The relevance of St Paul to today…

Dear Friends,

Ian Elmer today takes us back before St Paul's conversion on he road to Damascus to explore the nature of his conversion not just from the point of view of scholarly or historical interest. The trasnformation in the outlook of St Paul has sharp lessons for the Church of today. And you can attribute any brevity from me today to the fact that my flu has returned with avengance and today's edition has been put together under duress. For weekly readers you might notice that our masthead has been updated. It reflects the increasing international diversity of our readership as I explained in a post in the forum on Friday. <Link to Ian's commentary>

Here's something to cheer your catholic spirits this Friday … Ted Schmidt, Editor of Canada's independent Catholic online magazine, new catholic times sensus fidelium suggests we look to artists like Bruce Springsteen for "the Church of the big tent" — the one that welcomes all aboard this train — the one that contrasts with the Church of "the little flock" the fans of Benedict's vision seem so insistent on leading us to. <more>

The legacy of Dr Peter Tannock… The recently retired Vice-Chancellor of the University of Notre Dame Australia, Dr Peter Tannock, leaves behind an enviable legacy in what he has achieved for the Catholic Church in this country in the realms of the infrastructure of primary, secondary and tertiary education. Today's lead commentary by Dr Michael Furtado was triggered by Dr Furtado coming across the interview the editor of Catholica recorded with Dr Tannock, originally for OnLine Catholics, but now also archived on Catholica [LINK]. Dr Furtado has had a long scholarly interest in the deeper questions of policy direction that have perhaps not been as easily raised and discussed when policy direction was almost single mindedly under the control of one man who was able to sway prime ministers to his vision as easily as he could Cardinals and Archbishops — albeit there might have been many others in positions of responsibility on commissions, governing bodies, and even amongst overseeing bishops, but they largely learned to dance to the Tannock baton with a not surprising appreciation of knowing who had the skills to deliver the funding arrangements without which no ideas can sing. Dr Furtado argues that with fewer of the poor having access to Catholic Education in this country today it is time to start asking some questions about policy direction. <more>

Why is community important to our individual journey? Today's Wednesday Forum seeks to open up a discussion on the part that community plays in our lives. It's been triggered in part by some ideas the editor has been reading in Robert Tilley's book, "Benedict XVI and the Search for Truth" but also by a number of recent threads in our forum. In particular a remark that Francis made yesterday in the forum: "The outline Brian gave us of what he sees for Catholica presents wonderful challenges and I, for one, am willing to take them up. The idea of community, in particular, is great. I note that there must be a multitude of reasons why people would join in either reading or contributing to Catholica. However I suggest that ultimately we seek an assurance that the path we follow is leading to the Truth." Benedict argues that we derive that assurance through the community we belong to. But what sort of "community" are we talking about here? That is the crucial question — and that's the question the editor essentially throwing up for discussion today. <more>

It is better for one man to die for the people (Jn 18:14)! This is a meaty commentary from Dr Andrew Kania valuable at a number of levels. Firstly it is simply a good summary of another of those classics in literature, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. The heart of the commentary though is an exploration of the thinking of an important French philosopher, René Girard, who came up with a new way of understanding Jesus Christ and why he was killed. Dr Kania, through the works of Dostoyevsky and Girard, explores the role played by scapegoats in human behaviour. If Jesus Christ arrived to live in our community tomorrow would we "follow the mob" and treat him as a scapegoat also? <more>

A 'must read' commentary from Fr Tom Doyle… Today we publish an abridged version of what is probably the hardest-edged commentary we've yet published on Catholica. It is of an address Fr Tom Doyle gave to the annual gathering of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) in Chicago on 13 July 2008. The paper might be of particular interest to readers of Catholica Australia for two reasons: Firstly, it is one of the most comprehensive discussions you're likely to find anywhere on the steps that are necessary to bring the maximum possible healing to victims of abuse. Allied to that what Fr Doyle has to say might provide valuable insights for any person who is dealing with the effects of abuse, either as a victim or a person endeavouring to provide support to victims. Secondly, the necessary discussion on the nature of priesthood and the nature of the Church Tom Doyle engages in provides a wealth a valuable reflections that dovetail in exceedingly well with the on-going discussion we've been having on priesthood. While Fr Doyle largely raises these issues in the negative context of what went wrong, when viewed in a positive light they also shed light on what needs to be done to bring about a more effective priesthood that can better minister to the needs ot people today. The commentary also contains a link to the full version of his paper (approx 11,000 words) <more>

Jesus as first teacher… Tom McMahon's "Polar Express" is sort of paused-between-stations today. It's really a continuation of his commentary last week on the meaning of marriage today — where did it come from? He's also got some powerful stuff to say about the changing self-perceptions of women and how that played such a vital part in our changing understanding. He puts forward an interesting view of Jesus portrayed as our archetypal mom and dad — our "first teacher". <more>

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life or in our world!

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher