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 »
Religion and Faith
In recent weeks there has been talk of the prospect of a Muslim party being formed to contest the next federal election. The prime minister has responded by saying he did not want Australia to go down the road of faith-based political parties. Since then, several commentators have mentioned that Australia has been down that Continue reading »
“Why did GOUGH GO OFF like that?” the satirical OZ magazine asked in June 1966 after the Rt Rev. Hugh Rowland Gough had resigned as Anglican Archbishop of Sydney and Primate of Australia. The official statement had mentioned ill health. Readers of the Sydney press discerned that more was afoot than Gough’s need for a good lie-down. Continue reading »
What is it about the Australian Jewish community, Australian Jewish ‘faith’ schools and Israel? Israel is another country, with its own raison d’être, decidedly blood-soaked. The young Israel had been created out of settler colonialism and terrorism in a country with a majority indigenous non-Jewish population. Australian Jewish families are Australian with a long history. Continue reading »
The Census is important because it tells us so much about ourselves. But the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is complicating the data we collect on religion. The Australian public service is positively benign compared its US counterpart. I know how Kafkaesque the US is because I’ve had several years dealing with them in terms Continue reading »
Analysing contemporary Catholicism requires a bit more knowledge than merely quoting a couple of reactionary Catholics – as does a recent New Statesman article. Eighty-seven-year-old Pope Francis has recently been in trouble over LGBTQ+ issues. Late-last year he faced an outright revolt from African Catholics after approving the blessing of same sex couples and individuals. Continue reading »
Ruling institutions — the state, the press, the church, the courts, universities — mouth the language of morality, but they serve the structures of power, no matter how venal, which provide them with money, status and authority. This is a sermon the author gave Sunday, April 28 at a service held at the encampment for Continue reading »
The regimes in Israel and Palestine both claim to be victims in the violence that engulfs them. Interpreting the situation through “victimhood” assists in understanding the human forces that arise from age-old conflicts and that continue to cause so much horrific suffering. Pope Francis is calling on people of goodwill to raise their voices for Continue reading »
In the end as at the beginning all that really matters is how we treat one another. This song of knowing is in our hearts and of our hearts. It whispers of better times. A daily life that can be calmer. Kinder, not something to worry about. Where the healing of memories is subtle but Continue reading »
The neo-traditionalists have been sent a clear message by Pope Francis that their dismissal of synodality, and their disruptive behaviour do violence to the very nature of the Church itself and thereby damage the Reign of God. For Pope Francis, synodality is ‘one of the most precious legacies of the Second Vatican Council’ and the Continue reading »