This week I read an article in Al Jazeera describing the killing in one day of hundreds of Palestinian civilians. The same day I read a piece in CNN, “Israeli soldiers returning from war struggle with trauma and suicide”. The article tried to elicit sympathy for soldiers who were traumatised from bulldozing Palestinians. According to Continue reading »
Religion and Faith
Nihon Hidankyo, Japan’s nationwide organisation of atomic bomb survivors, was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. The award announcement said one reason the organisation received the award was that the personal testimony of its members has advanced “stigmatising the use of nuclear weapons.” When Nihon Hidankyo’s award was announced on Oct. 11, I recalled the visit Continue reading »
Pope Francis has called upon Church authorities to cooperate with civil authorities in relation to child sexual abuse by Church personnel. When it comes to the Vatican cooperating, it is a different story. Continue reading »
“Haredim, not Arabs or Iran, are the biggest threat to Israel’, Dan Perry, 2021 Introduction: demography is destiny The Haredim community represents the deeply religious, ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel. They currently (2023) represent 13.5 percent of the total population of Israel. In about 40 years, their relative size will rise to 31.3 percent (see Figure Continue reading »
Eighty-seven-year-old Pope Francis’ trip to Indonesia, Papua-New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore shows he’s not slowing up. One thing you can say about Pope Francis is that he walks the walk, even if it’s in a wheelchair. The recent visit to Indonesia illustrates this. Eighty-seven percent of Indonesia’s population of 283 million is Muslim; 3.1% are Continue reading »
The Second Session of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality is now just weeks away. Opinions differ markedly among reformers about its trajectory so far. Some are deeply disillusioned and fearful. Others see evidence of real progress even if change is slow and incremental. The views of the former were represented in a recent editorial Continue reading »
“Everything begins with a dream” – Rumi This dream stays with me as we observe more days this week in which the decisions of various leaderships, who seem never to meet each other, kill other people and their children; destroying homes and communities. Through the UN Secretary General there is to be a UN Summit Continue reading »
On Wednesday 31 July we listened to two people who were speaking to us from near Hebron, where Abraham and Sarah are buried. We listened as news came through of an even further escalation in the hate, violence and suffering in and around the land called ‘holy’. As it happens, I helped host this immediately Continue reading »
“Another world is not only possible, she’s on her way… On a quiet day, if I listen carefully, I can hear her breathing” – Arundhati Roy. Sitting on a beautiful Australian beach with his partner, my friend Graeme was reading St. Augustine. Not a usual beach practice but seemingly providential. Reading a section in which Continue reading »
Based on the response to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) proposed change to the religion question for the 2026 census, religious groups are singing from the same misprinted hymn sheet. Paul Collins’ recent article, “Religion and the census” (Pearls and Irritations, 8 June 2024), serves as a faithful echo of the article published by Continue reading »