It's not every day that you find a secular journalist addressing a room full of Catholic media professionals on the topic of God. Yet that's what Sheridan does.

When he made the resilient minority comment, he was addressing the Australasian Catholic Press Association Conference (APAC) in Melbourne.

A born and bred Catholic, this experienced journalist has been the foreign editor at "The Australian" newspaper for 30 years.

"I've never had any trouble with belief. I've had the most enormous trouble with living up to the most elementary standards of Christian life. So, naturally, I became a journalist," he said, to much laughter from a room full of Catholic journalists and communicators.

Sheridan says he enjoys using his privileged position in the media to talk about the "taboo subject" of Christianity.

In his 45 years as a journalist he said he's seen a profound culture change from being nominally pro-Christian from when he came into the business.

He says society has moved from being nominally pro-Christian to a type of neutrality to being "seriously hostile to the Christian religion now, and especially the Christian churches". The reality of this hostility is "just overwhelming, unavoidable, incontestable".

"We're not persecuted in the way that Christians in Pakistan or China or much of Africa are, but the culture is very hostile to Christianity," he said.

"Of course journalism is about the search for a good story and you want to search for the truth, and it turns out the biggest truth of all is Christianity and the best story is Christianity.

"[But] if you leave the discussion of ultimate truth, the spiritual life, only to the morally qualified, it tends to be a very small discussion.

"So anyway, I finally jumped in, put my toe in the water... Coming out, so to speak, as a Christian has been nothing but fun.

"I think more Christians should do this, more Christians should own their faith publicly.

"Fellow Christians need their public solidarity, that we don't get now from the public and media generally. And non-Christians need to be alerted to the truth. They need to have the truth of Christ's presence announced to them, in the culture."

Today's media and culture neglects Christians and portrays them entirely negatively, he says.

"Coming out, so to speak, as a Christian has been nothing but fun. All Christians should own their faith publicly. Fellow Christians need the public solidarity which we don't get now from the media generally and non-Christians need to be alerted to the truth, and have the truth of Christ's presence announced to them in the culture."

The culture journalists are operating in today is becoming post-Christian, Christian and pre-Christian simultaneously, he says.

Sheridan sees hope in millennials.

"Neo-paganism is not good for Christianity. But on the other hand, its adherents are not immune to Christianity the way the baby boomers were.

". . . They (millennials) know absolutely nothing about it (Christianity). And that means they are able to be approached, and we can sell to them."

They don't hate Christianity as the "boring practice of their parents and grandparents", they're simply indifferent to it.

As a "bold minority", Sheridan says minorities have rights and "we should demand our rights, not for ourselves but for the truth.

"It's a difficult environment but it's also a fun environment; as my friends in the air force would say, it's a target-rich environment."

Source

• New Zealand Catholic
• The Southern Cross

The Pope's prayer video, released this week, opens showing scenes of a television studio, recording studio, writing desks and satellites, which flash across the screen as the Pope speaks. Read more

A Vatican court acquitted two Italian journalists whose books contained material from leaked confidential financial documents.

The court ruled it did not have jurisdiction over Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi.

But Msgr Lucio Vallejo Balda will get an 18 month prison sentence for leaking documents.

Francesca Chaouqui was given a 10 month suspended sentence.

The court decided her role was one of encouraging the leaks.

Prosecutors had earlier described her as the instigator of the leaks and had recommended a long jail sentence.

Msgr Balda's secretary, Nicola Maio, was acquitted at the conclusion of the trial which started last November.

The five defendants were being tried under a new law created by Pope Francis to criminalise leaking.

Breaking this law carries a maximum eight-year prison sentence.

Both Ms Chaouqui and Msgr Balda had been appointed by Pope Francis to serve on a high-level commission to overhaul the Vatican's finances.

Nuzzi's book, Merchants in the Temple, and Fittipaldi's book, Avarice, focused on the irregularities uncovered by the commission.

Widespread financial mismanagement inside the Holy See was revealed.

Also revealed were embarrassing details about the canonisation process, which costs up to €500,000 and the size of cardinals' apartments.

Msgr Balda, who has been under house arrest, is likely to serve his sentence in one of the handful of the Vatican's prison cells.

