Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of the world’s one billion Catholics, arrived in Indonesia on 3 September. He then travelled to Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore, before returning to Rome on the evening of 13 September. (more…)
Susan Connelly
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Gaza and victimhood
The regimes in Israel and Palestine both claim to be victims in the violence that engulfs them. Interpreting the situation through “victimhood” assists in understanding the human forces that arise from age-old conflicts and that continue to cause so much horrific suffering. (more…)
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Imitation accelerates
The whole world is experiencing an “escalation to extremes” because we imitate each other to a profound degree. We should choose our models more carefully. (more…)
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Enemy twins: Israel and Hamas unite to massacre innocents
Hamas’s refusal to recognise Israel as a state is as absurd as Israel’s belief that the current massacre of Palestinians will destroy Hamas. If all this were mere stupidity it would be bad enough, but the consequent violence against innocent people is extreme and it is accelerating. (more…)
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The origin of monarchy is violence: Can Australia choose a new path?
The concept of monarchy began as an antidote to human violence. (more…)
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It’s time for an ICAC
There’s a three-way relationship between Australia, China and Timor-Leste. How will the next government manage it? (more…)
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Australians quick to forget terrible wartime price paid by Timorese saviours
The current government has shed every vestige of honour to conceal the truth about the espionage against the Timorese, venting its guilty fury on the spy with a conscience, Witness K, and his lawyer Bernard Collaery. (more…)
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In spying on East Timorese, Australia forgets its neighbour’s sacrifices
Australian forgetfulness of the wartime friendship and suffering of the Timorese people was crowned in 2004 by a grubby act of government greed.
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Australia shredded all decency in the persecution of Bernard Collaery.
Our spying against Timor-Leste and persecution of a whistleblower and his lawyer reads like a tawdry thriller that would embarrass James Bond. (more…)
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Adventures in incompetence – Witness K sentenced
This whole farce is more about protecting the real criminals in the case, those politicians and public servants who devised and planned, enabled and financed the shameful act of spying on the Timorese people. (more…)
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The Other Swindled Partner
What were you doing in 2004 as the Australian Government’s fleecing of the Timorese people took shape? (more…)
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Politicians and Prosecutions
Straining gnats and swallowing camels is not reserved for biblical Pharisees. Australians in the 21st-century witness pious adherence to matters that have certain importance, but which are secondary to, and meant to serve, the great human principles of ‘justice, mercy, good faith’ (Matt. 23:23-24). (more…)
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SUSAN CONNELLY. The World is Full of Scapegoats
Compromised politicians, muted religions, a distracted and increasingly partisan media and a malleable crowd combine in another tragedy. Scapegoating it is, but thanks to the Gospel it is not destined for seamless success. (more…)