The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You

UNIONS, churches and even some businesses have joined a chorus of concern against the recent decision to reduce weekend penalty rates. While unions are planning an ongoing campaign of industrial action, Catholic Religious Australia is concerned that the Fair Work Commission’s decision will increase inequity and hurt the most vulnerable people – the young, women and students. “As politicians claim ... Read More »

LYNDA Mussell counts it as a privilege to spread the message of how Caritas helps some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. Catholic Agency For Overseas Development counts it as a privilege to spread the message of how Caritas helps some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. Ms Mussell works for Catholic Agency For Overseas Development (CAFOD), the ... Read More »

ONE of Gladstone’s Catholic priests has lent support to a bid to build an Islamic centre in the central Queensland town, despite an anti-Muslim campaign. “I’m absolutely in support of them being able to worship as easily as I do,” Star of the Sea parish priest Marist Father Kevin Redmond said. The Islamic Society of Gladstone has lodged a development ... Read More »

BRISBANE’S first Memory Café runs to support people with dementia and those who care for them. “It’s a relaxing opportunity to share stories and hear solutions from other people, whilst enjoying refreshments,” Centacare’s Caroline Grogan, who co-ordinates a program for carers, said. Ms Grogan said something as simple as a chat over a cuppa, with a slice of cake, and ... Read More »

TEN years ago at 53, Robyn Weller was working hard and looking forward to a happy retirement with husband Bob, but she was forgetting things. “She’d go downtown to do the shopping, and I’d get a phone call. ‘I can’t find the car’,” Bob Weller, who used to run cattle on a farm outside Kingaroy, said. “I’d drive into town ... Read More »

PARRAMATTA Bishop Vincent Long has told the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse that he was a victim of sexual abuse by clergy. Bishop Long, who came to Australia as a refugee from Vietnam, told the commission he was abused soon after his arrival. “I was also a victim of sexual abuse by clergy when I first came to Australia, ... Read More »

“THE meddling priest” is a description that still sits well with Jesuit priest, law professor and Queenslander Fr Frank Brennan. In his first week as chief executive officer of Catholic Social Services Australia, Fr Brennan said he had a clear plan for change. “We are living in a society where the gap between rich and poor is becoming wider, and ... Read More »

BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge described the Church as “a law unto ourselves”, and said Pope Francis and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse were catalysts for cultural change. Archbishop Coleridge was a panellist on the third day of the Royal Commission hearing in Sydney discussing Catholic Church structural and cultural issues, including accountability and transparency. Archbishop Coleridge ... Read More »

THOUSANDS of pro-life marchers in Brisbane have piled the pressure on Queensland politicians to oppose a private member’s bill aimed at decriminalising abortion. The people-power, pro-life message at the March for Life was clear – politicians and community leaders marched behind banners proclaiming “people deserve better than abortion”, mothers held babies and pushed strollers, and families delighted in the carnival ... Read More »