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Keywords: Geoffrey Robinson

  • AUSTRALIA

    Why Pope Francis is not an anti-Capitalist greenie

    • Frank Brennan
    • 23 October 2015
    4 Comments

    Francis knows there are all sorts of issues inside and outside the Church where for too long people with power have tried to keep the lid on, in the hope that the problems and complexities will go away, often by parodying those who see the problems or complexities as small 'l' liberals or cafeteria Catholics. He delights in being joyful and troubled while contemplating big problems, calling people of good will to the table of deliberation reminding them of the kernel of the Christian gospels. He has the faith and hope needed to lift the lid without fear and without knowing the answers prior to the dialogue occurring.

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  • The insights of Pope Francis in shaping Catholic health and aged care

    • Frank Brennan
    • 26 August 2015
    7 Comments

    When addressing Italian doctors last November, Pope Francis quoted St. Camillus de Lellis who suggested that the most effective method in caring for the sick was simply to 'Put more heart into those hands.' Let's do something to change the market settings and political settings here in Australia to modify the behaviour of all Australians in the future, and let's attend to our own Franciscan interior ecological conversion with our care for the vulnerable.

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  • Maintaining the humanity of the public square

    • Greg O'Kelly
    • 01 July 2015
    3 Comments

    The phrase 'the public square' is peppered throughout Frank Brennan's work. The 1988 film Cinema Paradiso depicts the public square in a Sicilian village over 30 or so years, and its slow and subtle change from a place where human beings gather to laugh, play and discuss. Billboards and garish signs appear and it becomes a car park bereft of its humanity.

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  • RELIGION

    Why Bishop Morris was sacked

    • Frank Brennan
    • 24 June 2014
    53 Comments

    'My one new insight from reading Bill's book is that he was sacked because he was too much a team player with his local church ... the Romans hoped to shatter the morale and direction of those who had planned the pastoral strategies of a country diocese stretched to the limits as a Eucharistic community soon to be deprived of priests in the Roman mould.' Frank Brennan launches Benedict, Me and the Cardinals Three by Bishop William Morris.

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  • RELIGION

    Pilgrims walk with shadow of Church abuse

    • Ailsa Piper
    • 07 August 2013
    18 Comments

    His casual tone didn't seem to fit the words I was translating from Spanish. I questioned him. Eight? Yes, eight. Every night? Every night. Finally I could no longer deny what I was hearing. Decades earlier, my amigo's then eight-year-old brother had been abused by a religious man of the cloth. My amigo was here walking the Camino Mozárabe in memory of that brother, who eventually had committed suicide.

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  • RELIGION

    Reshaping the Church with Bishop Robinson and Pope Francis

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 25 July 2013
    26 Comments

    Robinson's recent book on the culture of the Catholic Church critiques the factors that have contributed to clerical sexual abuse of children. Robinson desires institutional changes, yet institutional changes are insufficient unless relationships and attitudes change. In this there is a happy conjunction between Robinson's project and the way of proceeding of Pope Francis.

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  • RELIGION

    Best of 2012: Feminists and gay Christians who accept the Church

    • Kristina Keneally
    • 07 January 2013
    35 Comments

    Recently Catherine Deveny tweeted that my claim to be a Catholic and a feminist showed I was 'suffering serious cognitive dissonance'. Many gay Christians are confronted by a similar lack of understanding from non-believers who can't understand why they would embrace a Church that rejects them. Friday 8 June 

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  • RELIGION

    Confessional debate is a Royal Commission red herring

    • Chris McGillion
    • 29 November 2012
    43 Comments

    It is inconceivable that Catholic authorities would countenance the state interfering in the sacramental life of the Church. And any attempt to do so would quickly turn into an issue of freedom of religion. If the Royal Commission were to go down that path it could quickly find it had bitten off much more than it can chew.

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  • RELIGION

    On breaking the seal of confession

    • Geoffrey Robinson
    • 23 November 2012
    34 Comments

    In 52 years as a priest I have never had to face a conflict situation over the seal of the confessional and sexual abuse. I pray that I never face a situation where I was convinced an innocent minor would be abused unless I broke the seal. I would find it impossibly difficult to live with that abuse on my conscience. 

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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

    Why the Church should thank the media

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 15 November 2012
    52 Comments

    Cardinal Pell argued this week that the Church has been unfairly vilified by the media. But the media has done the Church a favour in bringing this issue to light. Until the Church can provide a proper account of its misdeeds and point to real commitments to victims, the attacks will justifiably continue.

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  • RELIGION

    Royal Commission a sign of the times for the Church

    • Pat Power
    • 14 November 2012
    61 Comments

    Fifty years ago, Pope John XXIII called Catholics to 'read the signs of the times' to bring the light of the Gospel on to every aspect of the life of the Church. Unless women and married people are made part of Church governance, there will continue to be a lack of balance and reality in its teaching, especially around sexuality.

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