WHEN the villagers of impoverished Bereina need to quell their famine, they reach for the noxious betel nut. In the town of Bereina, in the Central Province of Papua New Guinea, the addictive seed, which is prohibited in Australia, is often the only food source for the local villagers. It is an unfathomable sight for Sr Anna Pigozzo, a missionary ... Read More »

MOSUL’S leader of Syriac Catholics has asked “the big powers” in the United States and Iran to let the Iraqi people live in dignity, as tensions escalate over the combating countries. Archbishop Youhanna Boutros Moshe is leader of the Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Mosul, in northern Iraq, located about 90km from the Erbil US military base that was struck by ... Read More »

ESCALATING tensions between Iran and the United States have led to a missile bombardment across the Iraqi border, striking two US airbases at Al Asad and Erbil. It is as yet unknown if there have been any casualties. Iranian state television confirmed the launch of “tens” of surface-to-surface missiles and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for the attack ... Read More »

POPE Francis has abolished the obligation of secrecy for those who report having been sexually abused by a priest and for those who testify in a church trial or process having to do with clerical sexual abuse. ìThe person who files the report, the person who alleges to have been harmed and the witnesses shall not be bound by any ... Read More »

A HIGH-level Australian Catholic delegation has met with former Manus Island asylum seekers and refugees now in Port Moresby, and heard shocking stories of their detention. “It was shameful to hear how our government has treated them on Manus Island and how some of them would feel safer in some totalitarian prison back home rather than what they had been ... Read More »

THE life of newly declared St John Henry Newman holds a special significance for one Brisbane congregation – the Brisbane Oratory in Formation. Among the throng at the canonisation ceremony in Rome’s St Peter’s Square last Sunday was Brisbane Oratory’s Italian-speaking Fr Scot Armstrong.  He was selected to witness the event on behalf of his congregation, while others celebrated the ... Read More »

A CHURCH human rights advocate claims Indonesian militia are working alongside soldiers in a brutal crackdown on independence demonstrators in West Papua. “It’s right in our own backyard. They’re human beings being treated with contempt by Indonesian security forces and migrants,” Brisbane Catholic Justice and Peace Commission executive director Peter Arndt said. At least 20 people have died in clashes ... Read More »

AMID the bullets and terror surrounding East Timor’s vote for independence, an Australian priest witnessed the depth of humanity, but he also saw courage, spirit and glimmers of hope. “The faith of the Timorese was completely powerful,” Jesuit Father Peter Hosking, who headed the Jesuit Refugee Service in East Timor at the time of the independence vote 20 years ago ... Read More »

A CHURCH leader who has witnessed Pacific villagers forced from their coastal homes because of rising sea levels is to celebrate Mass in Brisbane next month, and will speak about the poor, the vulnerable and the challenges of climate change. Suva Archbishop Peter Loy Chong, who is president of the Oceania Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences, will concelebrate the World ... Read More »