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Keywords: Humility

  • RELIGION

    How can the Catholic Church contribute to a better culture for life?

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 March 2013
    3 Comments

    Change is upon the Church. Just recall the scene when the new pope emerged on the Vatican balcony. He appeared with none of the papal trimmings of office, and did not once did he refer to the papacy. Could something of this new papal style help Catholics engage more creatively with their fellow citizens? Text from Frank Brennan's lecture 'How Can the Catholic Church Contribute to a Better Culture for Life?'

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  • MEDIA

    Caucusing cardinals trump greedy media

    • Ray Cassin
    • 15 March 2013
    10 Comments

    The media abhor a vacuum, and thus we got to hear about, among other things, the cabal of anonymous gay clerics who are allegedly at the heart of the Vatileaks and banking scandals. UFOs and monsters from space didn't appear in these stories, but if the Church had endured another week of sede vacante they probably would have.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How Pope Francis will mend a broken church

    • Michael Mullins
    • 14 March 2013
    21 Comments

    The new pope is a conservative, but as Archbishop of Buenos Aires he chose to live in a small apartment rather than the palatial bishop's residence. He failed to openly challenge Argentina's dictatorship of the late 1970s, but he regarded clericalism as a scourge that 'separates the people of God from salvation'.

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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

    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

    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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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Election year food, sex and meaning

    • Barry Gittins and Jen Vuk
    • 08 February 2013

    David Marr's withering piece on Tony Abbot completes the political trinity. These writers manage the impossible: they have me feeling sorry for politicians. Well, almost. I'm not sure if such magnanimity is allowed in an election year. But what a pleasure to discover those grey Canberran corridors harbouring such a chiaroscuro of emotion.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A fine teacher's urination solution

    • Brian Doyle
    • 30 January 2013
    11 Comments

    Sister Marie realised that Linda had been robbed of her lunch, and had not eaten at all, and had been humiliated by the theft, and was more humiliated now by public revelation. She straightened up and stared at the older kids, but just as she began to speak, Linda sobbed even harder, and a rill of urine trickled from the back of her seat.

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  • RELIGION

    The Church is not beyond reproach

    • Frank Brennan
    • 23 November 2012
    1 Comment

    'Might not the chief problem with Church language in the public square be that we tend to come from a position of moral superiority, approaching those dreadfully compromised politicians who will do anything to be elected? The abuse crisis reminds us that the Church is not irreproachable.' Text from Fr Frank Brennan's presentation at the Anglican Church of Australia's Public Affairs Commission Conference, November 2012.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The Church should accept its humiliation

    • Michael Mullins
    • 19 November 2012
    62 Comments

    The Catholic Church’s hope for future credibility depends upon its ability to accept its current humiliation, and give glory instead to the sexual abuse victims it has humiliated. It tells its faithful to be like Christ, who ‘emptied himself, taking the form of a slave’ (Philippians 2). Cardinal Pell has failed, and Eureka Street has failed.

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  • RELIGION

    Advice to Bishops on Royal Commission

    • Geoffrey Robinson
    • 16 November 2012
    70 Comments

    There has been a bland assertion in places that obligatory celibacy has not in any way been a cause of abuse. Few people believe this assertion, and personally I find it impossible to deny that it has been a significant contributing factor. Unless obligatory celibacy is put on the table for discussion, the question will not go away.

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  • RELIGION

    Cycling and the Church out in the cold

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 22 October 2012
    22 Comments

    If the Catholic experience is any guide, the loss of trust in cycling will have lasting effects. Revelations of past drug taking and of official conniving will inhibit the regaining of trust. Measures taken to change the culture will long be viewed with scepticism. Public disdain is a cold environment to live in, but its air is healthy.

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