Bruce Duncan. 8 February 2021. The assault on the US Capitol building by Trump supporters trying to overturn the election not only shocked the United States, but also raises urgent questions for the rest of the world, particularly for the churches, and for Australians too. The mob was shouting to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi […]
An urgent call to all people of goodwill to unite in a politics of brother/sisterhood. My title, I hope, captures the central concern of Pope Francis’s encyclical, Fratelli tutti, a long and wide-ranging document. It can be read as the third in a trilogy preceded in 2015 by Laudato Sí‘, and Laetitia Amoris. Each of […]
The Government’s move to cut support to 576 refugees and asylum seekers is a further blow to an already vulnerable group in their struggle to survive. Posted 1 December 2020 Across Australia, the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic has hit many people hard, with sharp increases in unemployment and homelessness, even among those who […]
1 November 2020. The new social encyclical of Pope Francis is a cry for those oppressed by poverty, hunger, and exclusion, protesting against the injustice of a world with so much wealth failing to do enough for everyone to have the opportunity for a reasonably good life. Not surprisingly, Francis drew from the parable of […]
1 November 2020. Many of us working in the criminal justice sector were dreading, but not surprised by, the arrival of positive cases of Covid-19 in prisons in mid-July. Covid was already a reason we were using for people to be released on bail and for having sentences reflect the increasingly harsh prison environment brought […]
Bruce Duncan. Pope Francis is challenging powerful sectional interests sharply in his new social manifesto to be released on 4 October. The new encyclical, Fratelli Tutti (All Brothers and Sisters), will outline his vision of a just, peaceful, and sustainable world, and call vigorously for renewed commitment to universal wellbeing and solidarity. We already have […]
Review : To Live Life to the Full: Mental Health in Australia Today. The Australian Catholic Bishops Social Justice Statement 2020 The ideology of neoliberalism which has enthralled Western governments in particular for some three decades or so, has managed to redefine the meaning and purpose of society. Mutual attachments and obligations, the interdependence which […]
Pope Francis has repeatedly challenged us to ‘make some noise’ about the serious issues of climate change, as well as about poverty and extreme inequality. He summarised his concerns in his social encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home’, which he signed on Pentecost Sunday 24 March 2015. This is not just any […]
2 July 2020 Photo Save the Amazon. Daniel Arrhakis. flickr cc. Australia faces some surprisingly similar issues to the Amazon, especially the rapid impact of climate change from increasing emissions of greenhouse gases, felling vital forests, unsustainable farming and mining practices, growing inequalities between rich and poor, and the excessive influence of domestic and foreign […]
4 June 2020. I was intrigued when invited to review Mary Burke’s My Cry is to All That Live: Voices of Women & Earth in the Gospels, as the book moved outside my normal interests. I don’t often explore an ecofeminist point of view, and I wasn’t sure I would find this book relatable. Yet, […]
7 May 2020 The coronavirus pandemic came swiftly and without warning to turn our lives completely upside-down! It didn’t discriminate between those it infected, and has proven that noone is immune to it. The routine of our lives is very different now from previously. However, one group of people is experiencing this pandemic particularly acutely […]
