Cardinal discusses role of priests, Bishops, need for unity within Church.     Cardinal Francis George, right. Photo: CNS.                               By Patricia Zapor Catholic News Service BALTIMO...

An Australian Catholic Bishop who was himself once an Anglican discusses the ramifications of Pope Benedict XVI’s historic decision for the Catholic Church in Australia   By Anthony Barich National Reporter     Lismore Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett, an Anglican convert who has emerged as a frontrunner to lead an Ordinariate. Photo: Anthony Bar...

E-conference delivers the goods as specialists throughout the country contribute.     Archbishop Mark Coleridge.   By Anthony Barich National Reporter THE Gospel has been domesticated so that Catholics too often brush over the significance of key events in Jesus’ life, Canberra-Goulburn Archbishop Mark Coleridge told the e-conference on...

Church factions need to work together says director of the Edmund Rice Institute of Social Justice. By Robert Hiini Parish Reporter Social justice needs to be compelling and credible to the average person for the sake of those suffering poverty and abuse, says Edmund Rice Institute of Social Justice (ERISJ) Director, David Freeman. His organisation has just completed a series of s...

This week's priest: Fr Anthony Van Dyke OP, spiritual director extraordinaire.     Fr Anthony Van Dyke OP. Photo: Anthony Barich.   By Anthony Barich When young people tell Dominican Father Anthony Van Dyke that Mass is boring and praying is monotonous, he agrees – that it’s boring to them. But once they delve into the mys...

Click on the front page to begin your download. This week: - Women's group wants female deacons - UK Anglicans make their move - Notre Dame Centre of Ethics to trigger curriculum rethink - Vatican defends sex abuse response - Vatican denounces EU ruling against crucifixes in schools - NFP: non-Catholics at 80 percent - How new look Perth Archdiocese website came to be - This week'...

Debbie Warrier: How I became Catholic Ben La Roux speaks about his quiet fascination with the faith, culminating in his becoming Catholic in 2005.   Fr John Flader: Q&A - Limbo of the fathers What happened to all those saints in the Old Testament when they died, prior to the coming of Christ?   Fr Erasto Fernandez SSS: Do this in memory of me? ...

Vatican envoy to UN defends Church’s response to sex abuse Archbishop Silvano Tomasi By Sarah Delaney Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The Vatican has defended its response to the problem of sexual abuse of children by priests, saying that the Church had been “cleaning its own house” and that other religions and institutions were similarly tainted. ...

UK Anglicans have taken formal steps to take up Benedict XVI's offer of inclusion.     Sr Catherine Grace Bowen, left, Sr Mary Joan Walker, Mother Christina Christie and Sr Hannah Smith, All Saints’ Sisters of the Poor, exchange the sign of peace during their reception into the Catholic Church on September 3 in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The former Episco...

Successful inclusion of abortion ban spells success for health bill in US congress.     Fr Norman Weslin, a priest of the Diocese of Ponce, Puerto Rico, who is working in the US, lies prostrate outside the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, on Capitol Hill during a protest against proposed health care reform legislation in Washington on November 5. Ph...