To be taken seriously in the debate about climate change, it helps if the argument isn’t self-defeating, writes Tim Wallace.  The butterfly effect, the notion that the beating of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the world can lead to a storm in another, was coined to explain one of the more significant discoveries of the past century: that very small disturbances can have very large cons...

The days when Australian Catholics comprised a largely Irish underclass, while an English protestant establishment held a firm grip on who got the best-paying jobs, are long gone, according to research indicating Catholic men, on average, earn more than others. The study of the relationship between religious affiliation and remuneration, by Dr Michael Kortt, a business lecturer at Southern C...

The ideas of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich von Hayek have their place, but there is a spiritually richer tradition of economics to explore. Wilhelm von Ketteler The German theologian (1811-1877) and bishop of Mainz argued for the intervention of the Church to remove economic evils in the name of faith, morals and charity. The Catholic Church’s concept of property,...

Cardinal George Pell’s outspoken views on climate change put his intellectual credibility on the line, writes Tim Wallace Why has Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric taken such a stridently sceptical position on global warming? Is his resistance to the consensus scientific view that human activity is driving current warming another example of the same sense of religiious rectitude that...

The Adelaide archdiocese had gone “over and above” requirements of the Catholic Church’s national Towards Healing guidelines in response to sexual abuse allegations by Traditional Anglican primate John Hepworth, Adelaide’s Archbishop Philip Wilson has said. “We have followed the protocols of Towards Healing,” Archbishop Wilson told Adelaide’s Catholic newspaper, The Southern Cross, but becau...

With Egyptian human rights organisations estimating 93,000 Christians have fled Egypt since March, with 14,000 of them seeking sanctuary in Australia, there was a rare piece of bipartisanship in federal parliament last week as the House of Representatives took a break from bickering over refugees. The house voted unanimously on a private member’s motion to acknowledge the plight of Egypt’s C...

With studies showing that most couples do not feel that they experience emotional intimacy in their relationship, it is evident that a great marriage is not one that simply stays together, but one in which spouses experience deep personal communion with each other. But with every third marriage, according to current statistics, ending in divorce, young couples must wonder how, 30 years into ...

When confronted by a firestorm there are two courses of action: fight or flight. The latter is the most prudent; the former tenable only with advance preparation, including a fire-proof bunker to save your life when all else is lost.   A media firestorm, on the hand, requires a different response. The archdiocese of Adelaide is now dealing with the outbreak, on two separate fronts, of crit...

Deacons Marcello Parra, Wilson Donizetti and Antonio Scala were ordained to the Diaconate on Thursday 26 May. Photo: The Record/Peter Rosengren. Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey ordained three new deacons for the Archdiocese of Perth on Thursday evening 26 May before a congregation of approximately 300 people. The three candidates for the transitional diaconate kneel before Archbishop Hicke...

John Fahey was born on 3 October, 1883 at Rossmore, Co. Tipperary. He was educated at Mt Melleray and at Genoa. He was ordained on 25 May 1907 and arrived in Perth on 7 December of that year. He joined up on 8 September 1914 as a Chaplain and was assigned to the 11th Battalion. He reached Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. He was mentioned in dispatches and was awarded the DSO for “gallantry...