News Briefs

Private comes before public – Budget 06 responses

Filmic fiction – The Da Vinci Code

Restructure of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference

Landmark meeting – Catholic Bishops and Islamic leaders

Overseas organisations protest to Australian Government

Peace is not assured - Darfur

Revised norms in sex-abuse cases

Private comes before public

For many sick and chronically ill people on pensions, personal tax cuts would come second to a better funded public hospital and social services system, according to Catholic Health Australia (CHA).

“Unfortunately, sick and chronically ill people are still at the mercy of state and territory governments who seek to shift costs to patients which are rightly the responsibility of the community,” CHA Executive Officer, Mr Francis Sullivan, said, in response to the 2006 Federal Budget.  “Tax cuts will only ease half the problem and certainly will make little or no difference for those on pensions.  Without proper health reform and even with tax cuts, the sick and chronically ill face a future of rising fees and eroding Medicare benefits. Australia’s social safety net is eroding and the plight of those who rely exclusively on public services and social service programs are being drowned out by the clamour for tax cuts.”

Mr Sullivan said that the budget would provide some real relief to families and patients heavily reliant on health services and facing a steady increase in user charges from doctors, pharmacists and allied health professionals.  He welcomed the $1.9 billion mental health investment package as a first instalment in “what must become an on-going comprehensive strategy to assist people with mental illness to participate more fully in everyday life”.  The medical research investment, he said, was far-sighted and sensible and added that he would wait with interest the new funding package to accompany the introduction of the new funding allocation instrument for aged care, in the middle of 2007.

Catholic Social Services Executive Director, Mr Frank Quinlan, said that at first glance the Budget contained welcome initiatives to assist some needy Australians, but poverty and disadvantage would still exist alongside unprecedented national wealth in Australia. As community groups had been excluded from the usual pre-budget briefings, more time was needed to analyse the full implications of the Budget, he said.

Filmic fiction

Film critic and cinematography expert Dr Richard Leonard sj will give an interpretation of the film version of Dan Brown’s controversial book, TheDa Vinci Code, at a public lecture in Melbourne next Monday just days after the release of the movie.  Dr Leonard, a graduate of the London Film School, Covent Garden, was awarded a PhD in cinema studies from the University of Melbourne, in 2004. He is the Director of the Australian Catholic Film Office and lectures in cinema and theology at the United Faulty of Theology.  He recently published Movies That Matter:  Reading film in the light of Christian faith (Loyola University Press, Chicago – distributed by John Garrett, Australia).  The public lecture, Filmic fiction:  Dan Brown’s favour to Christianity, will be held at The Oratory, Newman College, 887 Swanston Street, Parkville, from 5- 6pm. It is being sponsored by the Academic Centre, St Mary’s College and Newman College, University of Melbourne.

Meanwhile, The Da Vinci Code is featured in this week’s Religion and Ethics, in which Kim Lawton reports on religious reaction to Dan Brown's blockbuster novel and its upcoming film release, and goes behind-the-scenes of the Opus Dei headquarters in New York for a closer look at the controversial Catholic organization portrayed as the book's chief villain.  The feature highlights views from several different perspectives including a popular evangelical author Mr Lee Strobel; Dean of Yale University Divinity School, Dr Harold Attridge; author of The Gnostic Gospels, Ms Elaine Pagels; Opus Dei spokeswoman, Ms Terri Carron; and National Catholic Reporter Rome correspondent, John Allen Jrn.  The site also has links to an extensive array of related material.  One is the extended interview between Lawton and Allen, on Opus Dei.

The release of the film is also the subject of The Tablet’s editorial, which suggests that a little bit of common sense would go down well.

And, there is the Australian Bishops’ contribution to the blockbuster carry-on, with Archbishop Barry Hickey, of Perth, saying: “The Catholic Church in Australia welcomes any  interest in Jesus Christ that has been generated by The Da Vinci Code  and offers (a) compilation of resources to help you navigate your way through  any confusion caused by the false claims in the story-line.”

The movie opens in Australia on May 18.

Restructure to allow better pastoral response

The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference has been restructured to allow the bishops to better address pastoral issues of national importance when they meet at their twice-yearly plenary meetings.  According to a pastoral letter issued on May 11, the work of conference and the responsibility of the bishops will be spread more evenly while the reconfiguration of the ACBC will streamline the committees and agencies which serve the conference.

