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 »
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 Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
