KENMORE parish is investing in young people. The parish invested time and money to send a group of 13 to the 2017 Australian Catholic Youth Festival in Sydney. The group, which included parish priest Fr Mark Franklin, were inspired by their trip and wanted to take youth parish ministry to the next level. They enlisted the help of Evangelisation Brisbane ... Read More »

“EVERYONE loves animals,” Colleen Tracey said, holding her Maltese cross bichon frise dog Teddy at this year’s Australian Catholic University Brisbane campus animal blessing on September 12. Mrs Tracey, the Brisbane campus ministry staff pastoral associate, said animals had a way of bringing people together and knocking down barriers. “This is a celebration of the interconnectedness of all creation in ... Read More »

“DISCIPLESHIP in action” is how a parish priest described the selfless contribution of Queenslanders who witnessed their homes surrounded by bush fires, yet took action to help their neighbours. At Peregian Beach in Noosa District Parish, Fr Jason Middleton thanked local Catholics for their generosity of spirit assisting others, as fire raged around them. “They took people into their homes, ... Read More »

ANNETTE Baker has a simple motto – try and do something for someone every day. It’s a motto that’s served her through 19 years with the St Vincent de Paul Society, where she serves as Queensland vice-president. It also took her to win 2017 Community Leader of the Year at The Community Leader Awards. The Vincentian life is a constant ... Read More »

“IT was the happiest day of my life,” newly professed Canossian Sister Linh Dinh said about her first profession at the order’s Canossa Chapel at Oxley on Saturday, September 14. “It was so wonderful, it was a grace-filled moment of my life.” Vietnamese community chaplain Divine Word Missionaries Father Joseph Vu celebrated the profession Mass, who was also a celebrant ... Read More »

GOD is in the fabric of everyday life whether we were aware of it or not – this was the lesson Fr Anthony Mellor hoped readers might take away from his new book. “And if we reflect on that, or find ways of expressing that, then that’s helpful to the Church and our present situation,” Fr Mellor said. Brisbane Archbishop ... Read More »

SPRINGFIELD parish has called in the renovators, but it isn’t for their church – it’s for the un-churched and the de-churched. Parish priest Fr Mauro Conte and parish evangelisation director Vanessa Comninos (pictured) are welcoming everyone in Brisbane archdiocese to join them for the Divine Renovation open house at Our Lady of the Southern Cross Church on September 21. Divine ... Read More »

“I FEEL when I go up there, St Thomas’ is home,” long-time Camp Hill parishioner and former St Thomas’ School teacher Lola Radford said. It was also home to four generations of Mrs Radford’s family; she has four great-grandchildren at St Thomas’. The Radford family was one of many families who gathered to commemorate 90 years of St Thomas’ School ... Read More »

ARCHBISHOP Mark Coleridge says the Church is not about to “butt out” of debates over environmental concerns. Archbishop Coleridge offered that assurance in his response to a presentation given in Brisbane by president of the Oceania Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences Archbishop Peter Loy Chong of Suva, Fiji. Archbishop Chong gave first-hand insight into the plight of Pacific islanders affected ... Read More »