New rules have been made for the way the Methodist, Anglican and Catholic Churches in New Zealand work towards Christian unity. Cardinal John Dew attended the Forum for National Dialogue for Christian Unity, where the rules were formally accepted. A celebration of prayer followed afterwards. Continue reading
Posts Tagged ‘Catholic’
Confession of a girl who came home
Friday, February 12th, 2016
This is my confession. I was tricked into accepting God back into my life. Yes, you read that right, I was tricked. Duped. Hoodwinked. Bamboozled – or perhaps more accurately, I was enticed by fireworks. After all, simple things amuse simple minds and as soon as my friend told me they were doing backyard fireworks Read more
Being Catholic is cool again
Friday, February 5th, 2016
When I was 17 years old I wanted to convert to Buddhism. Raised by a Catholic family and forced to attend religious education classes until I was almost 13, I’d had enough of what I perceived to be an overly-conservative institution that relied on “Catholic guilt” and strict adherence to doctrine. So, I sought out Read more
Priest who survived ISIS
Tuesday, December 15th, 2015
A Syrian priest held hostage for months by the ISIS terrorist group is certain his life was saved due to his interfaith work, despite being threatened with beheading by jihadists if he did not renounce Christianity. The Rev. Jacques Mourad, a Syriac Catholic priest, was taken hostage in May from the Mar Moussa monastery, situated Read more
Why popes don’t always get what they want
Friday, December 4th, 2015
In my last column I argued that it would be foolish to ignore the signs that Pope Francis has been giving for almost two years concerning the admission of the divorced and civilly remarried to Holy Communion. Furthermore, after the synod his close advisers have made clear their expectation that the Holy Father will change Read more
Catholic revolution in France
Friday, November 27th, 2015
When many think about France and religion today, the images that usually come to mind are those of a highly secular society with a growing Islamic presence: a combination of widespread indifferentism, epicurean Voltairans, persistent anti-Semitism, increasingly radicalized Muslims, and now jihadist-inspired and organized terrorism. But now even some secular French journalists have started writing Read more
Remaining Catholic in the face of tragedy
Friday, November 6th, 2015
How can you spend your workdays chronicling thousands of cases of Catholic priestly sexual abuse — and still remain a Catholic? Before the release of “Spotlight,” the movie detailing the massive abuse cover-up in Boston, I asked that of Anne Barrett Doyle and Terry McKiernan. They’re co-directors of BishopAccountability.org, which documents that abuse from an Read more
Why Pope Francis is not an anti-capitalist greenie
Friday, November 6th, 2015
I was visiting Canberra’s splendid Arboretum the other day and I ran into an historian who is not one of us. He greeted me: “That new pope of yours is doing quite well, isn’t he? I don’t know that he will show us the road to paradise but he has definitely opened a few doors Read more
Who won the Synod?
Friday, October 30th, 2015
Nobody, of course, because there weren’t two “sides” or camps or (heaven help us) factions or anything so nasty as all that. It was all a dialogue, a moment of encounter and discernment, an opening to the Holy Spirit that set the Roman Catholic Church free to be church in a new way for the Read more
Nostra Aetate and Catholic-Jewish relations
Tuesday, October 27th, 2015
Fifty years ago this Wednesday, the Vatican issued a declaration that established a new rapport between Jews and Catholics. On the eve of this anniversary, the Anti-Defamation League — founded to protect Jewish lives and rights — called the Church’s approval of Nostra Aetate “arguably the most important moment in modern Jewish-Christian relations.” How so? Read more