The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You

A DIRE lack of palliative care services is one of the key issues Queensland Parliament’s aged-care inquiry has heard at public hearings across the state. The inquiry is examining the adequacy of Queensland’s end-of-life care including palliative care, and is looking into support for laws to allow voluntary assisted suicide. Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge will present a submission to the ... Read More »

AN historic agreement to pay lost wages to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as an act of healing, has been welcomed by a Catholic human rights advocate.  “This is quite a significant step forward to healing divisions and creating a possibility for greater trust and respect,” Archdiocese of Brisbane Catholic Justice and Peace Commission executive officer Peter Arndt said. On ... Read More »

ARCHDIOCESE of Brisbane frontline domestic violence workers have urged a closer focus on strangulation in a bid to lower the number of fatalities in Queensland homes. Centacare’s Family and Relationships Services say any evidence of non-lethal strangulation places a victim immediately in a “high-risk” domestic violence situation. Their urgings are supported by a State Government advisory board that has issued ... Read More »

A SUBMISSION by Queensland’s six Catholic bishops calling for the protection of human dignity is among hundreds received by a parliamentary inquiry considering end-of-life issues including voluntary assisted dying laws. “A law that would allow direct intentional killing (“voluntary assisted dying”), even if only under strict circumstances, opens the way to a culture in which life is disposable,” the bishops ... Read More »

CATHOLICS have a chance to make known their views on euthanasia as a Queensland parliamentary health committee begins examining ways to ease the pain and suffering of the terminally ill. A year-long “end-of-life” inquiry will not only consider voluntary euthanasia in Queensland, but also has the scope to examine wide-ranging reforms in aged and palliative care. It will also look ... Read More »

THOUSANDS of people joined the March for Life through Brisbane’s CBD last weekend to protest the Queensland Government’s move to legalise abortion. Organisers estimate 4000 marched down George Street, many dressed in white, chanting “life, life, life” and “Pro-life, pro-woman”. “God’s law doesn’t endorse taking away life. This is like murder,” Kevin Turne, who had travelled from Dalby on the ... Read More »

THE Queensland Government is to set up a Truth, Healing and Reconciliation task force after accepting more than half of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. The government has accepted or “accepted in principle” 244 of the 409 Royal Commission recommendations, and says a task force will be set up within months to carry them out. ... Read More »

DOMESTIC violence workers are dealing with a significant increase in distressed women and children, including those involved in high-risk cases, as awareness campaigns continue across south-east Queensland. Centacare, the Catholic Church’s social services arm, has reported increases in the number of women who have reached out for help, matching the observations of police. “This is a problem that is everywhere. ... Read More »

FINDING a parking spot at the Prince Charles Hospital, Chermside, has proven easier for members of a Brisbane parish than shouldering the burden of the ticket price. Members of the neighbouring Stafford Catholic parish, including parish priest Fr Denis Scanlan, have called for changes to the cost of parking at the Prince Charles Hospital and Holy Spirit Hospital campus in ... Read More »