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 »
WHEN a beloved daughter marries there’s no doubt to be tears. A month after Brisbane’s Kym Keady farwelled daughter Bethany into the joys of marriage on December 1, 2018, the Ignite Youth director put the tears into words. She drew on the speech her and husband Patrick gave at the wedding to write an emotive letter first, coupling as an ... 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 »
FEEDBACK from hundreds of inner-city parishioners and residents has swayed Brisbane City Council to scrap a controversial parking plan. “We won,” is how Dutton Park and South Brisbane parishes secretary Bernadette Maguire greeted the council decision, that threatened to cut access for the disabled and elderly attending the St Francis Church on Dornoch Terrace, West End. The plan was to ... Read More »
LAY men need to rediscover their niche in the Church, Kippa-Ring parishioner Hugh O’Donnell says. Retired men, working men, fathers, brothers, sons – the Church needed men and men wanted to give of their time and talents according to their “niche”, he said. Enter, the Knights of the Southern Cross. “If I was in olden days, I’d have a sword ... Read More »
THE Church is pushing ahead with historic safeguarding measures aimed at tightening protection and governance – in line with recommendations of Australia’s Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. The National Catholic Safeguarding Standards – containing 10 criteria – is the latest tool to be adopted and, according to the presidents of Catholic Religious Australia and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, ... Read More »
A CANON lawyer has spoken out about the correct form of prayers, after a mainstream media furore about some Brisbane Catholic girls’ schools teaching gender-neutral descriptions to replace traditional terms like “Lord”, “Father”, and “Son” during prayers. “My observation is that many teachers in Catholic schools don’t know the Catholic faith, and Catholics among them don’t practise the Catholic faith, ... 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 »
VENEZUELAN New Farm parishioner Javier Alejandro Lindarte Montero said his country was in the middle of a social, political and economic crisis. “Venezuela has the highest inflation rate in the world,” Mr Lindarte Montero said. “It has become one of the top three most corrupt governments in the world. “It is also leading the lowest minimum wage in the Latin ... Read More »
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