THE floods that devastated Townsville in February last year swamped the St Margaret Mary’s College music room and theatre to the point it had to be demolished and rebuilt. But good fortune prevailed over the floodwaters. When builders were preparing the new building site after the demolition work, they unearthed a Year 9 History class time capsule from 1988. Due ... Read More »

WHEN a beloved daughter marries there’s no doubt to be tears.  A month after Brisbane’s Kym Keady farwelled daughter Bethany into the joys of marriage on December 1, 2018, the Ignite Youth director put the tears into words.  She drew on the speech her and husband Patrick gave at the wedding to write an emotive letter first, coupling as an ... Read More »

FREE speech in Australia is increasingly under threat with public-servant whistleblowers and journalists unfairly targeted by the government under the guise of national security, according to an annual report released by Human Rights Watch. Refugee rights, Indigenous rights and aged care are among other issues raising concerns in the 30th edition of The World Report, released on January 14. In ... Read More »

Brisbane Catholic Alan Edgecomb gives an impression of Rome’s superb Basilica di Santa Maria in words and photographs. FROM the moment one walks into the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, Italy, one is struck by the opulence and grandeur of this magnificent 12th century minor basilica on the right bank of the river Tiber. This was one of the ... Read More »

QUEENSLAND Law Society President Luke Murphy warned proposed legislation to scrap the seal of confession could pave the way for the removal of other confidential privileges like lawyer-client privilege. Mr Murphy, who wrote the Queensland Law Society submission to the State Parliament, outlined six flaws in removing the seal. “Removing the privilege associated with religious confession will set a dangerous ... Read More »

CHRISTMAS was about the coming of Christ and Dorrington parish proved it, inviting Catholic communities across Brisbane to join its One Family One Community Mass at St Michael’s War Memorial Church on December 22 last year. Parish priest Congregation of the Holy Spirit Father Tom Kessy, Fr John Huynh, and Scalabrinian Father Ignacio Gutierrez concelebrated the Mass, and were assisted ... Read More »

STRIPPING Catholics of the seal of confession made priests “less a servant of God than an agent of the state”, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge said in a submission to Queensland Parliament published early in January.  Archbishop Coleridge was clear – the violation of the seal of confession ran the risk of forbidding the celebration of the sacrament in Queensland.  “The state ... Read More »

THE niece of a Papuan catechist who was killed for preaching the Catholic faith was brought to tears as she saw hundreds of people venerate her uncle last Sunday. Angie Kolita-Payne is the niece of Blessed Peter To Rot, a Tolai man who was killed in 1945 during the Japanese invasion of Papua New Guinea. Her aunt on her mother’s ... Read More »

TOWNSVILLE Bishop Tim Harris criticised both extreme left and extreme right political narratives for misleading the public from finding a reasoned and nuanced understanding of the costs and effects of climate change. Bishop Harris said this reasoned and nuanced understanding was essential to enacting our “God-given” responsibility to care for creation. He said both the hard-left and hard-right stifled the ... Read More »