QUEENSLAND’S has officially opened a hospice for children with life-limiting conditions and their families. Hummingbird House, which officially opened last week, is only the third children’s hospice in Australia. In stark comparison, the United Kingdom has 53 children’s hospices. The Queensland-first is an eight-bed facility, providing a wide range of services including – short stay breaks, symptom management, family wellbeing, ... Read More »
PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s election commitment to hold a same-sex marriage plebiscite has failed, however the issue remains volatile. In dramatic events last Tuesday, Labor senators and MPs formally rejected Federal Government legislation for a people’s vote, but then ramped up calls for a parliamentary vote. It meant that Labor, by teaming up with the Greens, the Nick Xenophon Team ... Read More »
IN the rural South Burnett region, death from suicide has been almost double the rate compared to Brisbane. The region is in the north of the Brisbane archdiocese, yet it is lacking in the vital services– psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health nurses – which can help reduce self inflicted injuries and deaths Between 2009 and 2013 there were 18 deaths ... Read More »
EIGHT Australians are taking their own life each day – a deeply disturbing statistic. The annual suicide rate climbed to more than 3000 deaths for the first time in 2015 – and unfortunately this bleak snapshot is compounded by a new survey finding that more than 80 per cent of Australians believe our society is becoming a lonelier place. Queensland ... Read More »
REBEKAH Dowling is putting her pacifist beliefs into practise by joining Christian Peacemaker Teams visiting northern Iraq. The young Brisbane university student spent the past fortnight visiting refugee camps and villages close to fighting. Ms Dowling, 23, is the daughter of West End Catholic Worker Movement founders Jim Dowling and Anne Rampa and grew up in a radical Christian family ... Read More »
THE future life in Australia for 22-year-old Iranian asylum seeker Mojgan Shamsalipoor remains “in limbo” despite her release from detention last month. She was awarded a bridging visa and released into the arms of her Australian resident husband Milad Jafari on September 21 after two years in detention centres in Brisbane and Darwin. It is understood that Ms Shamsalipoor was ... Read More »
AUSTRALIANS’ right to freedom of speech is on the line, according to Queensland doctor David van Gend, after a commercial printer refused to print his new book on the same-sex marriage debate. In Stealing From A Child – the injustice of ‘marriage equality’, the Toowoomba-based president of the Australian Marriage Forum, Dr van Gend claims “to lay bare the subversive ... Read More »
MICK Sullivan is 77 and has lived an active life. The Dutton Park pensioner, lives a simple, frugal life, but he does miss a few of the pleasures that he once took for granted. “I love a leg of lamb but I haven’t been able to afford one since I’ve been on the pension,” he said. Mr Sullivan also waits ... Read More »
SYDNEY Catholic Maryanne Hemsley said her arrest and conviction for standing up against using coal and other fossil fuels was “a matter of faith”. “It isn’t only up to young people to demand a better response to climate change, it is up to all of us,” Mrs Hemsley, parish secretary of St Joseph’s Church, Enfield, said. Mrs Hemsley was one ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
