A delegation of Australian Bishops has travelled to war-torn Ukraine to bring their closeness to the nation’s suffering people. According to the Bishops’ Conference website’s media blog, the delegation from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) made the pastoral visit to several Ukrainian cities on 8-11 August in an expression of solidarity with the country’s Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Archbishop Peter Comensoli’
Faith leaders appalled by treatment of sports club Christian CEO
Monday, October 10th, 2022
Leaders of several churches have been appalled by the treatment of Andrew Thorburn, who was forced to resign as CEO of AFL club Essendon when sermons by the church of which he is chairman became public. The sermons likened abortion to concentration camps and included claims that “practising homosexuality is a sin” – views which Read more
Australian religious discrimination bill to stop ‘cancel culture’
Monday, November 29th, 2021
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned that religious Australians should not be “cancelled, persecuted or vilified” because of their beliefs. Instead, Morrison insisted, people of faith must be defended from those who seek to marginalise and silence them. After tabling the government’s religious discrimination bill in parliament on Thursday, Morrison said faith groups and Read more
Australian PM revisits religious freedom fight
Thursday, November 18th, 2021
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has reignited the Australian religious freedom fight with a reworked bill protecting expressions of faith-based views even if they offend others. Morrison’s religious discrimination bill, a 2019 election pledge, will shield Australians from prosecution if they express reasonable and genuinely held faith-based views despite offending others. Senior government sources said the Read more
Vaccine mandates creating an “underclass of the unvaccinated” in Victoria
Thursday, November 4th, 2021
Australian religious leaders are broadly supportive of Covid-19 vaccinations, however they are concerned a vaccine mandate could create an underclass of the unvaccinated. While turning the unvaccinated away is a public health imperative, it is theologically very difficult for many religions. Father Peter Nguyen of St Dominic’s Catholic Church in Camberwell is grateful for an Read more
Another unneeded attack on religions says Melbourne’s Archbishop Comensoli
Thursday, November 4th, 2021
The Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Peter Comensoli, is speaking out against a new law aimed at religious organisations. Critical of State Governor, Daniel Andrews (pictured), Comensoli says the new Equal Opportunity Act (Religious Exceptions) reform proposes a new ‘inherent requirement’ test to replace current, well-working exemptions from anti-discrimination laws. This means an employer will have Read more
Melbourne archdiocese needs to restructure or ‘sink into the sunset’
Monday, July 19th, 2021
Melbourne Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli is facing dissent from within over ambitious plans to restructure the archdiocese. Comensoli told his diocesan clergy and parish lay leaders that the diocese is on a ‘threshold’ and either we do something or ‘sink into the sunset’. He conceded the church’s painful history and parishioners abandoning the pews had Read more
Aussies making it a crime to pray
Thursday, December 10th, 2020
A proposed law before Victoria’s state parliament seeks to criminalise any practices that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including prayer. Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli said any coercive practice “is an affront to human dignity.” He said he firmly rejects such harmful acts but added that “nobody is protected Read more
COVID-19 is changing the Church now
Thursday, April 2nd, 2020
An Australian archbishop says the COVID-19 epidemic is changing the way the Church evangelises. “This is not a theoretical discussion for the future but is happening in real-time”, says Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli. Comensoli says the epidemic is forcing the Church to be more creative in the way it reaches people. It is also reshaping Read more
Drastic overhaul called for Australia’s Catholic Church
Monday, September 2nd, 2019
Australia’s Catholic Church needs to completely overhaul itself following Cardinal George Pell’s sex abuse conviction. Hundreds of thousands of Catholics are pushing for the church to open itself to ordaining women, ending clericalism and enabling people who are LGBTI or divorced to be included more. Prominent Catholics are sounding alarm bells, warning the Church that Read more