It is truly a dark day for New South Wales. I am deeply saddened that the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021 has passed the NSW Parliament. The disturbing nature of this legislation is compounded by the way the debate over amendments was conducted. All amendments put forward by those who would seek to make this deadly regime …
In the feature article in today’s Sydney Morning Herard Lauren Ironmonger asks whether monogamy is dead and we are destined for multiple contemporaneous and successive primary loves?[1] She says it is the question on the mind of millennials as they navigate the perennial human …
The great Renaissance art historian, Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), was an advocate of Graeco-Roman, Romanesque and neo-classical architecture, but no fan of the ‘French’ mediaeval aesthetic with its pointed arches, vaulted ceilings, flying buttresses …
Feast of the Holy Apostles Philip and James, St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 3 May, 2022 Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success was a non-fiction smash hit.[i] It debuted at no.1 on the New York Times bestseller list, remained there for 11 weeks straight, and went on to feature on the paperback bestseller list […]
Two years before he was catapulted to stardom as “Crocodile Dundee,” Paul Hogan graced American TV with an advertisement for Australian Tourism (1984).[i] He demonstrated the cheerful, laid-back demeanour of Aussies, while showcasing some of our beautiful landscapes including Sydney Harbour.
Welcome to the Church of St. Anne, Strathfield South, for the Pontifical Mass of Christian Burial for Fr Raymond John Weaver, a Priest of the Archdiocese of Sydney. Fr Ray was born in 1937, was a seminarian at St Patrick’s College Manly and was ordained to the priesthood by …
In a world with striking parallels to our own, a young woman named Caterina di Benincasa (1347-80) from Siena was called to apply her gifts in …
n the extreme sport of free-diving, competitors hold their breath unaided for as long as they can and drop to a depth of water as low as they can before resurfacing: some of you here tonight may have tried this as kids and given your mothers a fright! The king of this sport is Viennese-born Herbert Nitsch…
Just across the way from us, at the heart of the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park, stands what some consider to be Australia’s greatest sculpture.1 Rayner Hoff’s bronze of ‘Sacrifice’ (1930-34) is in the Hall of Silence amidst many other features created by him. At remembrance services and other times, the sculpture is the object of contemplation for staff, pilgrims and tourists.
Simon Peter and John come running to the tomb (Jn 20:1-9). In Eugène Burnand’s impressionist painting of the incident (1898, Musée d’Orsay, Paris), it is a glorious dawn and Peter is staring ahead, hand-on-heart, finger pointing forward, face confused like a rabbit in headlights.