AUSTRALIA’S 623,400 or so Catholics who normally attended Sunday Mass before the COVID-19 lockdown are being studied as part of a research project exploring the psychological impact of church closures. Philippa Martyr, a Perth Catholic undergoing a graduate diploma in Psychology at Monash University in Western Australia, is studying the effect that the nationwide dispensation of Sunday obligation and ongoing ... Read More »

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has provided the Holy See’s observations on 12 recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to the Australian Government. The royal commission proposed that the Bishops Conference engage with the Holy See on those recommendations because they relate to universal Church law or practice. Holy See Secretary of State Cardinal ... Read More »

Amid ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and economic woes, JobKeeper payments are to be extended but at a reduced rate, and the Federal Government is to invest more than half a billion dollars to extend Australia’s aged care support. Legislation to extend both the JobKeeper wage subsidy and JobSeeker payments were due to be passed in the Senate this week before the ... Read More »

A TEENAGE climate activist from Fiji spoke with a voice that was eloquent and passionate, in a way that could not be ignored. AnnMary Raduva, a 16-year-old Year 11 student at St Joseph’s Secondary School in Suva, gave an impassioned plea for urgent action on climate change and ecological crises in Oceania. She was sitting with Archbishop Peter Loy Chong ... Read More »

LEADING child protection expert Daryl Higgins is backing a call for an urgent change to Medicare rebates to help address mental health issues among children. Professor Higgins, who is director of the Institute of Child Protection Studies at the Australian Catholic University, joined a list of prominent health academics calling for the change. They want Medicare rebates to be changed ... Read More »

CULTURAL practices within the Church that have “nurtured” the abuse of children and other vulnerable people are under review in a new report into the governance of parishes and dioceses in Australia. The 208-page report released on August 21, titled The Light from the Southern Cross: Promoting Co-Responsible Governance in the Catholic Church in Australia, includes 86 recommendations for Church ... Read More »

SYDNEY Archbishop Anthony Fisher has moved to dispel some mainstream media claims that he and other faith leaders opposed a potential COVID-19 vaccine because it includes cell lines from an aborted foetus. “I have not, nor would I, call for Catholics to boycott the vaccine if it became available,” Archbishop Fisher said on Facebook, after a furore that provoked a ... Read More »

A ROYAL commission has pinpointed failure by government to act quickly and with a lack of clear guidelines as reasons for a devastating outbreak of coronavirus in aged care during the COVID-19 pandemic. A second royal commission, into disability, has heard that failure to plan and act properly meant the months of COVID-19 restrictions had resulted in the neglect and ... Read More »

ANSWERING the catchcry – “Brothers, what must we do?” (Acts 2:37) – more than 860 men gathered in small groups at 42 hubs and individually online in homes for the inaugural Australian Catholic Men’s Gathering 2020 last Saturday. Event organiser and MEN Alive founder Robert Falzon said the event was a “huge step” for the Church in engaging men. He ... Read More »