On Saturday, I was travelling around the Catholic parish of Khompong Thom in Cambodia in company with the director of UCAN News, Australian Jesuit Fr Michael Kelly, and the parish priest, Thai Jesuit Fr Jub Phoktavi . As we drove through the village of Prek Sbeuv, Jub matter-of-factly pointed to Pol Pot’s old house. It Read more
Some Catholics think last year’s dismissal of William Morris as Bishop of Toowoomba is just a storm in a teacup about a recalcitrant country bishop, and that it is time we all moved on. This is a serious misreading of the signs of the times. Church structures need to be reformed to be more aligned with contemporary notions of justice and due process.
Ten months on, people are left confused as to whether Morris was sacked chiefly for what he wrote in his 2006 Advent letter about women’s ordination, for what was reported by the Apostolic Visitor, Archbishop Charles Chaput, or for what was reported to Rome by those sometimes described as ‘the temple police’. Now more details have come to light showing how threadbare and confused the processes were.
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In 1962, I moved from the Brigidine Convent at Indooroopilly in Brisbane to St Joseph’s College, Nudgee Junior, under the care of the Christian Brothers. I was an impressionable eight-year-old and was in grade 3. I well recall one of the brothers taking the class up to the top floor of the school. We gathered Read more
The following is from the text of Fr Frank Brennan SJ’s speech ‘Principles for a Coherent Refugee and Migration Policy’, presented to the Society of Independent Scholars, National Library of Australia, 3 November 2011. In 2009, I was privileged to chair the National Human Rights Consultation Committee. During that inquiry we commissioned some very detailed research Read more
A new internal report given to the Australian media discloses the Vatican tried to be rid of Toowoomba Bishop, William Morris, since 2006. According to the Catholic News Agency, the document also confirms that the Vatican removed Morris for abuses in the celebration of the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance and for advocating women’s Read more