PRIESTS in Queensland will be forced to break the seal of confession to report child sex abuse to police. New laws passed through Queensland Parliament on Tuesday, September 8 mean religious institutions and their members are no longer able to use the sanctity of the confessional as a defence or excuse in child sex abuse matters. The laws passed with ... Read More »
THE coronavirus pandemic kept Emerald’s new priests away from their flock for a while but not from their garden. Divine Word Missionaries Fr Truc Quoc Phan and Fr Firminus (Yon) Wiryono are new to Emerald, in the Central Highlands of Queensland, and to Rockhampton diocese Fr Truc, who is parish priest, arrived on March 14, just before the pandemic lockdown ... Read More »
THE last surviving sibling of eight children who all entered religious life, Redemptorist Father William Creede, is being remembered as a holy, gentle and wise priest one month after his death. Fr William Creede died of a short illness on April 30, 2020, at the Redemptorist Community in Kogarah, where he had been stationed for the past 17 years. He ... Read More »
“WE must continue to minister to our communities through these difficult times,” Townsville Bishop Tim Harris told diocese priests via a Zoom meeting. “Over Easter more than 1000 people watched many of the Easter Triduum celebrations with many viewing daily Masses from the Sacred Heart Cathedral,” he said. Coronavirus restrictions had barred faithful from churches, but parishes continued to offer ... Read More »
I HAVE recently had a number of conversations with various people on the subject of the cultural composition of the presbyterate in Australia. In light of the increasing number of priests from overseas that are ministering in this country, the whole notion of what it means to serve a particular community seems to have been highlighted in many minds. ... Read More »
BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge celebrated Mass last month with priests from the Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (MCBS) serving in Queensland at St. Joachim church in Holland park and Mt. Gravatt parish in Brisbane . Archbishop Coleridge joined MCBS priests from Brisbane, Toowoomba and Townsville for the occasion that marked the Congregation’s 86th anniversary, founded in 1933 at Mallappally, ... Read More »
WHAT he described as “text messages from God” was part of Mick Greathead’s discernment to officially enter Holy Spirit Provincial Seminary, Banyo, last month. The 20-year-old, raised a stone’s throw from his new surroundings among 22 other seminarians, said God often prompted a priestly vocation from his mid-teens, but it wasn’t always a shared mindset. “As a teenager, I’d go ... Read More »
AT a time when the average age of Catholics in Australia is 59, it has been good to celebrate the Year of Youth which is now coming to an end. Perhaps it would’ve been better to have a decade of youth, but the year was a promising start. One thing that happened in the Year of Youth was the worldwide ... Read More »
TORRENTIAL rain may have brought an entire Indian state under water, killing hundreds and leaving thousands stranded, but the people of Kerala have showed awe-inspiring resilience. Kerala’s monsoon season gave way to the state’s worst floods in 100 years, claiming the lives of 445 people and destroying entire properties. More than 220,000 people have been forced to take up refuge ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
