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As David Marr reminded us in his 2012 Quarterly Essay, Political Animal: the Making of Tony Abbott, Abbott’s Catholicism was groomed by the highly charismatic and worldly Emmet Costello, the priest he met as a 16-year-old. It went on to flourish under the tutelage of Bob Santamaria. Abbott was and is on a mission from Read more
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The Roman Catholic Church will allow priests all over the world to grant forgiveness for abortion. This announcement came from Pope Francis at the end of the Jubilee of Mercy – a holy year dedicated to forgiveness. When the holy year concluded on Nov. 20, Pope Francis made permanent the permission that he had provisionally Read more
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A Dominican sister whose comments at a US Catholic school about sexuality ignited a storm has cancelled speaking engagements and has gone on leave. On March 21, Sr Jane Dominic Laurel, a Nashville Dominican sister, told students at Charlotte Catholic High School that studies have shown that gays and lesbians are not born with same-sex Read more
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As Pope Francis reaches out to Catholics across the globe to re-energise the Catholic faith, the vast majority of Catholics, world-wide, disagree with Church teaching about contraception, divorce and abortion, but agree with traditional marriage. These are some of the findings of a world-wide poll commissioned in 12 countries, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Read more
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The archdiocese of Washington, DC, has accused the Obama administration in the United States of engaging in a “conscious political strategy to marginalise and delegitimise” Catholic teachings on contraception “by holding them up for ridicule on the national stage”. The accusation is in a lawsuit in which the archdiocese contests the administration’s intention to force Read more
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The third and final installment in a series on social justice in Catholic social doctrine: When the Italian Jesuit Father Luigi Taparelli D’Azeglio (1793-1862) coined the term “social justice” in the middle of the 19th century, he probably could not have foreseen its mention in an 1894 curial document and a 1904 encyclical, nor the Read more
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A campaign by a pseudo-Catholic group from the United States to promote condoms to Kenyans has been condemned by the country’s Catholic bishops. The group called Catholics for Choice says its billboard and newspaper advertising campaign gives “an authentically Catholic message”. The “Good Catholics Use Condoms” advertisements show a smiling couple with the wording: “We Read more
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A public opinion poll in the United States has shown a significant gap between what the Catholic Church teaches and what American Catholics actually believe. Asked if they believe the pope is infallible when he teaches on matters of morality or faith, only 40 per cent of the total sample (and 45 per cent of Read more
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Pope Benedict XVI has asked bishops to take greater steps to ensure that Catholic charities operating in their dioceses adhere to Catholic teaching and retain their Catholic identity. The Pope said it is the duty of diocesan bishops and parish priests to see that the faithful “are not led into error of misunderstanding” through charitable Read more
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Cara Pozolo identifies herself as a member of the Catholic faith, but said she doesn’t always agree with all of the church’s teachings. Pozolo, a senior at the University of Notre Dame, is one of many students who find themselves struggling to accept some of the Catholic church’s beliefs. These students are not alone. A Read more
Mr Alex McNaughten