Kate is on solid ground when she cites the incarnation for the inclusively of the Christian story. One might add the ascension in which Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and the lovely books of Jonah and Ruth which destroy any barrier between the grace of God and the outsider.

Her observation that “Catholics, struggling with a disconnected faithful and an absence of relevance, have rushed to embrace that burden.” indicates a denomination wide crisis in which the church has taken its eyes off Christ and has plunged into all kinds of good works funded by government. This if often done in the hope that many will see their good works and become members of the church, something that in my experience rarely happens. Of course Christians should do good works for themselves but in failing congregations getting ones hands dirty with the poor and being funded for it looks like a good thing. However, we do pay the price of our independence. Genuine charitas is rare in government.

While the church is called to open its arms to all, that is not a call to lose its identity as the body of Christ. Doing the work of a government that can only have its eyes on the electorate is liable to spoil the work of those who are called to have their eyes only on Christ. Our place of being in the world but not of it is threatened.

After years of being on the back foot (since Descartes and Copernicus) the church is beginning to see that the secular order, much trumpeted in our society, has feet of clay and that the church holds the key to a proper understanding of the human person and the world. The church militant is making a comeback and finding the intellectual means to put up a fight. The reinvigoration of the church is really our only hope and our only way out of the morass we find ourselves in. We are called, first and foremost, to be the church, good works must come out of that.

Kate, although I'm not in any way religious, I too am very concerned about how the current Federal Government lumps what should be "their" welfare matters onto religious organisations. I am particularly appalled at the way the unemployed and disabled are treated by the miserable Howard led Coalition yet, as I remember, it was a Labor Government that started the kick-a-dole bludger mentality in the first place. Johny "Rotten" Howard has simply mastered the blame game. I was caught up in the mess from 2000-2002 when I left full time work to do a nursing course. Since the course was part time, I was forced onto Newstart and made to jump through Centrelinks hoops like a show dog in training and what a carnival Centrelink is too! My wish is that a Government will come into power that will dismantle the whole disaster by ridding the country of Centrelink and any association with welfare agencies. Imagine the saving to the tax payer such as myself. The billions the Country would save in attemping to destroy the income and sanity of unemployed people would most likely be enough to hand a basic wage to those who can't or won't work and everyone would be happy, but I fear a US style non-welfare system is only waiting until after the Libs are re-elected in 2007.

I too believe the Government has dumped many of its responsibilities. The result is much wasted public money and profit to churches. Recently we have witnessed churches recieving money to employ indigenous Australians and pressing them to volunteer their labour as the church pockets the money. We have witnessed charismatic churches make people work off owed tithe. We have witnessed church based employment agencies milk the government of grants and we have witnessed church based employment agencies neglect the non-christians on their lists. Globally we have witnessed churches collect charity for orphanges and projects in the developing world and only a tiny fraction of money get through.
We have seen secular charities mainly concerned with cures to rarer diseases struggle and collapse competing with the vast resources of the churches.

The majority of religious based service providers are biased and exploitive and offer selective help often only for something in return and under this regime are profiteering out of the misery of others. Only government can provide services efficiently, equitably and self gurad against corruption.

It’s interesting that this piece touched on the issue of non-Catholic students being unable to attend Catholic schools. I find this point to be irrelevant to the main argument, featuring it only to worsen the image of the Catholic Church.

Why would a non-Catholic student wish to attend a Catholic school? Doing so rightfully expects and requires a full participation in the Catholic faith (Baptism, Communion and Confirmation) to subsequently harmonize with the schools’ curriculum and founding ethos.

“Would Jesus refuse an education to a child who needed and wanted it, because that child was not of the tribe of Levi?”

Obviously, Catholic schools take on the amount of students they have space for, and Catholic students should most certainly have a priority when filling this availability. In other words, “Jesus” will teach as many students as He can, and simply chooses the students who will benefit the most from His services. It’s just common sense.

Jesus although only a character in a fiction would not teach non-Jewish children. Jesus was perfectly clear in his prejudice and exclusionism. Paul would have included gentiles but exclude all children who did not accept Pauls divine Authority. Catholic schools have two imperatives to make money and to brainwash children into superstition. Children already brainwashed to a certain level (those already Catholic) naturally take precedence because the brainwashing job is easier and their parents are paid up members of the club. Taking as much children as possible is important because tax payers can be milked for profits. The capacity to take on a lot of damned and heathen children is limited depending on how much money the school can bleed government coffers for.

young upstart,

I was a non catholic that went to a catholic school (albeit until is was kicked out) for a couple of years and they needed bums on seats or they would loose teachers.

In my town the quality of education was poor and the catholic school had the best reputation. to boot, you got to go there for free as they rather have you there than have you leave and loose teachers.

but anyway, i know thats not the norm, but youd be surprised how it all works.