How we respect and treat some of our most vulnerable – our sick, aged, and terminally ill – is a vital consideration for many Queenslanders preparing to vote. After years of heated and polarizing debate, it will be the state MPs we elect on October 31 who decide whether to back legislation aiming to legalise voluntary euthanasia. Voluntary Assisted Dying ... Read More »

“AND the winner is … Sydney.” Those words, declared in 1993 by Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch, spoke volumes about the public drive and commitment displayed by John Fahey, who died on September 12, aged 75, after a battle with leukaemia. Famously, Mr Fahey, then Premier of New South Wales jumped out of his seat and celebrated wildly with ... Read More »

CATHOLIC relief agencies are gearing up for another summer of extreme hazards after the Bureau of Meteorology changed its outlook to a “La Nina Alert”. “We need to be better prepared at local levels for climate emergencies,” Catholic Social Services Australia chief executive officer Dr Ursula Stephens said. “This summer looks like one of cyclones and storms, so being prepared ... Read More »

TERRY and Rita Tolhurst toasted 50 years of marriage in a way they “had never anticipated” with 30 family members on the screen via Zoom on August 17. The couple said the day was “absolutely brilliant” even if they couldn’t meet up in person. Their anniversary day started with a specially live-streamed Monday Mass celebrated by Bracken Ridge parish priest ... Read More »

BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge has called for compassion as the Queensland Government maintains tough COVID-19 quarantine rules that barred a Canberra-based nurse from attending her father’s funeral. “If proper precautions are taken in the interests of public health, compassion means that people should be allowed to attend funerals, to visit terminally ill family members before they die, to make mercy ... Read More »

REGENTS Park parishioner John McClelland watched St Bernadine’s go from “just shrub” to a bustling Catholic community as he looked back on the 40th anniversary of the parish last Sunday. “We’ve gone from strength to strength,” Mr McClelland, who is a member of the Order of Australia, said. He chalked it up to community cohesion. “We come together and we ... Read More »

CATCHING a platypus in the wild is something that’s steered Tamielle Brunt’s career. The magic moment happened at a creek in the Grampians National Park in Victoria. “I was living in Mackay at the time and flew down to Victoria and had three days at the Grampains trapping platypuses (during a platypus survey),” she said. “And we caught one and ... Read More »

SOME of Brisbane’s homeless call her “Santa”, but Sr Salvacion Bunao likes to think of herself just as a nun serving the vulnerable, inspired and challenged by the Pope. The Franciscan Immaculatine Sister, who works alongside the Capuchins at South Brisbane, has been personally delivering food and good cheer to vulnerable members of her community, including elderly parishioners, families and ... Read More »

IF you told Augustinian Father Francis Belcina two years ago that his hair would be worth more than $4000 in 2020, he would have fallen off his chair. But that’s how much his congregation’s Vietnamese mission has pocketed following a successful fundraiser held over the past month. Fr Belcina, who is parish priest of St James Church, Coorparoo, has been ... Read More »