BRISBANE social justice advocate Peter Arndt likes a challenge – and he’s expecting 2020 will push him to new heights. As a blind person, Mr Arndt has signed up to climb Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, the world’s tallest free-standing mountain, to raise money for Guide Dogs Queensland. “I will have to train very hard,” the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission executive ... Read More »
TWO young people, fresh out of uni, meet in Brisbane, fall in love, get married and set off for India with wild dreams of making the world a better place. A couple of decades on, they’re back in Brisbane – older, greyer, but as passionate as ever about their dreams. Cathy and Mark Delaney have a different story in married ... Read More »
THE Plenary Council 2020 has delivered six national themes for discernment for discussion. Br Damien Price has written a reflection on each of the six themes. I WOULD imagine that most of us – at one time or another – have belonged to a group that was “on fire”. Perhaps “on fire” is too strong an expression; perhaps you felt ... Read More »
IN the town of Yendi in northern Ghana, children who are born with birth defects are said to be evil. They are “bad omens”, and when tragedy strikes the village, it’s the unhealthy children that are blamed. They are banished, thrown on the street, fed poison and left to die. Marian Sisters of Eucharistic Love Sister Stan Therese Mario Mumuni ... Read More »
SINCE 1999 the Christian Brothers have ministered to the “poorest of the poor” in East Timor but, due to an aging core of brothers, it was decided they should withdraw from the country and pass their ministry into new hands. A Mass celebrated at St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace last Saturday marked the end of their ministry, with brothers coming from ... Read More »
In countries across the world the jury is still out on the effects of drugs on society and individuals’ health, however a case in Queensland reflects softening attitudes and changing laws against some drugs. QUEENSLAND parents who pleaded guilty to treating their five-year-old son’s autism with cannabis oil, recently walked free from court in what the judge described as an ... Read More »
FR Maurizio Pettena firmly believes the key to welcoming migrants and refugees into parish life is listening to their stories. “Let’s be attentive to details,” Fr Pettena, director of the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office said, launching the 104th World Day of Migrants and Refugees to be held on Sunday, August 26. “Hear their cry – where they come ... Read More »
SUE Hutchinson has an intense passion for social justice and she traces it back to her days of “bouncing around” in the back of a station wagon with her mother at the wheel. Once a week her mother Anne Muller would be a volunteer driver for people with Down syndrome. “I remember … she used to take our funny, old ... Read More »
HOLY Cross School, Wooloowin, has joined the yarn-bombing phenomena in support of refugees and asylum seekers. A colourful yarn-bombing art piece was “installed” on a tall ghost gum tree on the school’s front lawn to the delight of students. Titled Safe Harbour, the piece depicts a tumultuous ocean with a lighthouse providing welcome and refuge for people displaced because of ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
