Planet Catholic

At a recent conference that brought together some of Australia’s leading Catholic communicators — and me — there was a lot of discussion about how to use the Internet, and particularly social media, to spread the Gospel message. One of the ideas that was discussed was the presence (or absence) of a Catholic presence in places like Second Life, the virtual online communities that I basically know nothing about. It’s an area that has a great following, though not as … Continue reading →

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Continuing this week’s gay marriage theme, but crossing the Atlantic and taking up the issue in the United Kingdom, we’ve been confronted with one of the great ironies that can sometimes exist in debates of this kind. “Tolerance” has become one of the most important catchcries of a range of progressive causes. You know how it goes: They say that we should be tolerant of people and allow them to live their own life however they please. The problem arises … Continue reading →

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After posting yesterday about President Obama’s so-called evolution on the issue of same-sex marriage, I also had the chance to chat with my friends Tim and Brendan Malone on the fallout from the announcement. On the latest episode of The View from Down Here, the three of us analysed the political ramifications of his decision, as well as the religious implications. How will socially conservative African American and Hispanic voters who might otherwise support Obama react to his revelation on … Continue reading →

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Hands up if you were surprised to learn last week that President Barack Obama supports same-sex marriage. Seeing no hands shooting up, I can assume, like me, no one else was fooled by Mr Obama’s former assertions that he didn’t support gay marriage. There was a time when he saw that it was politically dangerous to make a public declaration of those views, so he refrained from making that declaration. My question now though is this: Is now really the … Continue reading →

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Around the middle of each month, I “gather” with friends to record The 15th Station podcast. I hope you’ve all heard the show before. But this isn’t the often shameless plug I give to some of my other little Catholic projects. It’s to set the scene for today’s post. I think everyone has heard about the announcement last month from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and its comments on the views of some of the women religious … Continue reading →

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Often when we think about Christian music that has something of a pop flavour — and is therefore a little more likely to be listened to and enjoyed by younger people — we think of places like Hillsong here in Australia or Life Church in Auckland or the Parachute band, to name but a few. It at least seems true, and most likely is true in this part of the world at least, that we don’t have a great range … Continue reading →

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This remains one of my greatest bugbears: Journalists who just seem unwilling to research facts if it doesn’t suit the story they’re trying to tell. Colin Craig is a conservative politician in New Zealand. He’s so conservative, in fact, that he named the political party he founded the Conservative Party. He and a few fellow political aspirants contested last year’s election, and surprised most with how well they did despite not doing enough to be represented in Parliament. Colin is … Continue reading →

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Hi friends Sorry, it’ll be a brief post tonight because I’ve had an 11-hour day at work and I’m sick, but I wanted to share with you the video of the homily Bishop Anthony Fisher gave on Sunday at St Padre Pio Parish, the parish formerly run by married priest Fr Kevin Lee. Bishop Fisher speaks clearly but with a great deal of compassion as he addresses a community that — like him — is going through a range of … Continue reading →

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I feel like a broken record sometimes, but there are some issues that really drive me nuts and, for some reason, my constant complaining about them doesn’t lead to people changing their behaviour. How rude. Today’s rant — I mean post — is about the media’s laziness in reporting, and especially in writing headlines. Again, I’m sorry if I’m boring anyone, but the media has a fascination with the Catholic Church in the way it reports on the comments of … Continue reading →

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Each year around this time, US universities and colleges are holding their graduation ceremonies. And with that comes the controversy of who should — and shouldn’t — be allowed to speak at the graduation ceremonies at Catholic universities around the country. In 2009, just a few months after taking office, President Barack Obama was invited to give the commencement at the University of Notre Dame, probably the most famous Catholic university in the US — possibly the most famous Catholic … Continue reading →

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Last September, I was in Adelaide with fellow practitioners in the field of Catholic communications — mostly editors of diocesan newspapers in Australia and New Zealand and communications managers. As the conference was coming to a close, a big Catholic news story was breaking when the head of the Traditional Anglican Communion accused a Catholic priest of having raped him when the former was a seminarian 40-odd years earlier. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I was at … Continue reading →

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Ironically, my recent silence on The Catholic Soapbox has been because I’ve been busy learning about blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other means by which we can use new media to spread the message of Christ — something that Icon Media, the company that owns The Catholic Soapbox, was set up to seek to achieve. Others can be the judge of whether The Soapbox, our brother blog Being Frank and our podcast network The 15th Station is actually doing anything to … Continue reading →

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One of the biggest Catholic stories of the year has been unfolding over the past week and because of work commitments and a bout of illness I haven’t yet been able to blog about it. The story is, as the headline above suggests, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s recent rapping over the knuckles of some of the female religious orders in the United States. Now, as I said on The View from Down Here earlier this week, … Continue reading →

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People of faith around the world, and seemingly Christians more than anyone else, are fighting a number of important battles that are seen to be of great importance. One that is often raging is the battle with secular forces over the place of Christian thought and Christian prayer in society today. I’ve blogged before about how prayers in public places are often challenged by atheists/humanists/”rationalists”/secularists and are more often than not ordered to be removed. The foundational principles of Christianity … Continue reading →

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A couple of weeks ago I posted about Bubba Watson, the man who won this year’s Masters golf tournament. Winning on Easter Sunday was a big deal for a devout Christian man like Bubba. My post back then was entitled “God and golf”. I’ve found reason to combine those two loves of mine again, albeit in a more lighthearted fashion this time. In fact, this is a joke my mum sent me, and it revolves around a golf-loving priest — … Continue reading →

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When I was chatting with my friends Brendan and Tim Malone last week on our podcast The View from Down Here, one of the Christchurch boys made a passing reference to a cardboard cathedral. It rang a vague bell, but I wasn’t entirely sure what they were on about. Well, now I do know. The headline reads “New Zealand: plans for a cardboard cathedral” Now, if/when you read that headline, wouldn’t you think it was some sort of joke? Well, … Continue reading →

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I’ve often heard it said that in some countries, the two largest religious groups are Catholics and former Catholics. It is a fact that there are plenty of Catholics who have either actively left the Church — for another Christian or non-Christian faith — or drifted away from the Church and are, at best, cultural Catholics. Now, I don’t begrudge anyone their freedom to leave any faith. How could I? But it is a phenomenon that the Catholic Church has … Continue reading →

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I think it’s safe to say that everyone wants to be popular. It seems to be something that develops quite early. During primary school, kids are already mindful of the stigma and loneliness that comes with being unpopular, so there is a desire to avoid such a fate. It continues on through one’s life for many, many years, and it’s likely that some people never grow out of it. People in positions of power and influence, though, are often people … Continue reading →

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I wrote last week about the highly anticipated and subsequently much maligned debate between Richard Dawkins and Cardinal George Pell. I was one of those who was decidedly unimpressed by both men and their inability to do much to advance the discussion. Well, largely because they’re interesting and also because I’m pushed for time today, I thought I’d share a couple of opinion pieces that have generated a lot of dicsussion on the issue of belief versus non-belief/atheism. Atheism and … Continue reading →

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It’s a time of great excitement at the Vatican as Pope Benedict marks a double celebration with his 85th birthday followed quickly by the seventh anniversary of his installation as Pope. A busy few days, without doubt. But it seems every year around this time, as Benedict continues his rise up the list of the oldest popes ever, it starts chins wagging as people ask a couple of questions. Is Pope Benedict still up to the job? Might Pope Benedict … Continue reading →

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