Sunday, May 21, 2006

thetruthdecoded

thetruthdecoded.org.au is the latest initiative of the Australian Catholic Students Association. Check out the site.

Effectively it is Australia’s response to The Da Vinci Code and contains the works of local and international academics as well as video footage of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney.

George Cardinal Pell officially launched the site last Friday night with his Auxiliary Bishop Julian Porteous providing the sites introduction. Porteous, who is also the Episcopal Vicar for Evangelisation and Renewal, said the website was “an integrated cultural, artistic, spiritual and intellectual response to the launch of The Da Vinci Code movie in Australia”.

National Patron Assoc. Prof. Tracey Rowland also provided an introduction.

Check out the site, use it as a resource, and tell friends and family. (It’s got to be worth the effort of creation!!)
Back after a delay, but will be intermittent posts from now until early July – after exams and major essays are completed.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Update on essay

It's 6.30pm and I've written 674 words out of 1500 for my Historiographical essay for Modern French History. It's due tomorrow afternoon.

I'm comparing the work of:

Maurice Larkin. Religion, Politics and Preferment in France Since 1890: La Belle Epoque and its Legacy (1995).

John McManners. Church and State in France 1870-1914 (1972).

They are both an interesting read and the texts complement each other a great deal. McManners giving the relationship between the Church and its leaders with the State while Larkin looks at the treatment of normal, lay Catholics.

Tomorrow is also my 21st Birthday... so I'd better not have to stay up too late.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Mr. Collins against Pell again...

You might recall the "defenders of orthodoxy's" submission to Rome complaining about His Emminence George Cardinal Pell earlier this year?

Well Mr. Paul Collins is at it again with an opinion piece in the budget edition of The Australian today.

Gotta love Collins. He got such whacky comments as this:
CATHOLICS who know how the church is organised in Australia are driven mad by the media presumption that George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, is the official spokesman for Australian Catholicism. He's not. If it's anyone, it's the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. Pell represents no one but himself and the archdiocese of Sydney.


Excuse me Mr. Collins (yes Mr.), George Pell is not only Archbishop of Sydney but a Prince of the Church and along with the Papal Nuncio, the Vatican's man in Australia!

Just a note in case you didn't realse how the church is organised from the Vatican.

Monday, May 08, 2006

American Conservative Youth Union

I like what I see here.

They are young and outrageous! Set for some fun at University/College!

You tell him straight!!

Thanks to American Papist for the tip off.

The rumour around the traps is that Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, had this to say about Cardinal Martini and his recent comments:

"The next time [Martini] comes to Rome I shall certainly demand an explanation of the transcript and I shall certainly get the happy news that some of his statements were misunderstood."


The full story is from Catholic World News in their Off the Record section

Morsus Marinus

Cypressus III is a friend of mine and has a poston his new blog about Gregorian Chant at the University of NSW. It seems he had Muslim girls singing the ferial tone Kyrie!

Top marks!

Saturday, May 06, 2006

And its probably been somewhat of a compromise...

Well, announced today the ACBC elected our Archbishop here in Adelaide, Philip Wilson as President of the ACBC.

Media release from the ACBC is here.

Paul Collins is calling it a slap-in-the-face for George Cardinal Pell and his " " view..... (see the Weekend Australian).

Wilson may not be 100% behind Pell & Co, but I can't see new Vice President Barry Hickey's views being much different from the Cardinals. He certainly makes a nice change from Bathersby who retains a spot on the main committee.

See yesterday's post for my predictions!!

Friday, May 05, 2006

Rumours for the ACBC

Rocco from Whispers in the Loggia has a post on the tip for the Australian Archdiocese of Canberra Goulbourn. His tip is Auxiliary Bishop Mark Coleridge of Melbourne but thats a pretty easy guess. There are a number of Adelaideans hoping it would be the Vicar General of Adelaide, Mgr David Cappo. Not for his "greatness" but to get him out of their hair!

Cappo has been appointed as the Commisioner for Mental Health by the State Labor Government and many people in politics are not happy. Reasons range from the doubling up of bureaucracy in the Ministry, to the closeness of Church/State, to the conservative Catholics who believe that it must contravene Canon Law.

Maybe more on the Cappo story down the track, but Coleridge would be a marvelous choice.

The retirement of Archbishop Frank Carroll will leave the Presidency of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference vacant (the ACBC are meeting this week). What moves will George Cardinal Pell and 'the good guys' do to consolidate their claim to the orthodoxy of Australia? Will the "faction" put up someone like Bish. Porteous (auxiliary bishop) for election or even the man himself? Or maybe a compromise will be selected like Arch. Wilson of Adelaide?

Pretty low for an Engineer...

I am nerdier than 32% of all people. Are you nerdier? Click here to find out!

Vatican Excomunicates Chinese 'Bishops'

abc News in the US reports that the Vatican has excommunicated four Chinese 'bishops' over the recent ordination.

They were the two bishops that were 'ordained' and the two that presided over the so-called ordination.

There are further news reports emerging on the WWW as I write...

Gay couple weds in Australia

See the ABC NEWS online report on the lesbian couple who wed in the British Consulate in Brisbane this afternoon:

Sharon Dane and Elaine Crump are dual Australian-British citizens, which lets them take advantage of new UK laws making gay civil partnerships legal.

They think it is ironic that Queensland, once renowned as one of Australia's most conservative states, will play host to their gay wedding.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Catholic Fashion

The Catholic Register has a story on fashion - Pure Fashion

"It's not just about fashion, a lot of it is teaching girls how to present themselves without feeling like they have to act like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton," said Morrow-Fick, 18, a student at St. Mary's College and the co-chair for Pure Fashion in Calgary.

Pure Fashion is a Catholic program that promotes modest dress for girls in grades 8 through 12.

Young women attend training sessions to learn about the virtues of modesty, purity and chastity, as well as the ins and outs of hair, make-up and posture. This all leads up to a fashion show where the girls model all that they've learned on the catwalk.



For the full story clickhere. Lads, it may be the chance for you to use the pick up line: "Sorry, but I couldn't help but notice how cute you look in that ankle-length, shapeless, plaid jumper." Although my favourite remains: "Haven't I seen your face on a Holy Card somewhere?"

ACSA update

All speakers have been confirmed and to add to the list from the previous post is Fr. Ephraem Chifley OP if Dominicanus fame. He will speak on literature and the classics in the hope that more students will attend Campion College in the future of which he is the Chaplain.

It could end up as a battle of the Dominicans and the Jesuits with Frs. Ephraem and Dom Murphy representing the Blackfriars and Frs. Fessio and Gregory Jordan (ACSAs National Chaplain) representing the SJs.

ACSAs website is in the process of being updated and will include an extensive list of links to informative websites about the Faith (mostly compiled by Yours Truly).

In the meantime you may wish to checkout our on-line journal Sentinel which contains a number of interesting articles including an interview with Dr. Michael Casey, Cardinal Pell's Personal Secretary among other things. There are articles by Yours Truly in both editions.

Sympathy?

What a fortnight this is/will continue to be!

Assessments at university in these two weeks include:

Heat Transfer – an assignment that’s not worth much in terms of grade percentages but needs to be done and will end up being over 20 pages long.

Engineering & the Environment (it’s not really a hippy environmental subject at all, but a general subject introducing a number of subjects that one can choose as electives the next year. It includes vibrations engineering, acoustics, noise control and some leftie stuff like eco-friendly design…). I have an assignment here too analysing a coffee maker from raw materials through production and use.

Mechatronics II – an assignment writing a program to control a X-Y plotter to write a letter of the alphabet.

Latin & Ancient Greek – study for a test this coming Friday. Includes present tense verbs; nouns in nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative and vocative cases; adjectives; adverbs; questions; and negatives.

History of Modern France – a tutorial presentation and an essay. The tute presentation is on anti-clericalism in the 19th Century under the Third Republic. The essay is a historiographical essay comparing the perspective of two books written at least 20 years apart. The topic I have chosen here is Church and State in France from 1890 to 1914.

Needless to say it’s a broad range of assessments in a range of subjects which keeps me keen.