Catholic intermarriages in Australia : attitudes to children, identity and sharing household responsibilities

A cursory glance of the human history shows a changing view about marriage on various aspects and levels. One of which is the level of people’s exploration leading to marriage with a spouse that may have different articles of faith.

This study’s focal concern is on Australia’s Catholics’ and Christians’ interfaith marriages, and its level of influence on attitudes to children, identity, and sharing household responsibilities. Expectations are predetermined from both parties but it can be discerned that with sound values, relationships can be rockbed strong.

Raising a family for two individuals with distinct spiritual formation can bring multidisciplinary results. It may be a source of inspiration not only for children seeing their parents respecting each other’s belief— for the love of fellow, own children, and especially the love that has flourished through the union of faith.

William Wardell's 1859 St John's College - a rare realisation of Pugin's ideal Catholic College?

William Wardell’s St John’s College, Sydney, considered the grandest and architecturally most distinguished university college in New South Wales, is an exceptional example of 19th century Gothic Revival architecture.  The information board outside the college states that St John’s is ‘a rare realisation of Pugin’s ideal Catholic College’ and further that ‘it demonstrates [Pugin]’s profound influence on the work of Wardell’. This is but a small part of the story. The commission for St John’s College was far more complex.  The correspondence between the architects, William Wardell, Edmund Blacket and others, and St John’s Council indicates that right from the beginning there was a general lack of understanding of Wardell’s original design concept for the building. This has continued to the present day, as evidenced by the information on the board outside St John’s College, in which it is incorrectly assumed that Wardell’s proposal included a quadrangle as featured in Pugin’s ‘ideal College’. This paper, based largely on primary sources, investigates such claims about St John’s, considers William Wardell and the Gothic Revival, examines St John’s College within the University of Sydney – its design and its translation and posits a few conclusions leading to new understandings.

Catholic girls: the mother-daughter nexus

This paper examines Catholic girlhood, womanhood and the mother–daughter
relationship, and its socio-historical construction within a range of disparate
discourses. The aim of the paper is to deconstruct dominant patriarchal
constructions and images of femininity, particularly those embedded within the
doctrine of Catholicism. Moreover, the paper intends to reveal traces of maternal
connections and relations which are often hidden by more dominant discourses.
Rather than providing a historical account of Catholic girlhood, the object is to tell
a perspectived story of the local and contextual experiences of growing up and
being educated to be a ‘good Catholic woman’ in suburban Melbourne, Australia
in the 1920s and 1960s. In telling the story it is hoped that other women can
momentarily engage with this narrative of Catholic girlhood and the mother–
daughter relationship.

Catholic mothers and daughters: resilient conversations

In this paper, conversations between a group of white, middle class, adult Australian mothers and daughters are examined to disclose the symbolic dimensions that mark girlhood, womanhood, motherhood and the mother– daughter dyad within Catholic discourse. In their conversations,women unravel and produce understandings of themselves as women, and as mothers and daughters that operate at both a symbolic and real material level. Thewomen in their intergenerational dialogue depict a visceral account of Catholic desire, guilt, pleasure, piety and anger. They offer insights into the curious patriarchal religious rituals; logic and superstition that shaped their Catholic upbringings and that still permeate their adult lives. For it becomes evident that they are still affected by, and living out, the intensity of this religious force. By constructing traces of the Catholic mother–daughter nexus which relates back to women’s conversations, the intention is not to construct a closed off space but, rather, to construct a place in which women actively talk, listen and read, and by so doing come to a better understanding of their own social gendered embodied selves.

Comparing personality type profiles of primary teachers in the Catholic and state school systems

O Evangelho segundo a Pastoral da Criança :por uma pedagogia da sobrevivência

This work aims to analyze social and educational actions at Pastoral da Criança, using education as a survival tool. This was done at Parque dos Coqueiros, a neighborhood in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. The methodology for data collection was composed of comprehensive interview (Jean Kaufmann), participant observation (Robert Bogdan) and documental analysis (Le Goff); all os which bring reflections related to concepts such as strategies, tatics and know how (Michel de Certeau), configuration (Nobert Elias), and control technology (Michel de Foucault), care ethics (Leonardo Boff) and etno-theories (Natália Ramos). Pastoral da Criança is a social action organism that belongs to the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil, originated at Florestópolis, Londrina (Paraná), in the year of 1983. These actions have been an expression of a new logic of actions of the Catholic Church. It values the participation of laymen in the activities of the Pastoral. Thus, the parish is seen as a nucleus that irradiates the Church s Social Doctrine. At Rio Grande do Norte this institution has guided poverty stricken families on issues related to children s health as well as working with laymen for volunteer work. This is considered devotion, that is firmed by an individual and group mystique. The social and educational actions are done in three axes: 1) Monthly home visits, where there is mother-child support; 2) Life Celebration Day, where they weigh children and promote nutritional surveillance; 3) Meeting for Evaluation and Reflection, that aims to articulate community leaders to think about problems attached to the social actions they realize. This action tripod , as it is called by the Pastoral Agents are the types of actions that fundament survival education for poor children ranging from 0 to 6 years old. The families learn to deal with prevention, the essential, the alternative and probabilities of survival tactics due to exclusion matters or even social extermination. The Pastoral da Criança aims to recover childhood emotions in poverty stricken areas. It also has influence in the diminishing of malnutrition and mother and child mortality. This education for survival is the base on the art of teaching and learning of poverty stricken children. It is a social educational action, non assistencialist, but considered a shy action in order to promote mobilization of the communities that are accompanied for the emancipation and change of social conditions

Involvement and emancipation of the worker. Action research in a university hospital

The present action research article is linked to an ergonomics project in a university hospital. The author's proposal is to focus action on the effective worker involvement required for the creation of spaces / mechanisms within organizations where people can enhance cooperation and deliberation on matters relating to work. For this purpose, a committee was introduced to assist in finding problems and solutions directly in work situations, so that workers could experience relative autonomy allowing them to develop procedures and choose tools appropriate to their own real needs. Based on this organizational implementation and on subsequent interviews, the practical results are analyzed and related to employee involvement. One can conclude that workers in all areas of the organization can be active elements for improving working conditions and productivity in companies.