The 19 Bishops’ Committees have been replaced with 12 Bishops’ Commissions: Doctrine and Morals (chaired by Cardinal George Pell, Sydney); Liturgy (Bishop Mark Coleridge, Melbourne); Mission and Faith Formation (Archbishop John Bathesby, Brisbane); Catholic Education (Bishop Gerard Holohan, Bunbury); Pastoral Life (Bishop Eugene Hurley, Port Pirie); Relations with Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (Archbishop Barry Hickey, Perth); Justice and Service (Bishop Christopher Toohey, Wilcannia-Forbes); Church Ministry (Bishop Michael Malone, Maitland-Newcastle); Caritas (Archbishop Adrian Doyle, Hobart); Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations (Bishop Michael Putney, Townsville); Administration and Information (Archbishop Denis Hart, Melbourne); and Canon Law (Bishop Peter Connors,  Ballarat).  The promise of the new structure is more flexibility to respond to current and emerging needs within the Church, allowing the bishops to “respond creatively to those needs, in close collaboration with clergy, religious and lay people”.

Landmark meeting

The Catholic Bishops of Australia invited a group of Islamic leaders to their Sydney plenary meeting, to have lunch together, to engage in interfaith dialogue and to visit the tomb of Blessed Mary Mackillop.   Bishop Issam Darwish, the Melkite Bishop in Australia, welcomed the Islamic delegation and said the meeting was one of the fruits of the Australian Christian-Muslim Friendship Society, formed some years ago.   The delegation included Sheikh Yahia Safi, Sheikh Kamal Mouselmani (the Australian representative of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council of Lebanon), Dr Moustapha Alameldin, Dr Khalil Moustapha, Mr Houssein Hajj and Mr Ahmad Kamaledine President, Lebanese Muslim Association). Both the outgoing President of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Francis Carroll, and the incoming President, Archbishop Philip Wilson, received them.  After lunch and the visit to the tomb, the delegation met with the Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations.

Overseas organisations protest to Australian Government

Forty-seven human rights and refugee advocate organisations and religious and peace groups based in eight countries have protested to the Australian Government about planned changes to treatment of refugees arriving by boat without visas.  In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, they have urged the Australian Government "to uphold its obligations under the Refugee Convention, to recognise the plight of Papuans suffering brutalisation on your doorstep, and to adopt humane refugee policies in keeping with the widely recognised principles of the Australian people". Among the signatories are Human Rights Watch; Institute on Religion and Public Policy; International Immigrants Foundation; Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights; TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign; Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International; Asia-Pacific Solidarity Coalition; Leadership Conference of Women Religious; Great Lakes Rural Australians for Refugees; and Pax Christi USA.

"The Australian government seems more interested in appeasing Indonesia, than living up to its obligations under international law," said Mr John M. Miller, of East Timor and Indonesia Action Network. (ETAN).

He also called for a peaceful and lasting solution to the Timor-Leste unrest.  “As long as Timor-Leste has military, structural and institutional weaknesses within, that force must be addressed. The spirit of national unity and public service, which provided the foundation for the independence movement, must be re-established among military and civilian public officials,” he said.

Peace is not assured

Although a peace agreement between the Sudanese Government and one of the main rebel groups has been signed, advocates for peace in Darfur are urging concerned people to send a postcard to President George W. Bush through the site, Million Voices for Darfur, to keep Darfur on the President’s agenda.

“Recognition” given for America’s revised norms in sex-abuse cases

Washington DC (Zenit.org).- The Congregation for Bishops has granted "recognition" - its permission to implement - to the revised norms on dealing with clerical sex-abuse allegations in the United States.  The Vatican dicastery has given its permission for the Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons, adopted by the U.S. Bishops' conference last June.  Bishop William Skylstad, president of the Episcopal conference, has issued a decree promulgating the revised "Essential Norms". They came into force on Monday,  May 15, and bind, as particular church law for the United States, all dioceses and eparchies (dioceses of the Eastern Catholic Church) of the U.S. bishops' conference.

A document containing essential norms was first adopted by the U.S. conference in June 2002, and was subject to revision by a mixed commission made up of representatives of the Holy See and members of the Episcopal conference.  The result of the mixed commission's work was the original Essential Norms which were adopted by the U.S. conference in November 2002. They received the required "recognition" by the Congregation for Bishops on December 8, 2002, and were promulgated by the then conference president four days later.  A side-by-side comparison of the 2002 and 2006 norms appears at www.usccb.org/ocyp/2005RevisedEssentialNormsComparison.pdf

John Allen comments for the National Catholic Reporter.

The governing document in Australia is Towards Healing, which was first published in 1996 and significantly revised in 2000.  It remains constantly under review by the National Committee for Professional Standards.  Standing alongside Towards Healing is the code of conduct for clergy and religious in Australia, Integrity in Ministry, which was last revised in 2004.