Comments

    Like sex, scandals in governance attract an avid audience. So the master story of the papal election has become one of governance in disarray — of Vatican departments riven by ambition, scandal and acrimony. Even if the reports are not true, hearers begin to wonder who leaked them, and in whose interest.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Freewheeling fantasies of European citizenship

    • Benedict Coleridge
    • 22 February 2013
    1 Comment

    Does citizenship need to be built upon close cultural, linguistic and historical ties, as in a national community? Or can a broader conception of citizenship be formed? In Brussels I spot a mural of a mosque on a garage door, surrounded by people from North Africa, Eastern and Western Europe, speaking French, Flemish, English and Arabic.

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  • RELIGION

    Risks of betting on the papal election

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 21 February 2013
    22 Comments

    Betting on the papal election is a mug punter's game, not because of the intervention of the Holy Spirit, but because there is little relevant form. If you lock people up to discuss at length who is the best candidate, and ensure there is no stable talk, the market is uninformed. So bolters can emerge and run away with the race.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Radical Benedict

    • Michael Mullins
    • 18 February 2013
    34 Comments

    Benedict's resignation makes him look like a radical in the tradition of Christian radicalism. He wrote that after examining his conscience, he concluded that he should resign because he was no longer adequate to exercise the Petrine ministry. This logic has implications for other conventions and rules such as priestly celibacy. 

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  • RELIGION

    A pope for hard seasons

    • Neil Ormerod
    • 18 February 2013
    27 Comments

    One of the major challenges facing the new pope will be to find creative and compassionate ways of addressing the issue of clergy sexual abuse. A proper response will require a change in heart and mind, to see the world through the eyes of the suffering and humiliated. Can we expect anything less from the next pope?

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