David Timbs (Melbourne)    2016 articles         Previous articles

August 7: Time for a new reception of Vatican II (Published by Catholics for Renewal) Some thoughts are offered on what may be required of the Church, both the universal and local, in order to respond afresh to the vision and the challenges of Vatican II 

2016-06-12: Loris Capovilla, Pope John XXIII and Vatican II
(First published by Catholics for Renewal)
- the saintly Jesuit who kept the vision of Vatican II alive

2016-04-17: Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, Francis and Mercy
(first published by Catholics for Renewal)
Pope Francis has served the Church well in reclaiming the collective memory of Vatican II, in validating its authority and affirming its vision. The Council led the People of God out of a tired old near static ecclesiastical world into a stunning new human environment with all the challenges of modernity. A major accomplishment of Vatican II was to shift the Church’s centre of gravity away from itself into the very centre of human society, to embrace the world and evangelise it from the inside as its citizens and not from the outside as strangers

2016-02-21  Second Sunday of Lent: The Transfiguration
What is most significant in this drama is that, in the moment of prayerful communion with God, the appearance of Jesus’ face changed. Jesus was not just transfigured, he was transformed

2016-02-14: The Age of Entitlement is over (first published by Catholics for Renewal)
It is quite likely that the majority of the bishops in this country would not have been appointed if its priests and people had a meaningful role in the appointment process. It is now time for a fundamental rearrangement of the structures of pastoral care, consultation and institutional governance in the Catholic Church. To facilitate this, the clergy and people need to reappropriate confidently the rights to participation in the selection and election of bishops, a right and duty they had exercised for twelve hundred years.