“ARE you ready?” is what Rebecca Crouch felt the Lord God ask, preceding her latest adventure in His name. “God is a God of surprises,” she said, between commitments as program director with National Evangelisation Teams, Ireland. In her 15th year with NET, the statuesque woman of faith left Brisbane in 2012 to respond to God’s question with a resounding, ... Read More »
AT the long-abandoned British settlement in Northern Australia, a crumbling grave vault marks the resting place of an extraordinary pioneering Catholic missionary. The largely forgotten story of Father Angelo Confalonieri has come alive, after the Consulate of Italy for Queensland and the Northern Territory and the Diocese of Darwin hosted a symposium on July 12 to commemorate his life, and, ... Read More »
COLUMBAN Father Warren Kinne knows first hand the art of “playing the game”. For two decades, Fr Kinne, 71, born and bred in Bundaberg, Queensland, was a missionary in communist China, learning to tread lightly, sometimes testing the boundaries of authority and control, and eventually watching his mission flourish in unimagined ways. Now returned to Australia, with a new mission ... Read More »
TESTAMENT to God’s limitless power, Gabriela Aguilar professed perpetual vows as a Verbum Dei Missionary Sister in St Stephen’s Cathedral, Brisbane. Her almost 20-year journey of discernment and preparation culminated in a Mass presided by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, with Verbum Dei female branch General Responsible Magdalena González Santos, from Rome, and hundreds of supporters. From the Verbum Dei Brisbane ... Read More »
ONE of the first Indian priests from the Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament to serve in Australia has been named a provincial superior for the order. Fr Joseph Thottankara, one of two India priests invited to serve in Toowoomba in the 1980s, is the new provincial superior for the Zion province in Kerala. As the new provincial superior, Fr ... Read More »
“ARE you not worried if there’s going to be any flowers left here?” It’s a question Fr Sean McDonagh asks people, young and old, when he takes them down to The Burren, in County Clare, Ireland, to wonder at the beauty of nature in his homeland. It’s also a question he’d love everyone to be asking themselves. Fr McDonagh, a ... Read More »
WHEN Manly parish priest Fr Frank Jones returned to Ecuador recently he was hailed as a hero by the slum dwellers of San Francisco. Fr Jones set up a clinic, built a church and founded a school for the poor during his many years as a missionary, before poor health forced him to return to Australia. “It really moved me ... Read More »
FR Adam Woch had thoughts of being a missionary in Brazil when he was ordained in Poland, and ending up in outback Queensland would’ve been beyond his wildest dreams. Now, as parish priest of St George-Dirranbandi, he could not be happier but the experience is nothing like he could have imagined. “For me, it’s a new experience,” he said. “I ... Read More »
Verbum Dei missionary Dr Maeve Louise Heaney found a mentor and friend in Jesuit Father Michael Paul Gallagher, who died on November 6. Dr Heaney writes this personal tribute to a man always on her side. “FIND your question … and then seek to answer it.” Those who have taken a theology unit with me during the time I have ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
