Anti-Church Activist Denied Communion & Parish Role

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, Sept. 9—An Australian activist has been barred from communion — as well as from lector and parish council privileges — because she continues publishing and organizing against a definitive Church doctrine, said a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Her parish priest, Bishop Geoffrey Mayne, serves as Bishop for the Australian Defense Forces. He twice informed her of his decision that she would be penalized, said the report.

Nugent is an executive member of Ordination of Catholic Women, a group that should have become obsolete in 1994, according to information the paper noted. That was the year Pope John Paul II issued his apostolic letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis and declared that the Church had no authority to ordain women as priests. It used pointed language to call the doctrine “definitively held by all the Church's faithful,” according to the report. Again, last June, the Holy Father reiterated that “definitive” teachings were binding articles of faith and that public dissent would earn a “just penalty,” according to the report.

Nonetheless, Nugent felt like an “outcast and a victim,” said the report, which quoted her calling the Bishop's decision “an abuse of power.”

Bishop Mayne, who says Nugent was given fair warning, told the paper, “I, as a bishop or a priest, cannot in conscience give communion to someone who is working against the teachings of the Church. It's as simple as that.”

He added, “If they say you can't wear thongs into a league's club and you do, they don't let you in. To be a Catholic we have to accept the totality of the Church's teaching. You can't pick and choose, particularly in matters of faith and morals.”

School May Suffer For Ousting Teacher, Says MP

LONDON EVENING STANDARD, Sept. 30—The head teacher at St. Augustine of Canterbury Primary School in Rainham, Kent, was forced to resign because the Church considers her marriage adulterous, said a report in the London Evening Standard. Catherine Davidson's civil marriage to Neil Davidson — who remains married to his first wife in the Church's eyes — disqualified her from teaching at the Catholic school, according to the report.

The two married five months ago in the Church of England, said the report. They were apparently aware of the Church's prohibition of their marriage but disregarded it.

Member of Parliament Paul Clark warned that the high ratings the school's academic performance has earned in government tests may be jeopardized by its view of the marriage, according to the report.

“The appointment of teaching staff is a matter for [its] governing body but I'm concerned Catherine Davidson has headed the school and ensured excellent [government ratings]. The upheaval could clearly affect the standards of the school,” it quoted him saying.

Ireland Needn't Fear Catholic Schools, Says Scholar

IRISH TIMES, Sept. 19—New research shows that children in denominational schools are better educated and less likely to be prejudiced against other religions than children in secular schools, reported the Irish Times.

In a Trinity College debate over whether Catholic schools contribute to religious intolerance, research by the late Dr. Daniel Murphy was presented to show that the opposite was the case, said the report. Dr. Murphy's research produced four main conclusions. First, evidence from the U.S., Australia, and France showed that Catholic schools excel in “school effectiveness,” which includes academic and other categories, according to the report.

Second, his report said that where state funds are allowed to help pay for a parent's choice of a denominational school, there is little danger of “social elitism.” However, where states refuse to help fund the private education of citizens, he said the chances were higher that the best schools will be reserved for the upper-classes — although he added that American Catholic schools have been an exception to the rule in this regard. Third, he found that research in the U.S. and Australia shows that Catholic school students are “less prejudiced in religious matters than those who attend public schools,” quoted the report.

Fourth, his paper shared the “profound concern in many quarters” that denominational schools “must not be absorbed into a multi-faith pluralism that will diminish and weaken their cultural distinctiveness, rendering them less effectual as schools, to say nothing of their effective promotion of their ethical and religious ideas,” the paper quoted.