The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You

HEADING into the final days of the Australian election campaign party leaders zigzagged across the country, covering vast distances to win over voters and, at times, fielding thorny questions about gay marriage, free speech and religious belief. Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison brushed aside questions about whether his personal views on same-sex marriage had changed since his vocal opposition to ... Read More »

QUEENSLAND’S peak Catholic women’s group has told a state parliamentary inquiry that the health system should not be focused on ending life but on providing good-quality palliative care. “We’ve got to stand up for what we believe,” 82-year-old Veronica Box, who is state president of the Catholic Women’s League, said after addressing the Inquiry into Aged Care End-of-Life, Palliative Care ... Read More »

BISHOPS in Australia have welcomed a sweeping new law ordering officials in the Church worldwide to report cases of clergy sexual abuse – and attempts to cover it up – to their superiors.  Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge said the law contained in a new papal document “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (You are the Light of ... Read More »

THE Archdiocese of Brisbane is to undergo a groundbreaking full audit of its safeguarding practices starting next month. It means that 25 per cent of Brisbane’s 98 parishes and archdiocesan offices are likely to be audited – the first archdiocese in Australia to do so. “I welcome it,” Brisbane’s director of the Office for Safeguarding Services Mark Eustance said. “It’s ... Read More »

THE Plenary Council 2020 is yielding a “counter cultural” shift in the way Catholics in Australia communicate, with huge numbers among the country’s five million faithful sharing their stories of calling and commitment. “For many lay people, it is the first time they may feel that the Church is seeking their input on the future of the Catholic Church in ... Read More »

ROGERIO Castro Da Cruz, a devout Catholic, clearly remembers his mindset as an 18-year-old student, the day he marched from Dili’s historic Church de Santo António de Motael to the nearby Santa Cruz cemetery.  “Death or independence. That determination was absolute,” he said. Mr Castro Da Cruz was one of a group of East Timorese veterans to visit Brisbane last ... Read More »

TRIBUTES are flowing for Les Murray, celebrated Australian poet, larrikin and Catholic, who died this week leaving a world-recognised literary legacy.  Leslie Allan Murray (pictured), known as the Bush Bard of Bunyah, died in Taree on the NSW Mid North Coast on April 28, aged 80.  Bunyah is where he grew up on a poor dairy farm, and it is ... Read More »

MEETING Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge and attending ex-servicemen’s events were among the highlights for veterans of Timor’s war of liberation, visiting South East Queensland for Anzac Day commemorations. Led by former clandestine intelligence operative Jorge Alves, the nine veterans from Timor Leste, attended the Anzac Day Mass in St Stephen’s Cathedral. Earlier that day, the Timor veterans participated in the ... Read More »

AS party leaders face the cameras, flitting from one battleground seat to another, and trying to win over middle Australia ahead of the May 18 federal poll, the Catholic bishops’ social services advisory body has reminded politicians Australia needs “a culture of inclusion, support and equality”. “A nation’s success is not measured by the wealth of a few, but by ... Read More »