Championing the Chaplain

Latest news from Australia is that a group of federal MPs have proposed that state (public) schools have full-time chaplains to lift religious standards, the incentive being the government would pay for half of the cost of employing them. The proposal has come under fire from unions who consider it as undermining the work of teachers, the Victorian Education Union going so far as to describe it as "sickening".

In other news, Australian actress Nicole Kidman has been reported to have rediscovered her Catholic faith as she prepares to marry country musician Keith Urban and has been in regular attendance at Church. Ms Kidman's previous marriage to actor Tom Cruise in the Church of Scientology had been annulled on advice from her close friend, Fr. Paul Coleman SJ.