THE year began with champagne corks popping as Brisbane’s Mater Hospitals celebrated 100 years of care and a $12.6 million funding boost on January 4.
Human trafficking became the focus of a group of non-government organisations, including 15 religious congregations of nuns, who prepared a report to the United Nations calling on Australia to take a greater human rights approach to the scourge.
Thousands of Catholics also hit the streets of Brisbane for a national day of action on January 29 to fight the importation of the abortion drug RU486.
In February, Pope Benedict XVI released his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love”) calling for a deeper understanding of God as Catholic leaders denounced a series of satirical newspaper cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed that caused riots in several countries.
In a rare conscience vote, senators approved a private member’s bill stripping the Federal Health Minister of his powers to veto the abortion drug RU486, disappointing Catholic leaders and pro-life groups.
March had Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby urging Catholics not to leave their religion in church on Sunday, but to live it 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Paul Chandler was ordained to the priesthood for Brisbane archdiocese.
Massgoers were praying for the victims of Cyclone Larry in far north Queensland which damaged a number of Catholic schools and churches.
The first anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II and the first anniversary of Benedict XVI as Pope were remembered in special editions of The Leader in April as young Australian Catholic representatives were in Rome for the official handover of the World Youth Day Cross and Icon on April 19.
Australia’s Catholic bishops were also denouncing The Da Vinci Code book and film as a work of fiction.
In May, Catholics were asked to pray for two miners, Brant Webb and Todd Russell, trapped almost 1 km underground after a collapse in a Tasmanian gold mine. They were rescued on May 9.
Meanwhile, it was reported there were signs of a spiritual lift in parishes across the archdiocese following the implementation of Let Your Light Shine in 2004-05.
In June, it was announced that Holy Spirit Seminary would return to the site of the former Pius XII Provincial Seminary at Banyo while a letter from the Australian Catholic bishops urged Prime Minister John Howard to reconsider proposed legislation to process all boatpeople asylum claims offshore.
July brought news that priests and seminarians from Nigeria would be coming to Brisbane archdiocese as part of a bid to help alleviate the clergy shortage.
Meanwhile, youth turned out in force on July 16 for the official Brisbane launch of the campaign leading up to World Youth Day 2008 and a Come Holy Spirit archdiocesan-wide prayer campaign was credited with a wave of blessings for the church in south-east Queensland.
In August, little miracle Sophie Delezio was recovering from a second serious accident in less than three years and a three-year study of youth spirituality revealed almost half of Australia’s Generation Y identified with a traditional religion but only 19 per cent were actively involved with a Church.
Catholic Social Services Australia revealed it would have been “immoral” for its member agencies to take part in the Federal Government’s welfare to work scheme on August 17.
In September, Australia’s religious leaders called for calm after a speech by the Pope in Germany stirred Muslim protests and threats of violence.
Meanwhile, English Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor visited Australia, where he gave a number of talks on the role of the Church in modern society.
The stem cell debate again reared its head after the Lockhart Review called for a ban on therapeutic cloning to be lifted.
In October, The Catholic Leader was relaunched with a new bigger, brighter redesign.
The Australian Catholic bishops also released their 2006 Social Justice Sunday Statement calling for a justly reconciled Australia as indigenous Catholics gathered in Alice Springs for the 20th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s visit there.
November brought prayers for rain and a warning from Catholic Earthcare Australia that the country faced an environmental crisis unless it invested in renewable energies.
Meanwhile, the Senate narrowly voted 34-32 in favour of a private member’s bill to allow human cloning.
In his Advent pastoral letter in December, Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane declared 2007 would be the Year of Jesus.
And research commissioned by Australia’s Catholic bishops found many Catholics stop attending Mass because they have fallen out of the habit of regular attendance.
The year closed with the cloning debate again in the news as MPs in the House of Representatives voted 82-62 to give Australian scientists the go-ahead to extract stem cells from embryos, a process that destroys the tiny human being.
