BARRY Guest places a handful of care packages at the foot of the gangplank, waves to the crew on board and retreats across the dock. It’s a new way of outreach that Mr Guest, a seafarer pastoral worker, can offer to crews stuck on board ships and unable to come ashore because of coronavirus restrictions. Mr Guest works for Brisbane’s ... Read More »

ECONOMIST Deacon Adam Walk said if he remembered anything about his grandparents’ generation, it was that they saved their incomes and did not borrow too much. Most of them grew up through the Great Depression and the Second World War, he said, when times were tough and saving money could be the difference between eating and going hungry. With coronavirus ... Read More »

SINCE churches can’t be adorned with palms branches this Sunday, Steven Bird has a plan to cover the front of his home instead. The father of three is among millions of Catholics who will enter Holy Week, which starts on Palm Sunday, with a heavy heart because of the unforeseen closure of churches nationwide. Palm Sunday, this year celebrated on ... Read More »

PARISH and school halls, boarding schools and other buildings owned by the Catholic Church will be put on standby as testing facilities and isolation centres for infected patients and front-line workers. Catholic Emergency Relief Australia (CERA), which was initially set up to respond to the bushfire crisis, announced on April 1 that the Catholic Church was undertaking a national audit ... Read More »

HIGH school teacher Mary Grace is on doctors orders to stay out of the classroom until the coronavirus outbreak flattens, but she has not completely left her students behind. The former St Paul’s Primary School teacher for English as an additional language who also does relief teaching was advised by her doctor to put her teaching career on hold because ... Read More »

FAMILIES preparing to enter into Holy Week at home due to COVID-19 restrictions have been encouraged to pray together as “the little church” alongside clergy who are celebrating the Triduum rites privately. Liturgy Brisbane director Fr Tom Elich said parishes have been distributing a prayer resource to allow families to spiritually connect with the celebrations of Holy Week, which begins ... Read More »

WHILE millions of Catholics transition to a virtual church experience due to the coronavirus pandemic, spare a thought and a prayer for people like Rikki Avenell. The 74-year-old has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung disorder that affects her breathing and keeps her hooked to an oxygen concentrator all hours of the day. She would experience severe medical complications if ... Read More »

A LONG-running parliamentary committee has recommended Queensland legalise voluntary assisted dying. Support for VAD is contained in a Queensland parliamentary health committee report examining end-of-life issues, tabled on March 31. It drew immediate condemnation from Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, who, together with other faith leaders in Queensland stridently oppose VAD – a form euthanasia. “The Parliamentary Committee’s recommendations on euthanasia ... Read More »

CHURCHES closed their doors in accordance with Federal Government health advice last week but that has not stopped local Catholics congregating in online communities to pray the Rosary together. Jeremy Fraser, who was a member of Surfers Paradise parish, led one of these groups. “The Rosary, and groups like this, I think are so important,” Mr Fraser said. Mr Fraser ... Read More »