There’s a photo I have of a group of friends that was taken at the beginning of 2009. A bunch of fresh-faced teens and 20-somethings from different parts of Sydney, we had met because we had all been involved in some way with a week-long youth festival in Sydney called World Youth Day. We didn’t […]
So, we lost the marriage plebiscite and by a decent margin too. 61.6 per cent to 38.4 per cent is a pretty convincing scoreline, and there’s no sugar-coating it. As someone deeply embedded within the “no” campaign, it hurts a lot. In the days following, I was pretty much paralysed in and by discouragement. I’m […]
I imagine that many of you have engaged in, or at least read, some fairly heated online discussions about the same-sex marriage postal survey since it was announced three months ago. When Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP posted his on Facebook, it attracted more than 7000 comments. People on either side of the debate have been […]
Friends, the post- same-sex marriage world is a brave, new one. This is what we are seeing coming from the United Kingdom at the moment. I’m not sure if you saw what is happening with the UK Census. In 2015, the UK Office of National Statistics conducted a consultation about what additional questions/topics should be […]
This week, the Victorian Parliament began debating legislation which would permit the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide in that state. It is unsurprising that this is happening in Victoria: with the most liberal abortion laws in the world, and its push to make the “Safe Schools” program compulsory at the same time that other […]
For the last few weeks, we have looked at how a change in the law will affect education, particularly the introduction of LGBTIQ sex and gender education in schools and the loss of the rights of parents to object to – or even know about –what they are being taught. We also considered how a change […]
Over the past week, I had the privilege of attending two of the campaign launches for the Coalition for Marriage: the national launch in Sydney and the smaller state-based launch in Victoria, which occurred on Saturday night of last week. While the other launches went off largely without incident, the Melbourne one was interrupted by […]
I spent five and a half years studying to get my law degree. I made good friends, enjoyed the subject matter and am grateful for the opportunities it gave me. But it was also hard work. I read countless pages of textbooks, court judgments and journal articles, prepared long, analytical essays, and studied for more […]
At this stage, we do not know what, if any, protections for religious freedom will be available if a ‘yes’ vote gets up in the postal plebiscite. The two bills we have seen so far provide very little protection. Essentially, ministers of religion and civil celebrants who do not want to solemnise same-sex weddings will […]
Given that 3 September is Father’s Day, I thought I would start my analysis with a story about a dad. Steve Tourloukis is a Canadian father of primary school aged kids, who have been raised in the Greek Orthodox faith. Among other things, this included teaching his children that sexual activity should be reserved for […]
Nearly four million people have seen the video of a Victorian mother of four talking about Safe Schools, and if you’re not one of them, then I recommend you take a look. Describing herself as “desperate,” the mother recorded a 14-minute video trying to encourage other Victorian parents to stand up against the deceptively-named program. […]
A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to speak to Year 12 students about potential biases in the media when it comes to the Church. Not one of the students I addressed got their news from what were traditionally considered to be mainstream sources: television, radio or print. Without exception, Facebook (and the online […]
