American political spirituality II… Tom McMahon is on his best behaviour today endeavouring to write a fair and balanced overview on the Republican Convention. His own sympathies are with the Democrats, and he's upfront in admitting that but he also discloses a latent admiration for John McCain. At the end of the commentary we also provide links to a couple of other "political" stories worth reading today. [more]

The Road Paul Travelled to Conversion… Today's commentary by Dr Ian Elmer might be likened to an attempt to climb into the mind of St Paul. Trying to place ourselves back 2000 years and really understand how St Paul self-understood his conversation experience. While Dr Elmer admits his way of doing this might be conditioned by his own experience of life nevertheless he also suggests that undertaking an exercise like this helps us to a better understanding of the "conversion experience" we are called to as followers of Jesus Christ... [more]

A model for re-unifying the Christian church… As regular readers of Catholica by now well appreciate, our regular Tuesday lead commentator, Dr Andrew Thomas Kania, has become a passionate advocate for the Eastern rite Catholic churches who maintain their communion with the Latin Church headquartered in Rome. This week he has taken his advocacy to a new level scoring the lead story in The Tablet with a passionate commentary urging the Latin Church to pay greater heed to the universality and 'catholic' nature of Catholicism. It's an article that extends beyond simple advocacy for the Eastern churches and urges all of us to re-discover the depth, beauty and universality of our faith. Catholica is strongly supportive of the particular calls Dr Kania is making in his advocacy on behalf of Eastern Catholics in general and the Ukrainian Catholic Church in particular. We also believe there are themes in Dr Kania's expositions that might profitably be taken up within the Latin Rite Church to the benefit of its local churches around the world. You'll find a link to Dr Kania's article in The Tablet at the conclusion of today's editorial. We invite you to return and share your views on Dr Kania's article and the editorial in our forum. [more]

Congratulations… There is no formal lead commentary today for the reasons disclosed by the editor in our forum [See: Post #16486]. The editor did put an extended post on the forum last night though drawing attention to the celebrations yesterday of the Sisters of St Joseph Lochinvar of their 125th Anniversary and posing a few questions regarding the future of religious congregations in this country. [more]

A discussion on how we bring about true reconciliation… There is much discussion on our forum, on other discussion boards and in the media about this latest spate of sexual abuse stories to hit the headlines. Today's Wednesday Forum endeavours to open up discussion firstly on why issues suddenly become so public like this. Secondly, and more importantly, it endeavours to open up discussion about how we (any community) brings about reconciliation when there have been transgressions and injustices. We Catholics ought have much wisdom on the subject of reconciliation. [more]

Faith: an antidote to fear… It seems an intrinsic part of the human condition that we are plagued by anxiety and fear. In today's commentary Dr Andrew Kania with help from some quite illustrious thinkers, both ancient and modern, examines this challenge that all humans are called upon to surmount. In what legitimate ways can we look to Jesus, and our faith, as the antidote to fear? [more]

An allegory… In a very different style to his first commentary for Catholica Vinnie Nauheimer's contribution today comes in the form of an allegory written around Dante Alighieri's 14th Century allegory of the Inferno of Hell that has so shaped our thinking from his classic work in literature, The Divine Comedy. [more]

Is Jesus just for human beings? Ian's commentary today explores some pretty serious territory albeit that our headline might be a little tongue in cheek. He argues, and asks: "in recent years we have moved away from the atonement model of salvation to a more sacramental one, which views Jesus' life, death and resurrection as the primordial sign of God's encounter with humanity. On this view the question would be, 'Does God invite other beings into the same relationship as that to which humanity is called?' An important facet of this discussion turns on the notion of Christ as universally significant." Originally published: 08 Sep 2007 [more]