Keywords: Church And State
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 02 November 2012
36 Comments
What is to be done in the name of law and justice for the victims of abuse? Clearly the Church cannot be left alone to get its house in order. The State may have a role to play, but our elected politicians need assistance from lawyers committed to justice, not lawyers acting primarily to protect or condemn the Church.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 01 October 2012
8 Comments
Family life holds no value in itself but is an often fruitful means to a morally good life. There are other means for those who do not marry, such as voluntary work, single-minded dedication to a profession, or caring for ageing parents. Why, then, do the Catholic Bishops, and indeed governments, go to so much trouble to support the family?
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RELIGION
- Andrew McGowan
- 21 August 2012
53 Comments
The Personal Ordinariates established this year in the UK, the USA, Canada and Australia have failed in their stated aim at promoting untity between Catholics and Anglicans. They suggest that the real position of the Vatican on Christian unity is about absorption rather than convergence.
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RELIGION
- Paul Collins
- 15 August 2012
35 Comments
People often talk about the 'enormous wealth of the Vatican'. Some think the Vatican owns all the Church's worldwide real estate, others that all that art could be sold for the poor, others that the Vatican is corrupt and busy laundering vast sums of Mafia money through the 'Vatican Bank'. Now for the first time we have some hard facts.
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EDUCATION
- John Warhurst
- 09 July 2012
10 Comments
Labor speechwriter Graham Freudenberg observed that ‘the oldest, deepest, most poisonous debate in Australia has been about government aid to church schools’. The most dramatic episode in the history of church state relations in Australia was the Goulburn schools strike, which took place 50 years ago this month.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Barry Gittins
- 07 March 2012
5 Comments
Various pontiffs and potentates block annulment and divorce. So Harry pushes himself to the head of the queue, rogering the wee chasm twixt church and state. When Anne, too, non-delivers the baby boy jackpot, he manfully sweeps Jane off her feet and Anne's head off her shoulders. Still counting sacrificial sheep?
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Tim Kroenert
- 24 November 2011
8 Comments
The remote community of Toomelah was a state-run Aboriginal mission with a strong church presence. A raft of social problems have emerged in place of the traditional culture that was usurped by these influences. Cultural extinction is perhaps the biggest issue facing such communities.
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RELIGION
- Gary Bouma
- 24 October 2011
16 Comments
The biblical injunction that Christians 'Give to God the things due to God and to Caesar the things due to Caesar' does not legitimise the separation of church and state. We live in a time when religious voices have returned with greater strength to the arenas of civil discourse.
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AUSTRALIA
- John Warhurst
- 17 October 2011
10 Comments
Gillard's atheism puts her in stark contrast to her immediate predecessors Kevin Rudd and John Howard. We consider several implications of Gillard's position, including her relations with church-state issues and community attitudes towards gay marriage and euthanasia.
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AUSTRALIA
- John Warhurst
- 02 August 2011
13 Comments
In the midst of debates about same sex marriage that will test and probably break relations between the Gillard Government and some Christian communities, the chaplaincy program is seen by both camps as a win-win. A challenge to be considered by the High Court this month could change all that.
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RELIGION
- Andrew Hamilton
- 21 July 2011
30 Comments
A petition circulating among Australian Catholics offers a sombre picture of the state of the Church. To some Catholics petitions seem inappropriate. But they have the value once attributed to canaries in the mineshaft: their witness is dismissed at the mine owners' peril.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Andrew Hamilton
- 15 April 2011
6 Comments
Fr Ian Dillon portrayed teaching as a power struggle, with students and teachers pitted against one another. He enjoyed criticising those in power at any level of state and church. His stories would end with a laugh, and his exclamation of delight, 'They really haven't got a bloody clue!'
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