LAWS in Victoria requiring priests to report child abuse to authorities – even if it’s heard in the confessional – came into effect last week, and the Queensland Government is planning similar legislation. It means that Catholic priests could be caught between their state law and Church canon law. In Victoria priests will be compelled to report child sexual abuse ... Read More »

BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge has started a two-week-long trip to Rome that will include high-level Vatican talks on the Plenary Council 2020, Cardinal George Pell and the Holy See’s response to Australia’s Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. Archbishop Coleridge, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, found himself under a global media spotlight when he visited Rome a year ... Read More »

SUSAN Pascoe has been named chair of the new Catholic Emergency Relief Australia Advisory Council that will co-ordinate the Church’s ongoing response to the bushfire crisis and future national emergencies. Ms Pascoe’s appointment adds to her long list of contributions to public life that includes serving as a 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commissioner and as the inaugural Australian Charities and ... Read More »

CATHOLICS leading the battle against veteran suicide have welcomed the appointment of an independent commissioner to investigate deaths and make recommendations on metal health and wellbeing. Deacon Gary Stone, the man known as the Veteran’s padre, “hopes and prays” a new government initiative will combat veteran suicide, and benefit the wider community. “Every suicide seriously impacts families and friends who ... Read More »

A LEADING Australian ethicist believes the Church has a long way to go in resolving the child sexual abuse crisis – and he’s hoping a high-level workshop in Rome will strengthen a theological approach to the issue. “We’re only on the cusp of responding to this crisis,” Dr Dan Fleming, a moral theologian working for St Vincent’s Health Australia, said.  ... Read More »

POPE Francis’s highly anticipated Apostolic Exhortation  “Querida Amazonia” (Beloved Amazonia), released by the Vatican on February 12, has been described as a document “not just for a distant and alien part of the world, but has much to offer the Catholic Church in Australia”.  “The Amazon is remote from us but the issues are not,” Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president ... Read More »

THREE innocent siblings who were killed on the footpath of a quiet suburban street in western Sydney have been remembered as children who put God first in their young lives. Antony, Angelina and Sienna Abdallah, three of six children to Maronite Catholics Daniel and Leila Abdallah, were walking with their cousins to the shops in their home suburb of Oatlands ... Read More »

FAMILIES are focusing on the holy lives of St Thérèse of Lisieux and her parents Sts Zelie and Louis Martin whose relics are several days into a tour of Brisbane archdiocese. The holy saints, known for their devotion to the Catholic faith and steadfast commitment to the family, are in Australia for a four-month pilgrimage. The relics are now in ... Read More »

A MOTHER wipes the tears off her rosary beads as she kneels at the scene where her children were killed. Her husband is holding back tears as he comes to terms with losing three children at once. “Please just make sure you love your loved ones, kids especially, because you don’t know when …,” he tells reporters. Leila and Daniel ... Read More »