A FIRE that destroyed a Bundaberg pub and backpacker hostel recently sparked Catholics against human trafficking into action. When news of the fire broke, a member of Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans (ACRATH) was quick to respond by visiting the Queensland regional town and offering support. No lives were lost but many of those who survived the fire ... Read More »

BJ Perrett and Thomas Popovic, both twins, have formed a strong friendship among the brotherhood of Holy Spirit Provincial Seminary, Banyo. Thomas, whose twin Matthew’s also in priestly formation, first met rural BJ, a twin to Eve, at the Quo Vadis (Where are you going?) discernment weekend in 2017. A recent mid-semester trip in BJ’s home parish of Stanthorpe, in ... Read More »

MELBOURNE Archbishop Peter Comensoli lowered his surgical mask to kiss the altar at St Patrick’s Cathedral and fastened it again to incense the sanctuary at last Sunday’s Mass. Masking and unmasking was becoming a familiar sight for the five thousand Catholics who tuned in to the livestream as Melbourne archdiocese introduced new rules for liturgical celebrations on July 22. Those ... Read More »

IRISH priest Fr Tom Keegan, who sailed from Ireland in 1953 to minister in Toowoomba diocese, has died aged 92 on July 25. A vigil service will be held tonight, July 30, at 7pm and a funeral tomorrow, July 31, at 10.30am. Both services will be held at St Patrick’s Cathedral and livestreamed from Toowoomba diocese website, YouTube and Facebook. ... Read More »

THE coronavirus pandemic kept Emerald’s new priests away from their flock for a while but not from their garden. Divine Word Missionaries Fr Truc Quoc Phan and Fr Firminus (Yon) Wiryono are new to Emerald, in the Central Highlands of Queensland, and to Rockhampton diocese Fr Truc, who is parish priest, arrived on March 14, just before the pandemic lockdown ... Read More »

THE tabernacle was all that was salvaged when St Leo’s Church at Haden, north of Toowoomba burnt to the ground last weekend. Priest-in-residence Fr Dave O’Connor in Crows Nest parish said by the time he arrived at the church in the early hours of Sunday morning the fire had all but destroyed the 89-year-old timber building. “I got the phone ... Read More »

MALICIOUS emails have been sent to random recipients claiming to be from Catholic parishes, dioceses and other Church organisations – they were not. The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference released a statement denouncing the emails and their contents. Their contents mention one or more of the following – Cardinal George Pell, the complainant in his criminal trial, COVID-19 and most recently ... Read More »

MOUNT Isa parish priest Fr Mick Lowcock is a Queensland Great. But most people already knew that. For some it was because of his ministry achievements like accompanying young people to World Youth Day, for others it was his social work supporting employment opportunities in Indigenous communities, and for everyone else it was just how far he travelled to bring ... Read More »

ISOLATION. It’s almost three months since a priest has visited the Catholic faithful of Coen, a remote indigenous community in far north Queensland. Usually in the first week of each month, Augustinian Fr Robert Greenup packs his swag and drives 500km to Coen, along the partly-dirt Peninsula Developmental Road, that stretches deep into the Cape York Peninsula. His travel companion ... Read More »