The Place of Religion in Liberal Democracy

Our system of government in Australia is technically a constitutional monarchy, that operates through a parliamentary democracy. However, it is typically referred to as a liberal democracy, in that one of the central guiding ideals is that of the importance of human freedom, and this freedom is to be defended by the government.

• November 20, 2024

Address by Joe de Bruyn to ACU graduating students

Respected Catholic layman, Joe de Bruyn, recently addressed graduating students at the Australian Catholic University and urged them to stand by what they believe to be right and true. He said to the students, “As happened to me, you will be faced with issues in your professional and personal lives where the general opinion of the majority of the population is at odds with the teaching of the Church”. He commented that many fear that expressing what they believe could harm their professional lives. He said that his own experience had been that it was possible to hold to what you believe in and maintain your career.

• November 5, 2024

Family is what people want

Politicians and the intellectual elites have lost sight of the importance of family in the ordinary life of ordinary citizens. Yet, family is what people want. Little is done to recognise and support family life. People are seen as independent economic units rather than situated with the sphere of the family.

• October 30, 2024

Is DEI compatible with a Catholic view of reality?

DEI assigns benefit not to the individual as a person, but to the individual based on their group identity. In this regard the promotion of DEI can be the promotion of a certain ideological position which is at variance with the Christian understanding of the human person.

• October 10, 2024

A coming demographic winter

We are witnessing a significant shift in attitudes towards having children in many countries across the world. We have now reached a point where over half of all nations are below replacement levels of 2.1 births per woman.

Far from being overpopulated, our world now faces a demographic winter in the form of underpopulation. The lack of support for marriage, understood as directed to procreation and family life, and the particular lack of support for big families, now threatens the very viability of a number of societies in the western world.

• September 11, 2024

The freedom to build a civilisation of love

On 10 May 2024, the Productivity Commission, which conducts economic research at the request of the Federal Government, released a report entitled ‘Future Foundations for Giving’. This report should raise some serious alarm in relation to recognising the religious freedom of charitable organisations to operate in accord with their religious foundations.

• August 21, 2024

The Persecution of Christians

Christians face persecution in a variety of forms, from government oppression, to cultural hostility, from extremist attacks, to official religious domination and violations of religious freedom. It is now a common experience for so many Christians and it is true that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. Persecution of Christians is on the rise across the world, and it is finding a place now even in traditionally Christian countries. For example, 85 Catholic churches have been burned down in Canada over the past few years.

• July 10, 2024

Bishops defending the Faith

As an essential element to his ministry, a bishop has the responsibility to ensure the integrity of the faith taught and lived within his diocese.

• June 19, 2024

Upholding human dignity

The Church has been a powerful advocate for the dignity of the human person. While political systems which have been developed without the influence of Christian faith and practice need assistance to understand the significance of this God-given dignity, it is also true that as many traditionally Christian countries need to be reminded of the Christian roots of this ideal. They increasingly reject the Christian understanding which has been essential to the idea of human dignity in Western societies. It is necessary for the voice of the Church to speak up.

• June 5, 2024

There is truth

Postmodernism and its view that truth is subjective has taken a vice-like grip on the minds of so many in our society. Reducing truth to my own personal perception of reality has meant that a sense of objective moral right and wrong has evaporated. It has also meant that argument from reason has no place. All is now fuelled by emotion.

• May 22, 2024

Protecting our democracy

The future of democracy will depend on whether Christians can make such a contribution and whether those in government and, indeed, all voting citizens come to see that the Christian faith is not the problem, but instead provides and defends the fundamental truth about the human person necessary for the existence of authentic democratic government.

• May 1, 2024

A timely reminder about the dignity of the human person

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has recently released a document which it called a “Declaration on Human Dignity”. The publication of this declaration is very timely indeed. When the freedom of the Church to teach what it believes about the nature of the human person and the purpose of human sexuality is being challenged and efforts are being made to prevent the Church from teaching what it believes, this document is an encouragement to Catholics.

• April 17, 2024

Faith-based schools and religious freedom

The Church has consistently maintained that parents, who are the first and primary teachers of their children, have the right to choose a school which accords with their beliefs and values. Our Catholic schools need to be able to teach and fully embody the Catholic faith and employ staff that are committed to respect and uphold the faith in the classroom.

• March 20, 2024

Conversion Practices legislation

We can all agree that no one should be forced to undergo any coercive practice or treatment against their consent, and there are laws currently in place which make this illegal. These laws could be strengthened if necessary but as yet there is no clear evidence from any public enquiry or the experience of the police that such practices are occurring. This is not the real focus of so called ‘conversion therapy laws’. The real focus is to put in place legal penalties for those who do not publicly affirm the ‘LGBTQI’ view of the person or sexual morality.

