After the birth of our fourth child, I visited the medical clinic for a routine examination. My doctor asked if either my husband or I had undergone sterilisation, to which I responded with a horrified negative. Sensing he’d offended me, he apologised. Then he asked a standard post-partum check-up question: what did we plan to use for contraception? I was tempted to launch into a w...

It is amazing the way that the same-sex marriage debate has taken such a stranglehold on discussion and commentary in Western society. Who would have thought that in the space of just a few years popular opinion could swift to such a degree that to simply hold marriage as the union of a man and a woman could be labelled as intolerant? Yet this is where we are at. One recent move for a...

My Vocation with Fr Quang Van Nguyen I found my vocation by chance. I was in Year 11 and after studying I needed a break. I went out into the backyard. The moon was full and it was a beautiful night. I thought of all the people out there – loved ones, friends and people I didn’t know. I wondered if they paid attention to God and the beauty of his creation. I felt I needed to praise...

Recently you wrote about the supposed “new” seven deadly sins and you mentioned the traditional ones in passing. Can you write a little more about the traditional ones and tell me where they come from and why they are important? The phrase “seven deadly sins” is well known and has found its way into secular culture, with a television series and books making use of the title, and numerous...

By Cindy Wooden Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a renowned biblical scholar and former archbishop of Milan, who died on August 31 at the age of 85 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, retired as archbishop of Milan in 2002, where he was known as a strong pastor and administrator, and as a very careful, thoughtful advocate of wider discussion and dialogue on some delicate a...

With several published books to his name and a passion for ancient civilizations, Dr Martin Drum lecturer in politics and international relations at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle, tells The Record, why he admires Julius Caesar how he would fare in the Roman army and why he would cannot do without his hat on a deserted island. Which politician living or dead do you admire the ...

It's been one of the most controversial moves in US politics for years. A White House policy that came into effect in August requires faith-based institutions, along with other employers, to provide health insurance for their employees that fully covers contraception, sterilisation and drugs that can act as abortifacients. Vigorous Catholic opposition led to claims there is a “war on women”...

One of the outstanding features of St Mary’s Cathedral is its major pipe organ, usually referred to as ‘the Dodd organ.’ Cathedral music director Jacinta Jakovcevic reflects on the difference its installation in 1910 made to the musical culture of Perth – religious and secular – at the time. The mighty Dodd Organ in St Mary’s Cathedral at Victoria Square in the heart of Perth’s central b...

Music is in his blood, it’s been a part of his life for as long as he can remember; from singing in the car with his father to being a part of St Mary’s Cathedral choir. He graduated from WAPPA and has an album titled Tenebrae Reflections under his belt, Cameron Van Reyk tells The Record  what songs he has on his ipod, what being part of the ‘Lumina’ means to him and how his one year old ne...

When American astronaut Neil Armstrong passed away on August 25 just days after turning 82 the whole world stopped, just as it had on  July 21, 1969, when Armstrong descended the ladder of the Eagle lunar lander and set foot on the moon. On hearing the news of Armstrong’s death, millions of people around the world were taken back, in an instant, to the event which seemed, for three days,...