The causes of Indigenous disadvantage, manifested in a scandalously low life expectancy rate 17 to 20 years lower than that of other Australians and lower standards of health, education, employment and housing are many and complex. In the lead up to National ‘Close the Gap’ Day on April 2, Caritas Australia invites people to tackle the root causes of Indigenous inequality by supporting Caritas partners in the small coastal town of Derby 200km north of Broome.
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NCP Members please contact the NCP National Office at national.office@ncp.catholic.org.au for your online subscription.
Sculptor, Tom Bass dies
Dr Thomas Dwyer Bass, the famous Sydney sculptor, died on February 26, 2010. Among his many works was an altar sculptured for his daughter’s wedding at Neutral Bay. Fr Ted Kennedy befriended Tom Bass during Bass’ search for God in the Catholic Church.
Father Frank Brennan appointed advocate for disadvantaged
Father Frank Brennan, Jesuit priest and Professor of Law at Australian Catholic University (ACU), has been appointed an official advocate to raise awareness and drive change for the health and welfare of disadvantaged Australians.
Re-membering beauty – a reflection on priesthood in the Year of the Priest
“A priest is not a special kind of man; a person is a special kind of priest” noted Tom Bass, the Sydney sculptor, as he reflected on his journey through Christianity some years ago. (Sunday Arts, ABC TV 19/11/2006) In the year of the priest this comment reminds me that the primary understanding of priesthood in the Catholic Church begins with that shared by all the baptised.
Puzzling reflections on the Year of the Priest
During this Year of the Priest, I’ve been reading up on the history of the priesthood. This reading has brought up some puzzling reflections. According to eminent scholars such as Raymond Brown and Kenan Osborne there were no priests as we understand the word in the early church. “The early Church did not use the liturgical or sacred title of ‘priest’…”
An open letter from the youth of Australia
In this Year for Priests, as the church reflects and acknowledges the immense gift that priests are to the church and the wider world, we as leaders of the Young Christian Students and Young Christian Workers would like to thank them for their patient wisdom as chaplains who have made major contributions to the YCS and YCW in Australia.
The virtue of defiance
Defiance expresses itself in a dance of attachment and separation that has three movements. The first movement, called affiance, leads us from attachment into engagement. It’s the dance of the affianced who seek deep relationship and communion. From our earliest days and all through life, we desire to become and remain affianced; to parents and family, to friends and lovers, to church, culture and nation.
Saluti da Roma
My studies in Rome are at an Italian university – the Pontifical Gregorian University, and thus my classes are all in Italian. So my first 3 months in Italy invloved undertaking an intensive 3 month course in the Italian language. This was 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, with homework. It was exhausting, but I learned a lot. By the end of the course, the school I attended (the Michelangelo Institute) regarded my Italian as quite good.
On Greeking and English
There have been so many versions of the Bible in English from the ancient Greek that one wonders (in English, of course) what contemporary Greek scholarship might make of the ancient Greek in which Bible texts have been handed down. It is to be not so much a Knoxian-style exercise in ‘Englishing the Greek’ as an idiosyncratic exercise in ‘Greeking the English’.
Caught on Camera
Ian Farrar, Marketing Manager for The Tablet Publishing Company, recently met with the NCP Executive at the National Office in Belmont. They struck a great deal for NCP Members on annual subscriptions.
