Catholic Social Teaching looks at the policy of lockdowns The impact of the Covid era on the Common Good is complex, and as the scale of the fallout becomes clear, there will be more scrutiny on the decisions that have been taken by government. Public opinion about lockdown policies has become polarised and this is inhibiting serious deliberation. We are pleased […]

What Paul and Silas might have said about George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and and and … DENNIS R. EDWARDS For many of us, anger, sadness, frustration, and fatigue are not episodic responses but chronic conditions. In recent days we’ve all seen, heard, and read of the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery, the shooting […]

An important article for all of us advocates of change. “Convincing someone to change their mind is really the process of convincing them to change their tribe. If they abandon their beliefs, they run the risk of losing social ties. You can’t expect someone to change their mind if you take away their community too. […]

THE CONVERSATION By this point in the coronavirus pandemic, you’ve probably heard a lot about “essential workers.” They’re the people working in hospitals and grocery stores, on farms and in meatpacking plants. They’re keeping public transit, shipping and utilities running. But is “essential” describing the workers themselves? Or only the work they do? Right now, […]

(The writer below is Joan Chittister, a Benedictine Sister of Erie, Pennsylvania, USA. Joan is a best-selling author and well-known international lecturer on topics of justice, peace, human rights, women’s issues and contemporary spirituality in the church and in society. She presently serves as the co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a partner organization of […]

Christopher Marshall: Late last year, I was asked to contribute to an interdisciplinary seminar on the theme of care. Speakers were drawn from a variety of fields, ranging from nursing to geology to plant sciences to, in my case, restorative justice. Each was asked to reflect briefly on how care featured in their personal work […]

Australian life was robust and lively in the days when religion — notably, the Catholic Church — was a major player in Labor politics. And though the religious aspect has declined, it still erupts from time to time. American politics, by contrast, doggedly retains its religious dimension, and American clergy are not reticent to use […]

  We are pleased to share this lecture by Angus Ritchie in which he exposes the fake populism in which wealth and power remains in the hands of elites. He explores fears prevalent among the churches of the ‘multitude’ and finds that the politics of Jesus places the poor at the heart of the church. In doing so […]

Paul Tyson In response to the atrocities at Christchurch, the grief and solidarity expressed by Ms Ardern has deeply moved us all. She has led her nation in rejecting a sense of otherness towards their traumatized Islamic fellow citizens. Instead, we see their suffering human sameness. Through Jacinda, New Zealand embraces and seeks to console […]

We are delighted to have permission from Luigino Bruni to share this article which was originally published by Scott Stephens on the ABC Religion and Ethics website in the summer of 2017. From Authenticity to Artificiality … and Back? Can the Market Heal the Wound It Inflicted? “We can love nothing but what agrees with […]

Many sociologists have argued that increasing anonymity in American society is tied to decreasing trust. According to one recent survey, only three in 10 Americans trust others. That same anonymity is also likely responsible for increased rates of loneliness. Despite heightened digital connectivity via social media, loneliness rates have doubled since the 1980s, from 20 percent […]

By Rowen Williams The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is unquestionably a landmark in the history of moral consciousness, one of the factors that has consistently given hope and purpose to political life throughout the globe since it first saw the light of day in 1948. It has offered a global benchmark for identifying injustices to those […]