God took the strength of a mountain,

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French-born Master General of the Dominican Order, Fr Bruno Cadoré OP met with clerical leaders and students in Sydney last week during a whistle-stop tour of Australia, reports the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.

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Rabbi Abraham Skorka says he sees the Pope not just as the head of the Catholic Church, but above all else as a close friend. In fact, back in Argentina they co-hosted a weekly television show.

In an interview with the UKs Catholic Herald, Cardinal George Pell said he is looking forward to the first meeting of the Pope’s new advisory group in October but he won’t be recommending the need for another Vatican Council.

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Odoardo Focherini's life was nothing less than adventurous. A professional journalist, during WWII he saved more than 100 Jews from the Holocaust by helping them cross the Italian border with false documents. After being detained by the Nazis, he died in a German concentration camp. Focherini was a father of seven and is remembered by his relatives as an inspiring person. And now he is going to be the first journalist to be beatified!

At the age of 18, I was a high school dropout who robbed three banks, and was on his way to maximum-security prison. There didn’t seem to be much reason for hope. Then one day in April 2007, while doing yard work, God reached down and reversed the course of my life with the resounding intervention: “I love you and I forgive you”—followed by an infusion of his divine love. From that moment on I set aside everything I thought I knew, and pursued this love. I was surprised to soon find that the source of this love was Jesus Christ, and that my home was the Roman Catholic Church...

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Second year student at the University of Notre Dame's Sydney School of Medicine, John Farey has won a hotly-contested national award for a short story he wrote after spending two weeks as a volunteer at a displaced people's camp in Kenya.

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The parents of kidnapped American journalist Austin Tice have appealed again for his release, voicing gratitude for Pope Francis' words on behalf of all abducted victims in the Syrian conflict. “It is a tremendous comfort to know the Holy Father is praying for the people of Syria, and that he has personally appealed to the humanity of kidnappers to release their victims,” Marc and Debra Tice of Houston, Texas told CNA June 3.

The Smith Family helps to bridge the digital divide by making access to computers and the internet more affordable for disadvantaged families. The Technology Packs Project provides low-cost, refurbished, internet-ready computers and skills training to families so they can access the technology at home.

Pell and Hart do not claim to have handled an extremely difficult situation without error. But they did well enough. It's just that these days, whatever they do is criticised: if they point out that each bishop is responsible only for his own diocese, they are accused of avoiding responsibility; if they acknowledge the errors made by the likes of Little, Mulkearns and Kennedy, they are accused of shifting the blame and; if they apologise, they are invariably told by the victims or their families that they are not genuine or lack sufficient remorse.

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