Today Australia is awash with politicians who identify or are identified as Catholic. Anthony Albanese is a Catholic. Down the Eastern seaboard, the three state premiers, Dominic Perrottet (NSW), Daniel Andrews (Victoria) and Peter Malinauskas (SA) are Catholics. There are many other high-profile Catholics at ministerial level and as opposition leaders. Others, like Queensland Premier, Read more
After a year of disruptions with severe social and economic impacts for us individually and collectively, we need to hold on to hope. We are all dealing with Covid—no one is excluded from this experience. We know the grief of these times; those with secure incomes have had greater security, while those without this have Read more
Religion forms a moral foundation for billions of people throughout the world. In a 2019 survey, 44% of Americans – along with 45% of people across 34 nations – said that belief in God is necessary “to be moral and have good values.” So what happens to a person’s morality and values when they lose Read more
France is the most rigorously secular state of the democratic world. Separation of Church and State enshrined in the famous 1905 law was the result of over a century of hostility between the Catholic Church and the French State. Mutual hostility began with the 1789 French Revolution. Until then monarchical France bathed in the glory Read more
At a recent Hastings District Council meeting, a councillor said kindness, empathy and compassion were among the values needed to help prevent youth suicides. Cr Henare O’Keefe made the comments during a council committee meeting to discuss an update of a suicide prevention plan written by the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board. Read more
As wake-up calls go, you couldn’t really ask for anything louder than this. Two facts about contemporary Australia seem to me to be so significant, they constitute the clearest possible warning about the direction our society is taking. Fact #1 We are experiencing a mental health crisis and, in particular an epidemic of anxiety, with Read more
The term ‘personality politics’ has been thrown around this election more than in others. I can see why people don’t want politics to be all about personality. Our age is dominated by a celebrity culture that’s often superficial. People rightly don’t want superficial selfishness to seep into our politics. We want politics to be a Read more
Near the opening of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man(1916), James Joyce’s alter ego Stephen Dedalus opens the flyleaf of his geography textbook and examines what he has written there: Stephen Dedalus Class of Elements Clongowes Wood College Sallins County Kildare Ireland Europe The World The Universe Most of us will, no doubt, remember Read more
There’s something in religious tradition that helps people be ethical. But it isn’t actually their belief in God. A couple of years ago, the idea of God came up, in an incidental way, in the Contemporary Moral Theory course I teach. I generally try not to reveal my particular beliefs and commitments too early in Read more
Throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, an increasing number of families, parishes, schools and communities are learning about and reflecting on the commitment of the people of Parihaka to open community discussion and peaceful action. Parihaka is a community approximately 55 Kilometres southwest of New Plymouth. In the 1870s and 80s, under the leadership of Tohu and Read more