Catholic Church welcomes new R18+ legislation for computer games

Kid playing video game – the SUN, UK

On the 1st January 2013, an R18+ classification for computer games was introduced in all Australian States and Territories. On behalf of the Australian Catholic Bishops, its Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting (ACOFB) welcomed this new national and uniform approach for parents to understand that there is R18+ material in computer games and they might stop their children from accessing it.

Rev Dr Richard Leonard SJ, the Director of the ACFOB said, “Until now the Office for Film & Literature Classification had only has five categories available in regard to computer games: G, PG, M, MA 15+ and RC (refused classification). Like many parents, many Australians assumed that material that was not MA15+ was refused classification. But this is not the case. Continue reading →

Bishop Anthony Fisher – Christmas Message 2012

Bishop Anthony Fisher

Published in Catholic Outlook, December 2012/January 2013

Fifty years ago, at the end of that momentous day when the Second Vatican Council commenced, Blessed John XXIII looked out from his window to see a huge crowd of waiting, hoping, needing humanity in St Peter’s Square below.

At that moment he inaugurated a less formal way of speaking than was customary for popes till then but has become commonplace since. He came to the window and spoke impromptu from his heart. The speech became known as the Discorso della Luna – the Moonlight Speech or the Sermon on the Moon.

A ‘lone voice’ in the darkness somehow spoke for the whole world. Even the moon, the Pope said, seemed to draw close to witness the spectacle of the 21st ecumenical council. A half-century later Pope Benedict XVI recently spoke from that same window before a torch-lit square and inaugurated a Year of Faith. Continue reading →

Bishop Paul Bird – Christmas Message 2012

Bishop Paul Bird

Charles Dickens is famous for his novels such as The Adventures of Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. He also wrote a little book called The Life of Our Lord. He wrote this especially for his own children and he used to read it to them every Christmas. The book begins with these words:

“My dear children, I am very anxious that you should know something about the history of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived who was so good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in any way ill or miserable, as He was.” Continue reading →

Bishop Robert McGuckin – Christmas Message 2012

Bishop Robert McGuckin, source, ABC

Dear Brothers and Sisters

This time of year brings about a change of pace in the day to day pattern of our lives.  Schools are on holidays, there are work functions and many families look to a respite as they prepare for a break.  For those who have lost a loved one during the year, this Christmas will have moments of sadness.  Financial stress is a reality as many struggle to make ends meet.  We should remember these people and encourage and support them.  Continue reading →

Bishop Greg O’Kelly – Christmas Message 2012

Bishop Greg O’Kelly

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

“See, I make all things new”. That is the message the figure of Christ gives in the Book of Revelations. We need Christmas each year. We can get worn down when at times the tragedies in life seem more apparent than the blessings, or when the good we do as individuals and as Church seems to get outclassed by the scandals. We need this event of Christmas, the reminder that God so loved us that He sent His only Son amongst us. Beyond the powers of our minds and imagination, the Word
was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. Christmas is the annual reminder of God’s endorsement of us, and thus endorsed we will always be a people of hope. Continue reading →

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe – Christmas Message, 2012

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe

This Christmas Message from Archbishop Costelloe was first published in the Record.

In the Christmas story, when the angels appear to the shepherds to tell them of the birth of Christ the angel’s first words are “do not be afraid” (Luke 2:10). They are the same words with which the angel Gabriel greets Mary when he tells her of God’s plan that she should be the mother of the messiah (Luke 1:30).

As Mary’s child grows up and begins his life’s work, he too will say these words many times. When his disciples are caught in a dangerous storm out on the lake he comes to them through the raging wind and waves, walking across the waters, and encouraging them not to be afraid (Matthew 14:27). When he realizes how insecure and unimportant people feel, he reminds them that because God knows and loves them they have no need to be afraid (Matthew 10:31). And when he encounters the women at the empty tomb after his rising from the dead he says also to them, “Do not be afraid” (Matthew 28:10). Continue reading →

Bishop Chris Prowse – Christmas Message 2012

Bishop Christopher Prowse

Dear People of God in the Diocese of Sale,

We are celebrating Christmas during the Year of Grace and the Year of Faith.

Christmas is surely where Grace and Faith meet.  The Grace of God sends us Jesus, God-with-us.  The Faith of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the Magi all “contemplate the face of Christ” resting in the humble stable of Bethlehem.  Even such great Faith is an initiative of Grace.  We too join in this profound contemplation of the Saviour. Continue reading →

Monsignor John Woods – Christmas Message 2012

Monsignor John Woods – Diocesan Administrator of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

Christmas is over too quickly. We spend days shopping, then exchange gifts, eat and drink before watching the Boxing Day Test or shop for a bargain or head to the coast or do whatever. Enjoyable, but is that it?

To get perspective on the significance of Christmas, the Church bookends it with 4 weeks of Advent, followed by the 2 weeks of the Christmas Season. While we are watching the cricket, the Church commemorates the Martyrdom of St Stephen (26 December) and then the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents (28 December), sobering counterpoints to an overly sentimentalised and commercialised understanding of Christmas. The baby grows up. The light of Christmas foreshadows the transformation from death to life at Easter.

To engage with Christmas, I encourage you to go to the nativity scene in quiet wonder. Reclaim your lost innocence in the eyes of a baby, so powerless and yet so engaging. The eyes of that baby smile on all of us and on Calvary they will look on both a good and a bad thief. This baby will confound, comfort and challenge and be rejected as too good to be true as he reconciles that which still divides us – life and death, light and dark, heaven and earth, victim and perpetrator, the refugee and the citizen, partisan politicians and the common good, the sick and the healthy, the rich and the unemployed, the loved and the lonely, all of us. Christmas is God’s proclamation that God is with us and loves us not because of who we are or what we do but because God love us. To claim our dignity in Christ and to afford others theirs is to be formed in a healthy community. To deny that dignity through child sexual abuse or any act of unmitigated violence such as the recent shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, does not invalidate the message of Christmas but it does call for a more engaging witness to it in truth and love. One hopes that our Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse and the call for gun law reform in the US will enhance the dignity of all.

Continue reading →

Archbishop Denis Hart – Christmas Message 2012

Archbishop Denis Hart

At Christmas, in the person of Jesus, God comes to us.  We not only recall an event two thousand years ago, which changed the course of human history and linked God and human beings in an embrace of love, every Christmas we know God is near.  Jesus was born in a humble stable into a poor family.  Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event.  In this poverty heaven’s glory was shown to human beings.

Many families this Christmas are facing an uncertain financial future.  Some are concerned about care for their children, caring for those who are sick, adequate schooling to prepare them for the modern world.

God’s coming emphasises the dignity of each human being from conception to natural death.  God’s coming is an act of love reminding each of us that no matter what may be the challenges we face we are loved and valued.

All of us, old or young, can learn to value the people that surround us, respect their different points of view and learn that greater peace and happiness comes from giving of our time to others rather than indulging ourselves in food, drink and pleasure. Continue reading →