Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News QLD

Brisbane’s newest Cathedral guides are eager to meet you

by Joe Higgins
15 December 2021
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
New guides: Britanny Lee, Luisa Wriedt, Cathedral Guides and Welcomers chair Dr Barbara Reynolds-Hutchinson, Vivian Puccini-Scuderi and Fr Joe Duffy at St Stephen's Cathedral. Photos: Joe Higgins

New guides: Britanny Lee, Luisa Wriedt, Cathedral Guides and Welcomers chair Dr Barbara Reynolds-Hutchinson, Vivian Puccini-Scuderi and Fr Joe Duffy at St Stephen's Cathedral. Photos: Joe Higgins

A RETIRED priest, a tour guide, a volunteer at a homeless shelter and an office manager were commissioned as St Stephen’s Cathedral guides and welcomers by Dean Fr Anthony Mellor at a Mass yesterday.

The newly commissioned guides and welcomers were Britanny Lee, Luisa Wriedt, Vivian Puccini-Scuderi and retired Brisbane priest Fr Joe Duffy.

Ms Lee, who volunteers at Emmanuel City Mission drop-in centre, had many beautiful moments at the cathedral in the six months leading up to her conversion to Catholicism earlier this year.

She was baptised in the cathedral on April 3.

“I really fell in love with the space and it’s really helped me connect with my faith,” she said.

Becoming a guide grew out of that.

Britanny Lee: “I love the history of this place, I love the architecture, and I really think at the cathedral we have this unique ability to connect people outside of our faith”.
Britanny Lee: “I love the history of this place, I love the architecture, and I really think at the cathedral we have this unique ability to connect people outside of our faith”.

“I love the history of this place, I love the architecture, and I really think at the cathedral we have this unique ability to connect people outside of our faith,” she said.

“They look in and they think’ ‘Oh wow what is this place’, and you can say, ‘Actually it’s a Catholic Cathedral’, and maybe evangelise as well, that’s why I joined.”

Ms Wriedt, who was a tour guide all around Australia, became jobless after the pandemic struck the tourism industry.

“I just needed to be with people,” she said.

Related Stories

Why is Our Lady of Guadalupe patroness of the unborn?

Q&A – Prayer, faith and Tammy Peterson

Pope marks 800th anniversary of Nativity scene, asks prayers for the Holy Land

“To communicate and this was somewhere I could come, to the cathedral, and I wanted to extend that into being a guide.”

Communicator: Luisa Wriedt joined the guides as a way of meeting new people.
Communicator: Luisa Wriedt’s favourite part about the cathedral was the windows.

She said she loved the stories in the windows of the cathedral, especially the way the colours dazzle when the light hits them. 

Mrs Puccini-Scuderi, who was interviewed by The Catholic Leader earlier this year, said she loved the history and the artifacts of the cathedral.

“I love the fact that this is an oasis in the middle of the city,” she said.

“So many people come here as a nice quiet place to have their lunch, it’s a gem.”

Fr Duffy said he had a real affection for the history of the diocese and the “cathedral exemplifies that”.

He said the training to become a guide and welcomer was like “revisiting my theology course”.

“It was more than learning about the cathedral, it was also learning about the Second Vatican Council and its impact on the lives of ordinary Catholics like ourselves today,” he said.

“We had some excellent lecturers visiting.”

Memories: Retired Brisbane priest Fr Joe Duffy loves the history of the diocese.
Memories: Retired Brisbane priest Fr Joe Duffy loves the history of the diocese.

Fr Duffy was ordained at the cathedral in 1969.

“It was a very different story then,” he said.

“The cathedral was in a state of disrepair; it was not a tidy place and we had a pride in it, but not in the state that it was in.

“Over my 50 years as a priest in the diocese, I’m so glad it has been restored and given a place of honour it deserves.”

His favourite part about the cathedral was the organ, “all 2500 pipes”.

Previous Post

Queensland Polish Catholics held with the hands of faith

Next Post

Relief efforts for tornado victims show ‘church at its best’, religious sister says

Joe Higgins

Related Posts

Faith

Why is Our Lady of Guadalupe patroness of the unborn?

12 December 2023
Q&A – Prayer, faith and Tammy Peterson
Faith

Q&A – Prayer, faith and Tammy Peterson

11 December 2023
Pope marks 800th anniversary of Nativity scene, asks prayers for the Holy Land
World

Pope marks 800th anniversary of Nativity scene, asks prayers for the Holy Land

11 December 2023
Next Post
Relief efforts for tornado victims show ‘church at its best’, religious sister says

Relief efforts for tornado victims show 'church at its best', religious sister says

Years of service: A group of Centacare Awards recipients with Stewart Thompson (centre), this year's recipient of the 30 years of service award.

Centacare awards highlight the call to care

Classic films: Characters from It's a Wonderful Life.

18 classic Christmas movies for the family

Popular News

  • Pope marks 800th anniversary of Nativity scene, asks prayers for the Holy Land

    Pope marks 800th anniversary of Nativity scene, asks prayers for the Holy Land

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Q&A – Prayer, faith and Tammy Peterson

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Eleven saint quotes on the Eucharist for Corpus Christi Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Why do we pray to St Anthony when we want to find something?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • What is lust?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping