BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge said it was Mary who understood the “suffering of her children like no one else can” during his homily at the re-dedication Mass of Australia to the patroness Our Lady Help of Christians from St Stephen’s Cathedral on May 25. “We look to her because she is the one who always stands beneath the cross of ... Read More »
PARISHES and dioceses taking precautions like refusing to offer Holy Communion from the chalice to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak in China were not called to do so. The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference issued a statement that said they had “not called for the suspension of any practices at Mass in response to novel coronavirus that appeared in China and ... Read More »
AS communities recover from the current bushfire crisis, the Catholic Church is setting up a blueprint for how it will respond to future disasters in Australia. It has set up a new collaboration called CERA – Catholic Emergency Relief Australia – to serve as a co-ordination point for Catholic agencies responding to fires, droughts, floods, cyclones and other disasters. The ... Read More »
THE Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has launched a national Church response to deal with the unprecedented scale of the bushfire crisis. “The efforts of firefighters have been heroic. The resilience of the communities affected has been extraordinary,” ACBC president Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane said. “This has been Australia at its best … but we need more than words. Expressions ... Read More »
EVANGELISATION efforts in Australia are being streamlined to focus more on the Church’s central mission of spreading the Good News. During the biannual meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, it was announced that a revamped National Centre for Evangelisation would take responsibility for a number of offices. The refocusing signals an end to the Office for Lay Pastoral Ministry, ... Read More »
JESUS commanded everyone to love their neighbours – an immutable moral truth – but how do people respond to this truth when they encounter their neighbours in a digital space? More than 4.3 billion people are using the Internet worldwide and everything from banking to seeing family can be done in front of a screen. Like all social landscapes, we ... Read More »
POPE Francis gave an apostolic blessing to Australian Catholic bishops visiting the Vatican, encouraging them to explore new ways of being missionaries. Pope Francis met with a group of 38 Australian bishops on June 24 for more than two hours as part of their Ad Limina Apostolorum visit, translated as “To the Threshold of the Apostles”. It was a high ... Read More »
BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge understands the complex moment for the Church in Australia as he prepares to lead more than 40 bishops on an Ad Limina visit to meet Pope Francis. “I think we are a Church that is suffering, is anxious about the future, dismayed by the past – and all of this will be said to the Pope,” ... Read More »
LOW-income families have not been “sufficiently protected by the decisions in the annual wage reviews”, a Church delegation told the Fair Work Commission on May 15. The Fair Work Act has “failed to provide an adequate wages safety net for low-paid workers with family responsibilities” or “alleviate the poverty and disadvantage suffered by them and their families”. John Fernon and ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
