Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News Australia

Catholic pensioner struggles to make ends meet

byMark Bowling
25 September 2016 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 2 mins read
AA
Pensioner Mick Sullivan

Mick Sullivan: “I love a leg of lamb but I haven’t been able to afford one since I’ve been on the pension.” Photo: Mark Bowling

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Pensioner Mick Sullivan
Mick Sullivan: “I love a leg of lamb but I haven’t been able to afford one since I’ve been on the pension.” Photo: Mark Bowling

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 for the monthly specials to buy two casks of shiraz.

“I’d prefer to be drinking a Henschke ‘Hill of Grace’,” he said, “but I can’t afford that.”

During his working years, Mr Sullivan was the national director of Australian Catholic Relief and later the executive director of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid.

He is grateful for many, sparkling memories. 

He met St John Paul II and St Teresa.

These days, Mr Sullivan struggles for his existence.

After paying 25 per cent of his fortnightly cheque on housing commission rent, his money is spent on groceries, transport and pharmaceutical needs including prescription medication.

Related Stories

Taliban target women’s rights as Australian bishops urge for more humanitarian places

Social services workers and vulnerable people need ready access to rapid antigen tests, Vinnies says

Why a Plenary Council? Archbishop Coleridge looks at the ‘great grace’ given to Australia for the century ahead

“I budget very carefully to pay my bills first,” he said. 

“If you get an urgent and unexpected expense, well that’s trouble.”

For clothing – even simple needs like new underpants or more expensive items like shoes – Mr Sullivan has to plan ahead carefully.

“Thank God I have a younger brother who can loan me money for emergencies.”

Mr Sullivan said he’d read a quarter of all Australians had less than $500 in a bank account at any one time. 

“That would be typical of pensioners,” he said.

Mr Sullivan faces physical as well as economic barriers. 

His legs cause him problems. 

He relies on a wheelie walker and struggles to step up on to buses. He can no longer walk up the hill to attend his local church, St Ita’s. 

But he finds ways to continue doing what’s important to him – with the help of the community around him.

“There are six practising Catholics living in these housing commission units and Communion is brought to us. I can also get across the road to the school Mass,” he said.

“And if I go to the movies I go with someone with a carer’s card, and so I can act as their carer and get in for free.”

By Mark Bowling

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Parish challenged to show face of mercy for migrants and refugees

Next Post

How do we bring people back to the Church? Focus on teenagers

Mark Bowling

Mark is the joint winner of the Australian Variety Club 2000 Heart Award for his radio news reporting in East Timor, and has also won a Walkley award, Australia’s most-respected journalism award. Mark is the author of ‘Running Amok’ that chronicles his time as a foreign correspondent juggling news deadlines and the demands of being a husband and father. Mark is married with four children.

Related Posts

Australian veterans in pain as Afghanistan falls to Taliban
World

Taliban target women’s rights as Australian bishops urge for more humanitarian places

28 January 2022
Testing woes: Shortages in the supply of rapid antigen tests is causing chaos for people needing a quick test result. Photo: CNS
QLD

Social services workers and vulnerable people need ready access to rapid antigen tests, Vinnies says

5 January 2022
Australian grace: "As I look back on the journey that has brought us to this point and forward to all that lies ahead, I would say that the Plenary Council is the great grace given to the Church in Australia at the dawn of the twenty-first century."
Australia

Why a Plenary Council? Archbishop Coleridge looks at the ‘great grace’ given to Australia for the century ahead

31 August 2021
Next Post
Steve Allgeyer

How do we bring people back to the Church? Focus on teenagers

Dr David van Gend

Author who claims discrimination by printer refusing to print book accepts decision, says he won't take action

Silence in the secular

Finding silence in the secular setting

Popular News

  • Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

    Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Christian Brothers’ community mourn the passing of Brother Tony White

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Vatican

All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

by Staff writers
27 May 2022
0

By Catholic News Agency THE Vatican is inviting Catholics to join Pope Francis in praying the rosary...

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

27 May 2022
Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

26 May 2022
Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

26 May 2022
Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

26 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping