THE Catholic Church is to set up a new national office for safeguarding to streamline and co-ordinate efforts to protect children. “The Catholic Church in Australia is bringing into a single entity several national agencies working in the area of child protection and safeguarding,” Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said. One of the agencies ... Read More »
MOST of us can relate – we simply have too much stuff. But what happens if we hang on to that stuff for far too long, or collect it to the point that it not only clutters our home, but overtakes it? Sometimes piles of mess go beyond being an eyesore – furniture, magazines, car parts and tools, rancid food, ... Read More »
BRISBANE’S Stella Maris seafarers mission has provided prayers and pastoral support for a grieving ship’s crew after their captain died suddenly at sea. The cargo carrier Sofrana Tourville 2 docked in Brisbane on June 16, and its 18-member Filipino crew requested the services of a priest after the vessel’s captain’s death en route from Noumea. Members of Centacare’s Stella Maris ... Read More »
A CATHOLIC publisher is seeking donations from supporters of Cardinal George Pell so that it can release his prison diary, describing it as “a spiritual classic”. Catholic publisher Ignatius Press hopes to release the diary in instalments, with the first volume likely to be published in 2021. Ignatius’ editor Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio has sent a letter to email subscribers ... Read More »
A CATHOLIC academic has defended the value of popular arts degrees after the Federal Government announced sweeping changes to high education funding aimed at producing “job-ready graduates”. “It’s a shame to send a message that the humanities aren’t worthwhile in terms of career,” Campion College president Paul Morrissey said, after Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan outlined a new fees structure ... Read More »
COLUMBAN Father Warren Kinne remembers fondly his early years as a missionary, zipping between villages on a Honda motorbike. “In the early 70s we would have been some of the first missionaries to seriously get into bikes,” Fr Kinne, celebrating 50 years of priesthood, said. The 74-year-old Columban who grew up in Bundaberg, chuckled as he reflected on his far-flung ... Read More »
STEPHEN Kamal has a dream – to deliver one million books to children in a war-torn region of Africa where he grew up. Last week, with the help of many Catholic schools across Brisbane, Mr Kamal oversaw a shipment of 30,000 books – stage one of his ambitious plan to help educate young people in his Nuba Mountain homeland. “Our ... Read More »
THE discovery that his two sisters are alive in Africa means the world to young refugee Axel Dushime. The Year 12 St James College, Spring Hill student recently received confirmation that his sisters – Nadine, 22, and Palfait, 16, survived after his family was separated fleeing to Kenya from war-torn Burundi five years ago. “I believed one day I would ... Read More »
AUSTRALIA’S new $688m HomeBuilder package has been described as “hitting the jackpot” by some potential homeowners, but there are warnings that the initiative has failed low-income families. The package offers a grant of $25,000 to build a new home worth less than $750,000 or to spend between $150,000 and $750,000 renovating an existing home. The scheme is limited to owner-occupiers ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
