The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You

Education Officer – Formation and Identity • Full time – 38 hours per week• Fixed term – 3 year contract, from 11 January 2021• Professional Officer Level 5 | $116,952 – $132,078 per annum plus super• Position arising from an employee transfer Toowoomba Catholic Schools is seeking an expert classroom practitioner, a mentor, facilitator, and a curriculum specialist. The Education Officer: Formation and Identity provides ... Read More »

IRISH priest Fr Tom Keegan, who sailed from Ireland in 1953 to minister in Toowoomba diocese, has died aged 92 on July 25. A vigil service will be held tonight, July 30, at 7pm and a funeral tomorrow, July 31, at 10.30am. Both services will be held at St Patrick’s Cathedral and livestreamed from Toowoomba diocese website, YouTube and Facebook. ... Read More »

DONNA Purcell’s been fighting the good fight longer than most in the pro-life movement in Queensland and she’s not about to give up now. As Cherish Life celebrates the pro-life movement’s 50th anniversary in the state, Dr Purcell is just as determined as she was when she joined as a medical student at the University of Queensland almost 45 years ... Read More »

FLOODWATERS peaked at 12m in the south-west Queensland town of St George as the Balonne River swelled last week, but little damage to homes was reported. Balonne parish priest Fr Salvador Fernandes had just returned home from holidays in India, passing over the Andrew Nixon Bridge that spanned the Balonne River with little rain having been recorded. “It filled up ... Read More »

TOOWOOMBA mother Toni Mitchell fronted the Disability Royal Commission gripping the hand of her son Joshy, and explained how she had to justify her son’s life – even before he was born. “It’s highly likely that your son has Down syndrome,” Ms Mitchell was told by a medical staffer during a prenatal screening. “People were murmuring and I was still ... Read More »

FR Tom Duncan feels right where he is meant to be serving the People of God and wants to spend his life growing more and more in love with God. “Number-one priority in the long term is a personal one – being able to follow Christ each day and to become more and more like Him in an ongoing conversion,” ... Read More »

STANTHORPE parish priest Fr Brian Connolly had an extra spring in his step on the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, or Corpus Christi.  It was the Sunday before his June 27 jubilee anniversary of priestly ordination and St Joseph’s Church, on the Granite Belt in Toowoomba diocese, was overflowing with locals and visitors.  The faithful, including ... Read More »

LIFE’S fragility was crystal clear to Bernice Steele on her first Mother’s Day 40 years ago.  “I didn’t know if I’d live or die,” she said, recalling hospitalisation for the removal of a malignant melanoma.  “Back in those days, there wasn’t the awareness there is today (about skin cancer),” Bernice said.  “Our son was only weeks old when I went ... Read More »

THE last time Catholics living in Cooranga North saw their beautiful country church, it was listed for sale on a website. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church, built in 1937, served Catholics in Dalby, in Toowoomba diocese, and then the neighbouring Jandowae community over 75 years before closing in 2013 due to low attendance rates and a lack of ... Read More »