A BRISBANE student plenary assembly – the first held in Australia – has identified greater inclusion and equality for women, and a need for priests to be more tech-savvy as key issues for the Church today. “We are facing a crisis and we want to face it together, because the Catholic Church is important for Australia as a whole,” Brisbane ... Read More »

CATHOLIC musician Emma Fradd likes the word revival. “I’m a direct communicator, because I think (revival) signifies that something is dead and lifeless,” Emma said. “And I think a lot of parish music in our country is dead.” Recognising there was a problem was the first step to solving it, and Emma, who is touring Brisbane parishes as part of ... Read More »

“WE have had a lot of good feedback from the wives; and the husbands have come home and been really happy because they’ve actually been able to talk to other men and generally they don’t get that,” Centacare service delivery manager Felicity Arnold said. Ms Arnold helps to run Waminda Men’s Group, one of a number of groups that won ... Read More »

EXHAUSTED fire crews battled flames in catastrophic conditions, as unprecedented bushfires claimed lives and livelihoods, and smoke shrouded east coast towns from Sydney to far north Queensland. Read More »

AUSTRALIAN government officials have turned Witness K and his or her lawyer Bernard Collaery into scapegoats, Josephite Sister Susan Connelly said at a public forum about the espionage case at Brisbane City Hall on October 29. Senior Counsel Bret Walker, who at one stage represented Witness K, and Professor Clinton Fernandes, who had appeared on ABC television as a case ... Read More »

HEALTH industry leaders have demanded major changes following a shocking Royal Commission report describing the nation’s aged care as “cruel and harmful” and older Australians in nursing care as “just another body to be washed, fed and mobilised”. “It’s distressing to hear how the current system has failed to deliver older Australians the care, dignity and respect they deserve,” Catholic ... Read More »

BEING a stutterer I was never called upon at school to try out for the debating team – the warning bell would have gone before I had got past “Good evening ladies and gentlemen!” But I love debating and believe it is one of the essential life skills taught in our schools.  One of my more memorable moments teaching Religious ... Read More »

MUCH-needed rain has fallen on parched regions of Queensland and New South Wales – bringing temporary relief and lifting spirits. Battling farm families celebrated as the heavens opened, just as the Church entered a month of prayer for rain, and for those touched by the crippling drought. Some rural kids witnessed their first major downpour, splashing in puddles and playing ... Read More »

CHANCES are you know someone in Generation Z. They are digital natives who are predicted to work 18 jobs in six careers and live in 15 homes in their lifetime. Generation Z was also the least religious generation. Two staff at St Thomas More College, Sunnybank, have taken on this challenge by publishing the 95-page Gen Z Prayer Book.  St ... Read More »