It’s not from the psalms, nor is it Bishop Brady’s personal anthem: no, the theme song of the American sitcom The Brady Bunch is one I suspect most of us of a certain age could sing from memory.[1] The pop culture phenomenon aired…

Dec 11, 2023
Dec 11, 2023
It’s not from the psalms, nor is it Bishop Brady’s personal anthem: no, the theme song of the American sitcom The Brady Bunch is one I suspect most of us of a certain age could sing from memory.[1] The pop culture phenomenon aired…
Dec 11, 2023
According to Dictionary.com, a ‘screenager’ is any teen or young person who is proficient at using smartphones, computers, or tech gadgets in general, and who spends considerable amounts of time on social media or gaming apps.[1] Screenagers are mostly Gen-Zedders, born between 1996 and 2010. They are the…
Dec 07, 2023
His name amongst Jews is Yirmeyahu (ירמיה), amongst Muslims Irmiyā, and for Christians Jeremiah “the weeping prophet” (c. 650-570 BC). To him are attributed the Books of Jeremiah, of Kings and of Lamentations. The last of these, from which we have just read (Lam 3:17-26), is a series of poetic laments…
Dec 06, 2023
The aphorism “Ipsa scientia potestas est”—knowledge itself is power—was coined by the English statesman and pioneer of the scientific method, Sir Francis Bacon in his Meditationes Sacrae (1597). It was simplified a half-century later in Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan as ‘knowledge is power.’
Yet the idea goes back…
Dec 04, 2023
Cappadocia is now one of Turkey’s hottest tourist destinations, alongside Istanbul, Ephesus and Gallipoli. Sitting atop the plateau of the Anatolian peninsula with its idyllic rock formations, including caves, cliffs and sweeping valleys, it now attracts millions each year. But it’s not just a place of natural wonder. Cut into the rock are some the best-preserved churches…
Dec 03, 2023
It’s the tenth largest ‘economy’ in the world, with a turnover of between $US1.7T to 4.5T per year, placing it somewhere between Canada and Germany as an economic power.[1] Yet it’s illegal and costs far more jobs than it creates. I’m talking about the counterfeit economy. Not counterfeit currency: that’s going out of vogue. But counterfeit luxury…
Nov 28, 2023
In 1792 the baby-faced Louis Saint-Just made his maiden speech in the National Convention, the new-formed parliament of the First French Republic. For the ambitious and idealistic young…
Nov 20, 2023
The proverb ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’, is simple enough to understand: the promise of less is preferable to the possibility of more; security to be preferred to risk-taking; certainty over mere hope. The saying comes down to us from the late medieval Austin friar, John Capgrave…
Nov 07, 2023
I’ve recently returned from the month-long Synod on Synodality in Rome. Much of the media buzz around that meeting was about whether it would commend the ordination of women to the Pope. It didn’t. But it’s an elephant in the cathedral…
Sep 28, 2023
Last week the Governance Institute of Australia released their eighth annual Ethics Index which charts popular perceptions of how ethical is the conduct of those in particular professions and sectors. The 2023 results indicate that, as a nation, we expect more in terms of integrity, professionalism and honesty…