THERE are bitter memories passed down from early last century about how the Spanish flu pandemic wiped out hundreds of people living in Queensland’s Cherbourg indigenous community. “It just about wiped the whole community out. There were roughly only a dozen people who survived it,” 64-year-old Waka Waka elder Bevan Costello said. “That’s the history. At the moment we are ... Read More »
The Church’s Plenary Council 2020 assemblies may have been delayed due to COVID-19, but six writing and discernment groups have been busy, using their diverse expertise and backgrounds to write thematic papers. Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe says six papers – each tackling a national theme for discernment that emerged from the Council’s Listening and Dialogue phase – signify the latest ... Read More »
RUGGED-up parishioners, clutching their coats and their bags against the wind, had shown up early and waited at the doors of Corpus Christi Church, Nundah, so they could go inside for their 20 minutes of private prayer. Across from the church, in the parish’s new building which opened in February, Nundah-Banyo parish secretary Madonna Riggal said it had been a ... Read More »
PERSONAL and systemic racism was a “kind of original sin in our country”, Bishop Robert Barron said days after the murder of George Floyd during a homily at St Louis de Montfort Church, Santa Maria US. “The whole country’s acknowledging it, we do see this presence of personal and indeed systemic racism,” he said. Riots and civil unrest had intensified ... Read More »
A PHONE call to a Franciscan Friar in Assisi has set church bells ringing from Ipswich to Rosewood, lifting COVID prayers to heaven. Ipswich Catholic Community parish administrator Franciscan Father Stephen Bliss was in the middle of a phone call to Assisi, the founding home of St Francis’ order in Italy, about the time when COVID-19 restrictions were being imposed ... 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 »
A REFUGEE from Sudan and former student of Brisbane’s St James College says he understands the fear that young, African Americans feel when confronted by police. As Atem Atem watched last week’s protests over the death of George Floyd escalate into violence and arson in cities across the United States, he recalled his own experience while playing basketball at Northern ... Read More »
THE Church has welcomed a major easing of COVID-19 restrictions for gatherings in Queensland, and will put together an industrial plan hoping permission will be granted for even larger numbers of faithful to return to enter places of worship. The Queensland Government has agreed that gatherings in churches can increase from 10 to 20 from Friday, June 5, with people ... Read More »
CLIMATE scientists have told the bushfire royal commission that tinderbox conditions that allowed the catastrophic 2019-20 fire season are set to become the Australian norm. The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, chaired by retired Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, started two-weeks of hearings in Canberra on May 25 examining the Black Summer bushfires that killed 33 people, destroyed ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
