By Anthony Barich PERTH Catholic Sudanese refugees displaced by a 55-year civil war that has claimed about 2.2 million lives prayed at a 3 July Mass for a peaceful future for their homeland ahead of Southern Sudan’s 9 July independence.   War has been ongoing in the oil-rich country since 1954 between Muslims in the north, who have been in power, and Christians and oth...

Barbara Harris’ call in The Record recently for a Church agency to help relieve parents of the stressful financial burden when enrolling their children with disabilities in Catholic schools is a cause for reflection ... Mother Marie Makhlouf greets a young man in one of the centres operated by the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross in Jal El Dib, Lebanon. She is the Superior of an Ord...

All my life I have been searching for the depths of God’s love and an experience of profound spiritual transformation.  The first mystical experience occurred in 1998 when I was living alone in a small flat in Melbourne’s leafy eastern suburbs. My life was not going well. Much tragedy had befallen our family, including several deaths of immediate family members. I despair...

What with New York legislating same-sex marriage, and Labor state conferences toppling like dominos, it appears that same-sex marriage activists have adopted a new tack: “momentum rhetoric”.  Newlyweds during their wedding Mass in 2008 at Our Mother of Sorrows Church in Greece, N.Y. Photo: CNS/Mike Crupi, Catholic Courier.   By Tim Cannon We mu...

By Russell Shaw If precedent is any guide, many good Catholic lay people are waiting to hear what their diocesan Bishops and/or local pastors have to say about the new evangelisation before they decide whether it’s something for them to get involved in. That’s the typical reaction of the clericalist mindset to something new in the Church: “What does Father want us to do?&rdqu...

Church renewal comes at parish level as laity educated on famous paths to holiness By Anthony Barich PERTH Angelicum graduate and Maranatha Centre for Adult Faith Formation presenter Michelle Jones is giving a series of talks to connect people of the Archdiocese  with six major types of Christian spirituality that have renewed the Church and inspired its teachings of pathways to holiness...

Pastoral letter moulds ministry to young people with same-sex attraction By Deborah Gyapong Catholic News Service OTTAWA, Ontario - A new pastoral letter from Canada’s Catholic Bishops is aimed at helping school boards, teachers, parents and students in their ministry to young people with same-sex attraction. Released on 27 June, the eight-page document from the Bishops&rsqu...

People can abuse reason when they demand proof from God: Pope By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY - While empirical science has done much to further progress, subjecting God and His truth to scientific scrutiny represents an incorrect and despotic use of human reason, Pope Benedict XVI said. Pope Benedict XVI presents the Ratzinger Prize to Cistercian Fr Maximil...

By Anthony Barich Prayer and practical action are being urged by parishes ahead of the Australian Bishops’ groundbreaking Social Justice Sunday Statement on Prisons and the Justice System due on 25 September. Perth Catholic Social Justice Council (CSJC) executive officer Terry Quinn told The Record that while each state has responsibility for corrective services and the justice system...

Discourse, controversy, comes with the territory of academic freedom, UNDA academics say as they reject efforts to shut down prominent climate sceptic’s lecture By Anthony Barich The University of Notre Dame Australia’s reputation as a credible academic institution was not tarnished but strengthened by hosting controversial climate sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton on 30 June in F...