It has been speculated, however, that the Pope might pardon him during the Year of Mercy.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Catholic Herald
• Image: The Tablet

The trial has been adjourned for three months to enable computer experts to recover deleted email, text and WhatsApp messages between some of the accused.

Francesca Chaouqui, a pregnant former PR adviser to the Vatican and one of the accused, has been granted the right to call as witnesses Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, and Cardinal Santo Abril y Castello.

Chaouqui has been accused of conspiring with Spanish priest Lucio Vallejo Balda and his assistant Nicola Maio, to leak secret documents they had access to as members of a commission appointed by Pope Francis to spearhead a financial clean-up shortly after his election in 2013.

The two journalists on trial, Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi, have published books based on the documents at the heart of the trial.

All five accused have been prosecuted under anti-leaks legislation, which could see them receive prison terms of between four and eight years.

The Vatican has been criticized by press freedom groups for pursuing the prosecution of the two journalists, who say they were only doing their jobs by revealing problems that believers and the broader public have a right to know about.

Sources

AFP/Yahoo News
The Irish Times
ANSA
Image: ANSA

She is short story author and journalist, Sara Vui Talitu, the woman behind popular books such as "Guilty Rain" and "Ma'a."

"It's a way for me to encourage the young writers to be sincere, humble and to write out of necessity to say something important," she says.

Ms Talitu encouraged the students to be creative and write their own stories.

The New Zealand-born Samoan has a solid broadcasting background having worked with the Radio New Zealand International as a journalist, sub-editor and newsreader for ten long years.

Talitu has two Masters degrees from the University of Auckland as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism from the University of Canterbury. Her reporting interests include Pacific issues, women, business and health.

Source

• Samoa Observer
• Image: Samoa Observer

It will impose licensing for journalists and a narrow definition of a "journalist" and potentially bars foreign journalists.

Journalists are expected to fall into line with the government's media definitions and foreign reporters could be blocked at the country's borders.

Parliament passed the law on May 6 that impacts on the press and rights of freedom of speech.

The President, Taur Matan Ruak, has 30 days to examine the law and has the right to veto it and send it back to Parliament with any concerns he may have.

The law is available in Portuguese, which only a limited number of the Timor-Leste population understands, and the indigenous national language Tetun.

Source

• Pacific.Scoop
• Image: Shannon Gillies/PMC

Shakespeare put it succinctly - ‘If you pay everyone what they deserve, would anyone ever escape a whipping?'

Jesus was even more direct - ‘Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.' We will be judged, as we have judged others.

Frankly, that scares me, as I look back on my life from the standpoint of the last quarter of my life. We need to be generous in judging others, not solely from self-interest, but because our innate sense of fair play, imprinted by our Creator God, gives us a feeling of well-being when we do. We only have to reflect on our feelings of ‘rightness' or of ‘dis-ease' to find where God is acting in our lives, as St Ignatius teaches. Our consciences can be stifled by being disregarded, in the constant battle to keep afloat in a harsh world, but this dismal scenario is not the only one.

We have only to look at what is happening beneath government level in local communities everywhere. People are giving their time, their skills, yes, even their money, to make our world a fairer place for those who need assistance at particular times in their lives.

There are community gardens, language and NZ culture classes for refugees and new migrants, grannies who help new parents with young children, the transition-towns network, Catholic Social Services, community health centres, Downtown Community Ministry, the night shelter for men and initiatives to provide something similar for women.

All these and more are involving many of us, often with minimal or decreasing support from government. In times of fiscal austerity, you can be sure it is the ‘poor who have to pay' to supposedly keep our economy going. We do have the ability to change our society, if we only have the desire. ‘Power to the people' is not an empty slogan, but it needs prayer, tenacity and perseverance to effect change. The YCW dictum, see, judge, act has much relevance. Look at a situation objectively, judge whether it is just, and act to change it, in accordance with Catholic social justice principles. If all this seems to be too hard, join with others. Be inspired by the Sermon on the Mount - it is all set out clearly for us. With the Spirit's guidance, we can fulfil our Creator's plans for us and for all of creation, the mission we were entrusted with at our baptism.

Tricia Kane is a retired librarian and a grandmother