A GLOSSY Australian wedding magazine has shut down after standing by a decision not to feature same-sex couples. That decision sparked a consumer boycott of White Magazine and led to its closure. It is one of two religious freedom cases that has come to light, as the Federal Government is under pressure to release a long-awaited review of religious freedoms ... Read More »
DAYS of bushfires burning in coastal areas across Central Queensland have destroyed homes, torn through thousands of hectares of bush and farmland, and forced more than 1500 residents to evacuate. However, amid heatwave conditions, the loss and worry, the spirit and deeds of smoky-faced volunteers has inspired entire communities. “The whole community is pulling together with this disaster,” Agnes Water ... Read More »
THE tragic death of a baby girl found washed up on a beach has highlighted a shocking crisis of homelessness on the Gold Coast. Fr Peter Dillon, parish priest at Surfers Paradise, where the baby girl was found in the early hours of November 19, said behind the Coast’s “glitter” strip was a grim reality for too many people sleeping ... Read More »
AUSTRALIAN Catholic bishops have demanded federal members of parliament provide protection for religious schools operating according to their faith. The move follows the shadow attorney general Mark Dreyfus announcing on November 27 that Labor would introduce its own Private Member’s Bill, to repeal the exemptions for religious schools in section 38(3) of the Sex Discrimination Act. The Bishops said Parliament ... Read More »
PRO-lifer Graham Preston, a regular campaigner outside Brisbane’s abortion clinics, knows his days of freedom to do that are numbered. Queensland’s Termination of Pregnancy Bill – effectively legalising abortion – comes into force on December 3, and 63-year-old Mr Preston faces arrest if he continues his activism. New laws will establish 150m exclusion or “bubble zones” around abortion clinics or medical ... Read More »
A QUEENSLAND bishop has demanded it was time to bring home the remaining Bali Nine, convicted after smuggling drugs in 2005 and still languishing behind bars in Indonesia. “Surely our government and the Indonesian government could get together and talk about the possibility of getting those Australians home,” Townsville Bishop Tim Harris, who has a deep pastoral connection with the ... Read More »
In a country where water is key to security and survival, Israeli authorities are rallying to save the shrinking Sea of Galilee that has reached its lowest level in a century CHRISTIAN pilgrims flock to the shores of the holy Sea of Galilee to visit the sites where Jesus performed healing miracles and walked on water. Yet when they ... Read More »
THE head of Church aid agency Caritas Australia says Australia’s strategic pivot towards the Pacific region, including the introduction of long-term loans for new projects, ignores needs and priorities identified by the region’s political and Church leaders. Caritas Australia chief executive officer Paul O’Callaghan said “climate-change financing and local aid are really what Pacific Islanders are calling for”. Mr O’Callaghan ... Read More »
TWO months after being baptised a Catholic, former governor-general and declared atheist Bill Hayden is eagerly anticipating the joy of his First Holy Communion. “It will be exciting because I have never done it before in my life,” the sharp-witted, but frail 85-year-old said as he considered his new-found faith journey. Speaking from his farm outside Ipswich, Queensland, where he ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
