Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB had some direct and encouraging words to say to St Charles’ seminarians when he joined them for evening prayer, last Sunday. Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB made the most of his first opportunity to address archdiocesan seminarians directly when he attended Solemn Vespers and Benediction at St Charles Seminary last Sunday. After welcoming words from S...

Deacon Patrick Moore received a strange phone call one Monday morning last month. The Stella Maris Seafarers centre in Fremantle which he adminsters has no shortage of phone calls, with around 600 seafarers seeking solace through its doors, each and every month, but this call was a little different. The Australian newspaper’s Chief of Staff was on the other end of the line, saying he ...

Fr Peter Porteous says he has never been more content than where he is right now. That, for the Parish Priest of the central Perth suburb of Joondanna, is no mean feat, given the demanding picture he paints of the priesthood. But it is a vision no less compelling than it is daunting and the only one, he says, that could ever deliver the fulfillment a priest seeks and the ministry God’...

Parramatta Bishop Anthony Fisher OP has decided to deal with the pastoral fallout over recent child sex abuse revelations head-on, writing a statement to the Faithful which was read out in Parramatta parishes last Sunday. The statement begins with the first line of last Sunday’s Mass reading from the book of Jeremiah (23:1): “Doom for the shepherds who allow my flock to be destroyed and ...

Bishops should think twice before agreeing to recorded interviews with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), long-time political and social commentator Gerard Henderson said last week. Mr Henderson, Director of the Sydney Institute (SI) and an occasional guest on the ABC’s Insiders program, said there was no conspiracy against the Church at the ABC, but an institutional mindset ...

If you were only looking at the weight of media reporting, you could be forgiven for thinking there was an epidemic of child sexual abuse, perpetrated by the Catholic Church. What is getting less air time is that the three Catholic bishops at the centre of media attention last week are determined to address the issue, even as they attend to cases that happened under different prelates, d...

Monsignor Robert McGuckin has been installed as the new Bishop of Toowoomba, more than a year after former Bishop William Morris was removed by the Holy See for disunity and doctrinal heterodoxy. A congregation of around 1,500 joined ordaining prelate, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, Paramatta Bishop Anthony Fisher, Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto and Australia’s Amba...

The Year of Grace is an opportunity to discover the centrality of God’s action in our lives in the face of the mistaken belief we can merit our own salvation, Bishop Julian Porteous told young adults at Sydney’s SCENE conference last Wednesday. Sydney’s Auxiliary Bishop and the Archdiocese’ Episcopal Vicar for Renewal and Evangelisation was speaking at the opening session of the five day...

Former Federal Court Judge, Antony Whitlam QC has been appointed to head an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse amid suggestions senior priests failed to pass on knowledge of abuse to state authorities. Armidale Bishop Michael Kennedy and Parramatta Bishop Anthony Fisher OP made the joint announcement on Tuesday, as the alleged incidences of abuse occurred in both their dioceses. ...

Grand Master of the Sovereign and Military Order of Malta, Fra Matthew Festing with friends of PAS. Photo: Supplied. The global head of the Knights of Malta spent time with intellectually disabled people and their advocates when he visited Perth late last month. The Grand Master of the Sovereign and Military Order of Malta, Fra Matthew Festing and a number of office holders, Australian K...