Standing in the Sistine Chapel under Michelangelo’s famous ceiling frescoes, people are reminded that the world was created by God in a supreme act of love, Pope Benedict XVI said. “With a unique expressive intensity,” the Pope said, Michelangelo depicted the power and majesty of God the creator in a way that proclaimed “the world is not the product of darkness, chaos or absurdity, but d...

Western nations must resist the pressure to “scapegoat, abandon, even kill, the elderly as a cost-cutting measure,” an Australian bishop said in a major bioethics lecture. Bishop Anthony Fisher of Parramatta, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said health economists and utilitarian philosophers were placing the elderly at risk by treating them as a “swarm of voracious but unwor...

Twenty five fortunate Year 11 and 12 Irene McCormack Catholic College Students and four staff made the 9,300km trip to China this year, experiencing the history and culture of a unique and ancient land. The tour took them through Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai, visiting many famous landmarks including Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall of China, the Ming Tombs, the Summer ...

Kolbe Catholic College staff member, Leanne Joyce was holed up in Lourdes with her fellow pilgrims and City Beach parish priest, Fr Don Kettle when flash flooding hit the region on Saturday, October 20. It resulted in the first halting of processions to the shrine in 25 years. The pilgrim group began their pilgrimage at Fatima, and then went on to Montserrat. At the time of printin...

Proclaiming seven new saints - including St Kateri Tekakwitha and St Marianne Cope - Pope Benedict XVI said they are examples to the world of total dedication to Christ and tireless service to others. In a revised canonisation rite on October 21, the Pope prayed for guidance that the Church would not “err in a matter of such importance” as he used his authority to state that the seven are wi...

By Francis Rocca When Blessed John Paul II launched the project he called the new evangelisation, he made it clear that it was aimed above all at reviving the ancient faith of an increasingly faithless West: “countries and nations where religion and the Christian life were formerly flourishing,” now menaced by a “constant spreading of religious indifference, secularism and atheism.” T...

The increase of restrictions on religion are up worldwide – and, for the first time, those restrictions increased markedly in the US, according to a new report by a leading researcher of religious trends. For the US, it was the first time in the study’s four-year history that both government restrictions and social hostility were up by at least one point on a scale of 0 to 10, according ...

By John Thavis Fifty years after the close of the Second Vatican Council, the deep transformation it set in motion continues to reverberate through the Church at every level, from the halls of the Vatican to the pews of local parishes. The council’s four sessions from 1962 to 1965 and its 16 landmark documents modernised the liturgy, renewed the priesthood and religious life, enhanced...

The makers of a Bollywood film featuring scenes Indian Christians claimed were ‘blasphemous’ and ‘offensive’ have voluntarily agreed to remove them for its cinema release. The move follows protests and outrage from Christian leaders last week, coming a week after violent protests in the Islamic world in response to an American film which insulted the prophet Mohammed. Bishop of Vasai,...

By Doreen Abi Raad Christian and Muslim leaders in Lebanon called for the formation of a legal committee to protect all religions. In a statement following a Muslim-Christian summit on September 25 at Bkerke, the seat of the Maronite Catholic church, north of Beirut, religious leaders also condemned the “Innocence of Muslims” film. They denounced “violent reactions that led to inno...