• March 6, 2024

The Place of Blessings in Catholic Life

A person seeks a blessing for the purpose of receiving spiritual assistance to live out his or her faith. This is the fundamental nature of any Catholic blessing. It means therefore that there are some basic conditions or requirements which must be present before a priest can give a blessing.

• February 21, 2024

The question of Intercommunion

A Catholic in receiving Holy Communion is not just brought into a personal communion with the Risen Lord. There is a communal level as well to be considered. It is an act which signifies not only a spiritual union with other members of the Church, but it is also a public affirmation of the beliefs of the Church and a commitment to the practice of the faith as it is defined by the Church.

• February 7, 2024

Live not by lies

Alexander Solzhenitsyn recognised from first-hand experience how a totalitarian government seeks to exercise complete control even over the thinking of its citizens. While we in the West are not subject to such comprehensive processes of control, it is not to say that they do not exist. To preserve the precious gift of personal freedom we need to decide not to live by lies.

• January 17, 2024

The divine plan for the Church

In the current discussion concerning the governance of the Church occasioned by the proposal of synodality, reflection on the divine plan for the Church is important. We cannot allow ourselves to depart from the divine plan.

• December 13, 2023

All are welcome but there is a dress code

There is a popular hymn sung in parishes and schools with the words, “all are welcome in this place”. In recent times there has been a great deal of emphasis placed on the Church being a place of welcome, and rightly so. We are open to receive anyone who wishes to participate in the life of the Church. We take our cues from Christ himself who reached out to those whom Pope Francis describes as being on the ‘peripheries’.

• November 28, 2023

The Referendum outcome and the way of forgiveness

The path of genuine reconciliation will only be advanced when a just process has been followed, when there is both sorrow and forgiveness for past harm. This is by no means an easy path, many of our indigenous brothers and sisters remain deeply traumatised by what has happened historically, but it is clear that this is the goal we must work together on achieving. This requires both human effort and prayer, and ultimately divine grace.

• November 15, 2023

On listening to the Holy Spirit

In the listening process a person, then, grounds him or herself in the faith of the Church. We are reminded that the Holy Spirit does not act independently of the Church and the apostolic faith. The role of the Holy Spirit is actually to confirm the faith and help the faithful to enter more into the fulness of the faith.

• November 1, 2023

Protection of Religious Freedom

Freedom of religion should be acknowledged as a fundamental civil right and enjoyed by all. This right should prevent the government from restricting the free expression and practice of religious beliefs.

• October 18, 2023

Losing our moral reference point

A study of the history of humanity reveals that the great civilisations and the moral structures that underpinned them found their stability in a reference point beyond themselves.

• October 4, 2023

Where do we find the Church?

The Church is found in all who live a life in the Spirit. It is often true that it is in the ‘little ones’ where the Church is truly alive and active. It is in their hearts and lives that the Church truly lives. It is their faith, their love of God, their charity, that incarnates the love of God in the world. It is through them that Christ is present in the world.

• August 30, 2023

Ideology – the closing of the mind

We live in an age of ideology. One of the reasons for this is the demise of Christian belief and cultural patterns shaped by Christianity that have, in the past, shaped and directed western civilisation. In Catholic thought faith and reason are not in opposition to one another but complement and complete each other.

• August 16, 2023

Values and Virtues

The promotion of certain values by the Australian government is an effort to arrive at a social consensus which would then promote a harmonious society. This is a worthy aspiration. But it is also true, that a society without an accepted transcendent foundation, as our Australian society now is, faces serious challenges to maintain a commitment to these values.

• July 26, 2023

I am wonderfully made

A confusion has arisen in our society when we replace the category of the person’s biological sex with a subjective concept of gender. It is the result of a loss of a sense of truth which has been fostered by a loss of a sense of God.

• July 12, 2023

Liturgy as encounter with the Divine

The first duty of a believer is to offer worship to God. For Catholics this is expressed in the Sacred Liturgy of the Mass when we are invited to join with the angels and saints in worshipping and glorifying God.

• June 21, 2023

Dark Mofo and the need for spiritual reparation

It is the time of Dark Mofo once more. A decade on and, once again, it seeks to attack and ridicule sacred images and truths of Christianity.

• June 7, 2023

Hostile takeover of Calvary Hospital in the ACT

• May 19, 2023

What happened to the idea of sin?

• May 1, 2023