AS Fr Stephen Bliss stands at the altar rail of heritage-listed St Brigid’s in Rosewood, he can appreciate his calling as a Franciscan friar is restoration. “St Francis said to repair the Church, I’m literally repairing a building,” Fr Bliss said. Built 110 years ago, the ornate weatherboard church holds pride of place in the centre of Rosewood, but has ... Read More »
BRISBANE’S evangelisation director believes a new instruction from the Vatican for the renewal of parishes will help the Church to “look, feel and sound more like Jesus”. Deacon Peter Pellicaan, of Evangelisation Brisbane, which serves parishes and communities across Brisbane archdiocese, said a new instruction issued by the Congregation for Clergy on Monday (July 20) was a “powerful vision” of ... Read More »
CONCERN and frustration with delayed and failed responses to abuse scandals in Poland culminated in a desperate appeal to Pope Francis to help “rebuild our church.” More than 600 Polish lay Catholics pooled together enough money to buy an ad in an Italian newspaper at the end of June in a last-ditch effort to make sure the Pope would hear ... Read More »
SEA Sunday, celebrated on July 12, takes on an extraordinary significance this year because of the isolation experienced by seafarers unable to come ashore due to the worldwide pandemic. In Brisbane, as in ports everywhere, ships coming in to dock, carrying most of the world’s trade, have been restricted in allowing crews to step down the gang way and come ... Read More »
WHILE isolation, social distancing and economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic prove to be a challenge, Christians are called by God to take part in the church’s mission in the world, Pope Francis wrote in a message for World Mission Sunday 2020. “The impossibility of gathering as a church to celebrate the Eucharist has led us to share the ... Read More »
CHURCHES across the country are re-opening, with restrictions on public worship starting to ease. Under an updated COVID-19 Safe Plan for Brisbane Archdiocese, parishes are welcoming a staged return to regularly scheduled Masses. Stage one allows only for up to 10 people in church and strict social distancing requirements of 1.5 metres between people. The liturgical season has changed from ... Read More »
CINDY Howie has always found a way to pop in on her “spiritual grandfather” retired priest Fr Leo Burke ever since he welcomed her into the Catholic Church in 2001. There were the times the former Emmaus College teacher used a street directory and later a GPS to find her way to Fr Burke’s presbytery at Victoria Point, where he ... Read More »
IT’S time for short drives and family picnics (from Friday midnight restrictions will be eased), soon there will be a staged return for schools, and our major sporting codes are plotting a course for a return to competition. So when will the Church return to public liturgies? “We’re in regular contact with the Queensland Government about the progress of COVID-19 ... Read More »
A NEW parish of largely subsistence farmers in the Papua New Guinea western highlands is seeking international help to build a church of cathedral proportions. The 10,000 Catholics who live in the mountainous Sinsipai Sacred Heart parish congregate in a church made of corrugated iron sheeting. Their grand design is to build a massive house of worship set against the ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
