I write to you having recently celebrated the feast of Christ the King. Whilst this feast does indeed acknowledge Jesus as King of our lives and universe, scholars acknowledge the historical reasons for introduction of this feast in 1925 as a response to a time of political upheaval in Europe…
The cave at Bethlehem – a caveat
G K Chesterton once wrote that Christianity may be right or it may be wrong, but it is uniquely right or wrong. Alone among the world’s faiths Christianity has as pivotal to its understanding of God’s revelation to humanity the historical fact of the birth of a baby in a stable in an outlying province of the Roman Empire.
Local church disempowerment
We would like to thank the editors of The Swag for inviting Jeff Scully to write such a splendid article in the last edition of The Swag. Reflecting on the Apostolic Visitator’s appointment by the Congregation for Bishops to investigate the Bishop of Jeff’s diocese, Bill Morris, he asked the church of Australia some pertinent questions…
Gracious Gaels
I enclose a copy of a letter I received a few weeks ago. I was greatly affirmed by it. I thought that you might be impressed enough to share it because it’s not just a Scottish thing but one that, I’m sure, represents Australian parish caring…
Back to Trent
The easing of permission for the Tridentine Rite is surely a great leap backward. Mind you, this is not a matter for levity in the eyes of the Vatican. It is serious business as the unfortunate Cardinal Archbishop of Manila discovered when he announced that after consulting his clergy there was no need for a Latin Mass in the diocese. He was very smartly put in his place by those experts in pastoral practice in the Vatican.
Dear Swag team…
Dear Swag team, a note to say thanks for a wonderful Spring 2009 issue
Vatican opens door to groups of conservative Anglicans
Pope Benedict XVI has created a new canonical structure that opens the door to what could amount to a half a million Anglicans and some 60 of their bishops entering into full communion with Rome.
Cardinal Bertone: It’s time to reach out to priests “put to the side”
The Year for Priests is also for those men who have left priestly ministry, according to Benedict XVI’s secretary of state. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone made this observation in the L’Osservatore Romano, in an interview that also explains how the Year for Priests became a reality.
Rollback of Vatican II dismissed
The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has dismissed fears that Pope Benedict XVI plans to roll back major ecclesial changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council.
US diocese in abuse scandal files for bankruptcy
The diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, just hours before it would have faced the first in a long series of lawsuits over clergy sexual abuse.
