CATHOLIC musician Emma Fradd likes the word revival. “I’m a direct communicator, because I think (revival) signifies that something is dead and lifeless,” Emma said. “And I think a lot of parish music in our country is dead.” Recognising there was a problem was the first step to solving it, and Emma, who is touring Brisbane parishes as part of ... Read More »
Brisbane photo journalist Alan Edgecomb was inspired by a recent visit to the Basilica of Santa Cecilia in Rome. This is the story of his visit in words and pictures. ST Cecilia lived in a small neighbourhood on the right bank of the Tiber River in Rome in the 3rd century. She was a noble Roman girl and a fervent ... Read More »
CHRISTMAS Eve will mark the 200th birthday of the classic hymn Silent Night. The origins of the Christmas carol can be traced back to Austria where the song was first performed on December 24, 1818, at St Nicholas’ Church in the quaint town of Oberndorf in Salzburg. A young Fr Joseph Mohr had come to Oberndorf the year before, and ... Read More »
Question: Tell me about your early years. Answer: I grew up in Chermside at the end of the tram terminus. Of a father who served in the Second World War who barely survived it, and a mother who, as a very young person, taught through the Second World War. Our family was, you’d have to say, lower middle-class. But my ... Read More »
HIS name literally means “fortunate” and 35 year-old entertainer Fortunato Isgro sees himself as exactly that. In reality however, Brisbane-based Fortunato can’t actually “see” himself with the same type of 20-20-vision that most take for granted. Fortunato was born with Retinitis Pigmentosa, or RP, a rare condition where the eye’s normal retina function is compromised, deteriorates and sometimes causes blindness. ... Read More »
PUT Sr Patricia Dent in front of any piano, but especially her 1970 Yamaha, and prepare to be whisked away on a musical adventure for at least an hour. The beloved Presentation Sister spends nearly every day tinkering on her piano in her living room at Caloundra Rise on the Sunshine Coast. “And if the neighbours don’t hear me play, ... Read More »
PRIMARY school teacher Margaret Hatzis had one of those “aha moments” while standing next to Mary MacKillop’s tomb in North Sydney. It was 2008 and as she was surrounded only by candlelight, Margaret looked at the holy tomb and realised her entire life – literally from the moment she was born – had been shaped by the then soon-to-be saint. ... Read More »
IT might be rare to see a young person behind the organ at Mass but for Rachael Shipard it’s the rightful place for a Catholic musician. The 21-year-old classically-trained pianist is the first organ scholar to be appointed to St Stephen’s Cathedral, under the Ralph Morton Memorial Organ Scholarship, launched earlier this year. It’s a new direction for the award-winning ... Read More »
CALLING a new album noise would be offensive to most musicians but not for the worship leaders in Brisbane’s emmanuelworship. For months the team have worked on a new album to recreate the “mighty noise from heaven” that the disciples heard on Pentecost 2000 years ago. That heavenly noise has been captured in Ventus (Noise from Heaven), emmanuelworship’s latest live ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
