A GOLD Coast priest has a sense of “gratitude, relief and exhaustion” after a five-year long campaign that led to the scrapping of a Queensland law that allowed “gay panic” as a partial defence for murder. Surfers Paradise associate pastor Fr Paul Kelly “never doubted” he was fighting for a just cause – the Christian principle of absolute respect for human ... Read More »
THE stabbing of a Melbourne parish priest was “disturbing and surprising”, Brisbane’s St Stephen’s Cathedral dean Fr David Pascoe said. “We see it overseas, we don’t expect it here, so when it does happen here we are taken aback,” said Fr Pascoe, who has seen security beefed up around Brisbane’s cathedral precinct in the past six months, and in the ... Read More »
INDEPENDENT Member for Cairns Rob Pyne has attacked the Catholic Church as “a law unto itself” as he introduced a private member’s bill dealing with child abuse into Queensland Parliament. The bill would legally require priests and other ministers of religion to report cases of abuse. Mr Pyne said if a member of the clergy had knowledge of a crime, ... Read More »
AUSTRALIA’S youth justice system is under extreme pressure. In the past few months incarcerated juveniles have rioted in Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria, with serious incidents in the Northern Territory. On November 10, up to 20 young offenders at Townsville’s Cleveland Detention Centre went on a night-long rampage that forced prison staff into hiding. Some sustained serious injuries and were ... Read More »
A PRIEST who grew up hiding in a forest amongst East Timor’s independence fighters has praised the efforts of Queensland Catholics helping to rebuild his war-ravaged village. Fr Evaristo Da Costa travelled to Burleigh Heads to personally thank parishioners who have spent the past five years raising money and donating for the reconstruction of his parish’s St Teresinha College in ... Read More »
IN the wake of the Catholic Church’s final hearing before the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse, Church leaders from across Australia have held a day of “reflection and conversation” on child safety. The three-week Royal Commission hearing investigated the Church’s response to a crisis of child sexual abuse by members over six decades, and particularly the Church’s plans for child ... Read More »
BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge praised “the vision and energy” of the Burleigh Heads community as he blessed and dedicated the new Mary, Mother of Mercy Church in Australia’s largest Catholic parish. “I praise God not only for the priests who have built this place, for the craftsmen who have done the same, but for all of you who have been ... Read More »
SEVEN Pacific island nations have called for a United Nations investigation into alleged human rights abuses in Indonesia’s West Papua and Papua provinces where a separatist movement has simmered for decades. Vanuatu’s Justice Minister Ronald Warsal made the request during a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, on behalf of his country as well as Tonga, Nauru, ... Read More »
CATHOLIC environmental advocates say the State of the Environment report recognises the links between climate change and human activity. Sister of Mercy Wendy Flannery, the convener of Climate Frontlines at Friends of the Earth, Brisbane, said the report “echoes Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ in so many ways”. She said the report acknowledged what Pope Francis eloquently affirmed throughout his encyclical ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
