pathways, June 09
The model of a multiculturalist
Sharing our paradoxes
Virtual pilgrimage blog
Icon of the Territory dies
Vale Thomas Berry CP
The future of priests and nuns
Vietnamese community servant honoured
New powers for bishops to 'sack' priests
The model of a multiculturalist
Jerzy Zubrzycki helped defuse one of Hitler's V2 rockets, advised Pope John Paul II on possible ways to "build a society worthy of man" and is widely regarded as the father of Australian multiculturalism.
He believed that his native Poland had erred grievously before World War II by not embracing the various ethnic and religious groups. Coming to Australia, he drew on the folly of war to help shape multiculturalism in what had been an Anglo-Celtic society. He grew concerned that the bipartisan policy was sometimes used for political purposes but he remained a passionate supporter of its principles
Sharing our paradoxes
Paradoxes torment the ruthlessly logical. But they lie at the heart of religious faith, indeed perhaps of any insight. According to Fr Herman Roborgh SJ the scriptures of both Islam and Christianity are full of paradoxes. In this
Province Express article, he points to five paradoxes that are shared by Christian and Muslim scripture.
Virtual pilgrimage blog
Archbishop Mark Coleridge (Canberra and Goulburn) will be blogging on the road as he traces the steps of the great Apostle Paul with a pilgrimage group travelling through Greece, Turkey and Italy. The pilgrimage, from June 16 to July 2, will take 36 people to the landmarks and communities significant to St Paul's life and mission.
Blog followers will be able to take part in their own "virtual pilgrimage" as Archbishop Coleridge, Archbishop Francis Carroll and Centacare CEO Neil Harrigan share their daily adventures, reflections, photos and videos while on the road. Readers will also be invited to send in their prayer requests and well-wishes to the pilgrimage group and share their own reflections and thoughts on the posts.
The group will travel through Athens, Mykonos and Rhodes in Greece and visiting Patmos and Kusadasi in Turkey. The pilgrimage will end in Rome at a Mass with Pope Benedict XVI celebrating the end of the Year of St Paul.
Icon of the Territory dies
Brother Rexford John Pye MSC, the Northern Territory's longest serving missionary and the world-wide MSC Society's senior member, died in Darwin on Friday, May 29, aged 102.
Bishop Eugene Hurley, in his tribute to Brother John, spoke of him as an "icon of the Territory" who had won the love and respect of the Aboriginal people for his work on the Tiwi Islands, Port Keats (Wadeye) and Daly River (Nauiyu). "He was a great religious brother who committed his life to serving other people".
Vale Thomas Berry CP
Passionist priest and acclaimed cultural historian Thomas Berry died in Well-Spring Retirement Community, Greensboro N.C, on June 1. He was 94.
Berry was one the 20th-century's most probing thinkers on the human relationship with the natural world and its implications for religion. Rather than a theologian, Berry considered himself a cosmologist and "geologian," an Earth scholar.
The future of priests and nuns
What is the future of priests and nuns, given the frequent reports of systematic abuse of children in their care?
Melbourne and Boston-based Maryanne Confoy RSC, author of Religious Life and Priesthood, examines the current state of priests, nuns and brothers 50 years after the commencement of Vatican II. Fr David Ranson who teaches spirituality at the Catholic Institute of Sydney explains how he counsels priests in light of 'the death of their profession' in The Spirit of Things with Rachael Kohn.
Vietnamese community servant honoured
Australian Jesuit Fr Nguyen Duc Thu of Richmond has been given a Queen's Birthday Honour. It acknowledges his long-standing service to Australia's Vietnamese community.
New powers for bishops to 'sack' priests
The Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy is to give bishops new powers that will make it easier to discipline priests. The measures will speed up the process of laicisation for priests who are living with women, have left active ministry for several years or who have engaged in seriously scandalous behaviour. Cases involving clerical sex abuse will be dealt with separately.
The move is also aimed at restoring credibility, confidence and prestige in a celibate priesthood in the light of a growing number of sexual scandals involving Catholic clergy, including bishops. It is being made public as Pope Benedict XVI prepares to launch the Year for Priests, writes Robert Mickens for The Tablet.
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