Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB received a mantle of different kind from former Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey on November 4. In a two-hour-long ceremony at St Joseph’s Church in Subiaco, Archbishop Costelloe was instituted by Archbishop Emeritus Hickey as the new Grand Prior of the Western Australian Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre. Archbishop Costelloe was join...

Being Catholic in Australia requires great courage and great faith in a society that no longer believes in Christian values says Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB. Speaking at a gathering of Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre recently, the Archbishop of Perth said the challenge of being Catholic would become “ever stronger and ever more demanding” and would require “great faith”. ...

“Don’t forget your iPads kids” may well become a common refrain at the fledgling Hammond Park Catholic Primary School in Success according to plans laid out in the school’s recent newsletter. The school will open its doors for the first time next year, catering for one kindergarten class, but Foundation Principal Chris Cully said HPCPS would be a digitally enabled school from the get-go....

Ongoing and at times one-sided media coverage has prevented Australians from getting an accurate picture of how the Catholic Church in Australia is dealing with child sex abuse claims, Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell told media earlier this week. Cardinal Pell said he welcomed Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement of a Royal Commission into child sex abuse “to help the victi...

The head of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart has welcomed the whole-of-community focus of the recently announced Royal Commission into child sex abuse. Prime Minister Julia Gillard made the announcement on November 12 after securing the cooperation of the Victorian and New South Wales Premiers, Ted Baillieu and Barry O’Farrell. Archbishop Ha...

Holy Rosary Parish Nedlands celebrated their 75th anniversary in splendour on the evening of Friday, October 26. A packed Holy Rosary church saw Bishop Don Sproxton and 15 other priests join Parish Priest Fr Joseph Sobb SJ in celebrating Mass for the occasion. The night was not just about celebrating a strong history, Bishop Sproxton said in his homily, but about where the parish wanted t...

The government’s recent move to lock-down refugee family reunions was “irony indeed” given Australia’s recent appointment to the UN Security Council, a Perth academic and researcher said this week. G M Joseph said recent changes to the Split Family Provisions meant even the wife and children of a man who had already been granted asylum in Australia would have to prove persecution, suppre...

There he was, stuck out in the middle of the ocean on a life raft with a suspect crew and a boozy skipper who had run their chartered boat into a reef before it had rapidly begun to sink. There was no fresh water and no supplies, and a then 25-year-old Tom Fisher was delirious in the sun’s brutalising heat, 15 miles off the coast of the Solomon Islands. After surviving the travails an...

Dr Gerard O’Shea says he believes in parents; possibly much more than they believe in themselves. On a late September evening, at the parish centre under St Mary’s Cathedral, a small but eager gathering of around 40 parents, religious, teachers and sexuality educators turned out to hear from one the Church’s most eminent sexuality education specialists. Throughout the night, his comments wer...

Five Kelmscott Catholics found themselves in a somewhat unexpected place when they hit the stage on October 17 for the final of ABC 720’s Exhumed competition. The String Tanglers, as they are otherwise known, were one of eight Perth bands to make the final, performing their own versions of folk classics Whiskey in the Jar and Dirty Old Town, to a packed Fly By Night Club in Fremantle. ...