The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You

AUSTRALIA’S Prime Minister has signalled a government shift to take stronger action on climate change, amidst a Church leader’s call for an “ecological conversion”, and the country’s scientific and business communities demanding a solid response to the bushfire crisis. The chairman of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Commission for Social Justice Bishop Vincent Long said the bushfire crisis wais “a wake-up ... Read More »

YOUNG Catholic firefighter Michael O’Donovan prays for protection, calling on God to stand by him and others, even in the fiercest of blazes. “God is all powerful. When you have an all- powerful God you ask Him for things you’d like his support in,” the 23-year-old from Brisbane said. After signing up as a volunteer less than 10 months ago, ... Read More »

SHANE Warne revealed the raw depth of feeling about our bushfire crisis when he announced he would auction his treasured baggy green cap to raise money for bushfire victims. “I hope my baggy green can raise some significant funds to help all those people that are in desperate need,” he said, reaching out to his social media fan base to ... Read More »

PRIESTS working in Australia’s worst bushfire-ravaged districts have praised the courage and “generosity of spirit” of their communities. But with more heatwave conditions expected, they have warned of the long-term impact of disaster trauma. “We have parishioners fighting fires, those who have lost their homes, and those who are playing a part with the evacuation centres,” Fr Luke Verrell said ... Read More »

THE Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has launched a national Church response to deal with the unprecedented scale of the bushfire crisis. “The efforts of firefighters have been heroic. The resilience of the communities affected has been extraordinary,” ACBC president Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane said. “This has been Australia at its best … but we need more than words. Expressions ... Read More »

THE former judge who chaired the royal commission into child sexual abuse has singled out the Catholic Church as the only institution whose leaders failed to recognise sexual assaults of children as a crime, as distinct from a moral failure.   “I cannot comprehend how any person, much less one with qualifications in theology and very often further qualifications from recognised ... Read More »

FOR a long time now there’s been an empty place at the Devitt’s family Christmas table. It’s almost ten years since Michael Devitt disappeared in the Whitsundays region. Normally, Michael, a 48 year-old, father of three, a happy-go-lucky truck driver would make it back to Brisbane for Christmas get-together with his older brother Gary and the rest of the extended ... Read More »

CAIRNS Bishop James Foley is to step down due to ailing health after 27 years, and is expected to cease duties early next year. “I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s (disease) earlier this year … and I submitted my resignation,” 71-year-old Bishop Foley told The Catholic Leader. One of Australia’s longest-serving current bishops, Bishop Foley has written a letter to Cairns ... Read More »

BRISBANE archdiocese has received a high rating – but still with room for improvement – in a landmark report on its safeguarding arrangements. The report is the first conducted in an Australian archdiocese by Catholic Professional Standards Limited, set up by the Church leadership in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The National Catholic ... Read More »