Articles

Abbott is cutting Australia adrift

29 Aug 2015  |  Author: Toni Hassan  | Theme: Civil society and politics; The Arts, Sciences and Culture

For a practicing Catholic supposedly bound to the teaching of his church, Tony Abbott appears to have little regard for one of its key tenets – the unity of humankind. Intense pragmatism has given him the space to divorce belief from behaviour. On climate change, he acts is if Australia is cut off from the rest of the planet. It's the same with international aid.
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Religion and violence: Myth and reality

28 Aug 2015  |  Author: Rt Rev'd Prof Stephen Pickard  | Theme: Public theology and ethics; Civil society and politics

Religion is the cause of violence. This is a popular point of view and one that is stubbornly resistant to change. Moreover I consider this belief extremely dangerous. Dangerous beliefs are those beliefs that actually propel people and communities to violence. For example, the belief that some people are more superior to others is a dangerous belief because it tends to generate violence. ‘Religion is the cause of violence’ is one such dangerous belief.
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The insights of Pope Francis in shaping Catholic health and aged care

26 Aug 2015  |  Author: Fr Frank Brennan  | Theme: Leadership and institutions; Public theology and ethics

These are hard times for the Catholic Church in Australia. Church attendance continues to decline. Those in the pews are not getting any younger. More of the able bodied priests are from overseas; they are missionaries who have come amongst us who are adapting to the concept that we are once again a mission land. The talent pool for future bishops is not what it was a generation or two ago. The royal commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse continues to fill us with dread that we have not yet adequately identified why the incidence of abuse reported in our institutions is higher than in other churches. The divisions amongst our bishops, previously unreported and unknown previously to many of the faithful, are disheartening. Just this week we have heard Bishop Geoffrey Robinson who was an auxiliary bishop to Cardinal Pell when he was archbishop of Sydney telling the royal commission that His Eminence 'had lost the support of the majority of his priests and that alone made him a most ineffective bishop'. Cardinal Pell is the most promoted Catholic cleric in Australian history. The point is not whether Bishop Robinson is right or wrong. The point is that we are part of a social institution which is suffering an acute loss of institutional coherence when an auxiliary bishop sees a need to make such a public statement about his erstwhile archbishop.
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The politics of popular evil and untrendy truth

26 Aug 2015  |  Author: Fr Frank Brennan  | Theme: Civil society and politics; Public theology and ethics

If you want to form government in Australia and if you want to lead the Australian people to be more generous, making more places available for refugees to resettle permanently in Australia, you first have to stop the boats. If you want to restore some equity to the means of choosing only some tens of thousands of refugees per annum for permanent residence in Australia from the tens of millions of people displaced in the world, you need to secure the borders. The untrendy truth is that not all asylum seekers have the right to enter Australia but that those who are in direct flight from persecution whether that be in Sri Lanka or Indonesia do, and that it is possible fairly readily (and even on the high seas) to draw a distinction between those in direct flight and those engaged in secondary movement understandably dissatisfied with the level of protection and the transparency of processing in transit countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. The popular evil is that political parties are rewarded for being tough on all asylum seekers and for excluding them from Australia unless they have first gained admission by invitation on receipt of a visa even if the visa be obtained by partial admission of the facts.
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Sex education: Start young and be frank

13 Aug 2015  |  Author: Toni Hassan  | Theme: Civil society and politics; Public theology and ethics

If we are serious about tackling interpersonal and family violence, work to prevent it has to start young. But how young? The answer is: as young as kindergarten, age five. That was the recommendation made this week by campaigner Rosie Batty in her appearance before Victoria's Royal Commission into Family Violence. It sits well with the evidence local groups have been amassing here in Canberra, where three women were killed by violent partners in quick succession earlier this year.
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