The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference has just announced this evening that the Catholic Archbishop of Canberra, Mark Coleridge, has been appointed to the Archdiocese of Brisbane.
Archbishop Coleridge came to Canberra from Melbourne, a few years ago, where he had been an auxiliary bishop. It has long been rumoured that he wasn’t going to be staying in Canberra for very long, and that he would probably end up with an appointment to an archdiocese with a larger population. (Bishop Coleridge had replaced the much-loved, and long-serving Archbishop of Canberra, Francis Carroll, who retired to Wagga Wagga.)
Archbishop Coleridge was heavily involved in the new translation of the Roman Missal, which has been rolled out, with some controversy, across Australia (and other English-speaking countries) over the last year.
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VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :
It only occurs because catholics/christians can’t keep to themselves. Want a religion? Fine, believe in whatever the hell you want. But they can’t just do that, can they? They have to attempt to interfere and influence the lives of people who have no time for their ridiculous fairy tales. Hence the bashing.
If the church saves 0.2% of GDP each year, that’s great. But I do wonder how much they’d contribute if we taxed them, instead of all their investments and activities hiding behind that “but we’re a charity” wall.
Holden Caulfield said :
It’s quite sad, actually. Also sad that we allow it here.
Considering what Catholics have done to non-catholics through the ages they can shut the hell up and take it.
Holden Caulfield said :
It’s a deeply-ingrained Reaction among even escapees from (let alone adherents to) other Western Christian sects.
Among the Orthodox mob, it’s a Reaction to 1204AD. Still.
Catholic/Christian-bashing, the last, apparently, publicly acceptable bastion of the bigot.
bigfeet said :
The fact is, your public life is affected by an enormous organisation like this one.
For example, there is no larger single provider of charity anywhere in the world than the Catholic Church. If that charity were not being provided, then the taxpayer would have to foot the bill for it, OR, foot the bill for the law & order alternative to providing charity.
Or, you can look at the recent Gonski report and see that 23% of schooling is provided by the Catholic sector, and that 23% is provided at a cost to the government that is 20% LESS, per student, than is provided per student in the public system.
Effectively, the Catholic school system saves the taxpayer just short of 0.2% of GDP, every year.
You can also look at the “Education Revolution” grants, where Catholic schools got about 250% more building for their buck than the public sector schools did.
The Cathollic church’s participation in public policy debates also provides a useful foil to the ivory-towered post-modernist policy-wonks that infest public life with their idiotic nonsense and apologism for genocidal military regimes they like (ie, Indonesia).
LSWCHP said :
I agree.
I subscribe to the “Religions are like Penises” theory.
I’m happy for you if you have got one, or found one, that gives you pleasure. Just don’t ever take it out in public and don’t try to jam it down my throat.
Should we read anything into the fact this announcement that’s he’s moving to Sunny Queensland comes right before the colder months in Canberra?
nanzan said :
Apparently the school is supposed to be built on block 20 section 73, between near were the government were considering for the new hospital (not!) and where the monks were supposed to be building their Buddist temple, which is now going to be relocated to another location, even though i looks like they already have a fence up for it..
Speaking entirely for myself, rather than as a representative of the ACT League of Atheists or anything like that, I really don’t give a rats as long as whoever it is stays well away from me and my family.
Who cares as long as the replacement isn’t a paedofile…
HenryBG said :
I don’t think I understand this post….
Bad Seed said :
Any chance it might be Bishop Pat Power? He is the auxiliary bishop after all. If it was the people who elected their bishops I reckon Bishop Pat would get the job hands down.
As long as we don’t get a paedophile in the new job, then I don’t really care who gets the nod.
I’d be surprised if they appoint anyone quickly given there are other dioceses in Australia eg Melbourne that have been without heads for a very long time. Have heard a few rumours today too but I suspect they are just wild speculation. I do know AB Mark was booked to do Bad Seedling’s Confirmation in June so suspect there will be a few juggling in the office to rearrange all those atm.
nanzan said :
I *don’t* think so.
Canberra will be looking for a bishop who has his finger on the pulse of what the *adults* in the ACT are getting up to.
housebound said :
I don’t know how it will affect things regarding Saint Patrick’s Church at Braddon…but it has certainly been a thorn in the side of the archbishop…but these sort of thorns are to be found everywhere in every diocese.
(It’s interesting that this comes at the time when the sudden announcement regarding the change in location for the new Catholic secondary school in Gungahlin has been made. The school, John Paul College, was to built in Throsby, but is now to be built in Nicholls…the precise location of which has not been revealed, but apparently somewhere adjacent to Holy Spirit Primary School.)
Alan Shore said :
I hadn’t heard that but that is an interesting idea.
Wouldn’t it be nice, though, if the next bishop actually came from within the archdiocese, that is to say, a priest already working here. In that vein, I have heard, just as a rumour, that Fr John Woods has been suggested.
Any word on his replacement? I heard some scuttlebutt about Eugene Hurley, but that may just have been wishful thinking.
Well, if you limit the number of potential bishops by 50%, this sort of thing is going to happen.
Does that mean the development of St Patrick’s is now off the table?