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What could be worse than drug addiction? The denial of it. There is forgiveness for both drug-pusher and drug-addict when they embrace the truth. Unfortunately, however, the damage – both physical and mental – is lasting. The mantra applies: God forgives, but nature doesn’t. How to get this message across? Pope Leo XIV speaks the truth in love: The Church does not intervene in the issue of drugs with the intention of competing with or taking the place of neuroscience, psychia

Jesus tells a parable about forgiveness: A man is forgiven 10,000 talents but fails to forgive 100 denarii. It is a classic case of hyperbole, employed by Jesus to wake us up. God forgives so generously, but do we? The mathematics is fun: 1 Denarius is the Daily Wage 1 Talent is 6,000 Denarius. Let’s say the daily wage in Australia is $350. So, 10,000 talents in today’s terms would be: $350 x 6,000 = $2,100,000 10,000 x $2,100,000 = $21Billion. There is no love without forgiv

There are five great discourses in Matthew’s Gospel: Sermon on the Mount (5-7) Missionary Instruction (10) Parables Plentiful (13) Community Life (18) End Times (22-24). Matthew develops the first ever rule of life for a Christian community in chapter 18. He does this using a symmetrical technique. Think of an arc, with two foundation stones, one on the left and one on the right, and a keystone at the top, stopping the structure from collapsing. The foundation stone on the le

The Vatican News Service recently reported a fascinating fact. Pope Leo XIV will travel to France 25 September to 28 September. It is the first papal visit to France in 18 years. Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2008. The papal visit will include a gathering with young people in a sports stadium, with a capacity of approximately 80,000. When tickets became available they sold out in just one hour – in the blink of an eye. What is happening with young people? Why a renewed interes

From Paul’s most mature work: I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God (Romans 12). We are spirit, soul and body (1Thessalonians 5) – a profound unity. What we do in the body affects our inner life and vice versa. Pope St. John Paul II (1978-2005) developed the Theology of the Body, which opens up Paul’s invitation. George Weigel, papal biographer, claims that the ‘theology of the body is

Pope Leo XIV spoke to young people at Rimini, Italy, beach destination: Against the false realism that rearms minds, words, and nations, Catholic culture today must set the realism of mercy, in which there can be no enemies, and all people, even adversaries, are brothers and sisters to be looked in the eye and encountered in truth. Imagine a time without mercy. We don’t have to: The 20th Century was full of war and death, with revolutions abounding – political, cultural, sexu