Common good

Australia’s Catholic bishops issued an election pastoral letter in preparation for the federal elections to be held on May 21. Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Archbishop Mark Coleridge said although no one political party fully embodies Catholic social teaching Catholics are urged to use their vote for the good of all. He said “we long for what Pope Francis calls ‘a better kind of politics, one truly at the service of the common good’. This ‘better’ politics pursues the common good by recognising the dignity of every individual and the solidarity we all share as a national community,” he said.

Remaining silent

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who holds a primacy of honour among the Orthodox churches, showed his support for Ukraine in his Easter message and referred to the war and atrocities caused by Russia’s attack on Ukraine. “We stand and suffer alongside the pious and courageous people of Ukraine that bear a heavy cross. We pray and strive for peace and justice as well as for all those who are deprived of these. It is unimaginable for us Christians to remain silent before the obliteration of human dignity,” he wrote. His position is diametrically opposite to that of the Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

On forgiveness

On Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope Francis said: “Christ did not reproach [the Apostles] for what they had done, but showed them his usual kindness. And this revives them, fills their hearts with the peace they had lost, and makes them new persons, purified by a forgiveness that is utterly unmerited.” He added that “today and every day, in the Church, forgiveness must be received in this same way, through the humble goodness of a merciful confessor who sees himself not as the holder of some power but as a channel of mercy, who pours out upon others the forgiveness that he himself first received.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)