The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You

IRANIAN woman Mojgan Shamsalipoor has started a tour of schools across Queensland explaining to students and teachers the plight of refugees and asylum seekers held in detention. The 24-year-old remains on a temporary bridging visa, and still faces deportation or detention by the end of the year. As she awaits an Immigration Department decision about her future, Ms Shamsalipoor has ... Read More »

SATURDAY afternoon has rolled around and Tamil refugee Nobert Eltran takes his usual place on the top step of Sacred Heart Church, Rosalie. He waits as people pull up in the carpark for the 4.30pm Vigil Mass. Like every other Saturday, he runs down to open the car doors for elderly parishioners struggling to exit their vehicle. He also hands ... Read More »

AN Iranian woman’s “hopes and dreams” in Australia have been dashed by an Immigration Department order that could force her to be deported by the end of this year. Mojgan Shamsalipoor, 24, has lived in Brisbane for the past nine months after being released from immigration detention. Her case has been in the media spotlight, and she has released a ... Read More »

IN Italy, about 5700 people were pulled to safety last weekend as they attempted the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea.  On the same weekend, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced proposed tough legislation banning any person arriving in Australia by boat from mid-July 2013, from ever entering the country. From one side of the world to the other, the ... Read More »

IMMIGRATION Minister Peter Dutton has refused to step in and allow the release of young Iranian asylum seeker Mojgan Shamsalipoor who is in detention in Brisbane. The 22-year-old woman has been held in immigration facilities in Darwin and Brisbane the past two years and faces deportation, despite the impassioned pleas of her community support group and her 22-year-old husband Milad ... Read More »

FR Lam Vu, refugee, architect and now Capuchin priest is grateful to God and to Australia for allowing his family to settle in the lucky country. Fr Vu, who is parish priest at St Mary’s, South Brisbane, was willing to respond to comments made by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton that refugees are uneducated, unemployable and at the same time “taking ... Read More »

QUESTION: How do I choose the right school for my child?   Answer: Finding the right school for your child is a tough challenge and requires some careful consideration. Here are six issues that must be considered and prioritised in order to inform your decision about which school will be most suitable for you and your children.   Budget: Schools ... Read More »

POPE Francis humbly washed the feet of people seeking asylum during Holy Week while a taxpayer-funded film, commissioned by the Federal Government to deter asylum seeking, made a Good Friday debut on Afghanistan’s television screens. The 90-minute $5.97 million film project, titled Journey, dramatises the passage of people from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan as they endeavour to seek asylum in Australia via Indonesia by boat. ... Read More »

REFUGEE supporters in Brisbane have welcomed the government’s decision to move a baby asylum seeker into a  community detention, but will fight the plan to move her offshore. Immigration minister Peter Dutton announced at a press conference last week Baby Asha would be allowed to stay in a Brisbane community detention facility. But Baby Asha, who was born in Australia ... Read More »