A NEW memory café in south-east Queensland’s rural heartland, Kingaroy, aims to support people with dementia and those who care for them. Social isolation and a lack of services are the biggest barriers caring for rural people with dementia, according to a health care specialist. “Let’s be frank, there aren’t the services in rural areas, and there’s a stigma attached ... Read More »
A PROMINENT pro-life doctor has warned there will be more sex-selection abortions and women would suffer serious physical and psychological harm if Queensland parliamentarians push ahead to decriminalise abortion modelled on Victoria’s legislation that allows terminations up to birth. “It can be abortion up to birth for any reason including sex-selection abortion,” Sydney general practitioner Dr Cath Lennon said ahead ... Read More »
BRISBANE Archbishop and Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Mark Coleridge has used a Vatican visit to publicly demand bishops “be accountable” in changing Church culture that made child abuse possible. “We’re not above the law, we are not a law unto ourselves nor is the Church a law unto herself,” Archbishop Coleridge said following a conference on safeguarding and child ... Read More »
FR Maurizio Pettena firmly believes the key to welcoming migrants and refugees into parish life is listening to their stories. “Let’s be attentive to details,” Fr Pettena, director of the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office said, launching the 104th World Day of Migrants and Refugees to be held on Sunday, August 26. “Hear their cry – where they come ... Read More »
THE Australian Press Council has concluded that a News Corp Australia story published during the lead-up to last year’s same-sex marriage vote, failed to ensure fairness and balance in reporting a protest outside a Brisbane church. The story on the news.com.au site on September 8 was headlined “Marriage equality supporters clash with church-goers in Brisbane protest” to describe a protest ... Read More »
THE Queensland Government is to set up a Truth, Healing and Reconciliation task force after accepting more than half of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. The government has accepted or “accepted in principle” 244 of the 409 Royal Commission recommendations, and says a task force will be set up within months to carry them out. ... Read More »
AS Queenslanders prepare for a ban on plastic shopping bags from July 1, Catholics are being urged to think more broadly about giving up harmful, single-use plastic items to protect the environment. “Using plastics is not a respectful use of resources,” Brisbane Catholic Erin Kennedy, a member of the archdiocesan Justice and Peace commission, said. “It has such a detrimental ... Read More »
PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull is to deliver a national apology to survivors of institutional child sexual abuse on October 22. “Now we have uncovered the shocking truth we must do everything in our power to honour the bravery of the thousands of people who came forward,” Mr Turnbull said, announcing the Federal Government’s formal response to the Royal Commission into ... Read More »
CHURCH leaders are standing firm in support of priests upholding the seal of confession as a “religious freedom”, despite a new law that would require a priest to break the seal to report allegations of child abuse and misconduct. Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge described the new law – that will apply in the Australian Capital ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
