So much about the Catholic Church is anathema to the secular world, and that’s part of the reason why some people find the Church a bit weird. It’s also a reason why many people who are put in charge of reporting on the Church are so inept at covering it — they just don’t understand and don’t seem interested in trying to understand. As they say, though, a picture says a thousand words. In that case, the 18,000 words that … Continue reading →

At a recent conference that brought together some of Australia’s leading Catholic communicators — and me — there was a lot of discussion about how to use the Internet, and particularly social media, to spread the Gospel message. One of the ideas that was discussed was the presence (or absence) of a Catholic presence in places like Second Life, the virtual online communities that I basically know nothing about. It’s an area that has a great following, though not as … Continue reading →

Continuing this week’s gay marriage theme, but crossing the Atlantic and taking up the issue in the United Kingdom, we’ve been confronted with one of the great ironies that can sometimes exist in debates of this kind. “Tolerance” has become one of the most important catchcries of a range of progressive causes. You know how it goes: They say that we should be tolerant of people and allow them to live their own life however they please. The problem arises … Continue reading →

After posting yesterday about President Obama’s so-called evolution on the issue of same-sex marriage, I also had the chance to chat with my friends Tim and Brendan Malone on the fallout from the announcement. On the latest episode of The View from Down Here, the three of us analysed the political ramifications of his decision, as well as the religious implications. How will socially conservative African American and Hispanic voters who might otherwise support Obama react to his revelation on … Continue reading →

Hands up if you were surprised to learn last week that President Barack Obama supports same-sex marriage. Seeing no hands shooting up, I can assume, like me, no one else was fooled by Mr Obama’s former assertions that he didn’t support gay marriage. There was a time when he saw that it was politically dangerous to make a public declaration of those views, so he refrained from making that declaration. My question now though is this: Is now really the … Continue reading →

Around the middle of each month, I “gather” with friends to record The 15th Station podcast. I hope you’ve all heard the show before. But this isn’t the often shameless plug I give to some of my other little Catholic projects. It’s to set the scene for today’s post. I think everyone has heard about the announcement last month from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and its comments on the views of some of the women religious … Continue reading →

Often when we think about Christian music that has something of a pop flavour — and is therefore a little more likely to be listened to and enjoyed by younger people — we think of places like Hillsong here in Australia or Life Church in Auckland or the Parachute band, to name but a few. It at least seems true, and most likely is true in this part of the world at least, that we don’t have a great range … Continue reading →

This remains one of my greatest bugbears: Journalists who just seem unwilling to research facts if it doesn’t suit the story they’re trying to tell. Colin Craig is a conservative politician in New Zealand. He’s so conservative, in fact, that he named the political party he founded the Conservative Party. He and a few fellow political aspirants contested last year’s election, and surprised most with how well they did despite not doing enough to be represented in Parliament. Colin is … Continue reading →

Hi friends Sorry, it’ll be a brief post tonight because I’ve had an 11-hour day at work and I’m sick, but I wanted to share with you the video of the homily Bishop Anthony Fisher gave on Sunday at St Padre Pio Parish, the parish formerly run by married priest Fr Kevin Lee. Bishop Fisher speaks clearly but with a great deal of compassion as he addresses a community that — like him — is going through a range of … Continue reading →

I feel like a broken record sometimes, but there are some issues that really drive me nuts and, for some reason, my constant complaining about them doesn’t lead to people changing their behaviour. How rude. Today’s rant — I mean post — is about the media’s laziness in reporting, and especially in writing headlines. Again, I’m sorry if I’m boring anyone, but the media has a fascination with the Catholic Church in the way it reports on the comments of … Continue reading →