When it comes to evangelisation and fraternity, sport has proved it’s got what it takes to deliver the goods. The first meet of the second annual Soccer and Netball Tournament at Mercy College, Mirrabooka on Sunday 6 November was, perhaps, the latest manifestation. Thirteen mostly parish-based soccer, and five netball, teams took to their respective theatres of battle, thrashing it out in a ...

When Paschal Obidile was asked to sing the Australian national anthem at a parish soccer and netball tournament last Sunday, he thought the priest who organised the event must have been joking. Arriving in Perth on the 25 October as part of Nigeria’s official delegation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, it was the first time the professional vocalist had been to Australia. “I...

DON’T waste your life wondering – step forward in faith. That was a key message from Monsignor Kevin Long, the rector of Perth’s St Charles’ Seminary in Guildford – the place Catholic men go to find out if they are being called by God to be diocesan priests. In a day of elegant worship and frank conversation, nine young men attended the seminary annual Enquiry Day on Sunday 16, October. If ...

He may be the only Franciscan Capuchin in Western Australia but Fr Kenneth D’Souza OFM Cap says he doesn’t feel like an orphan. Fr D’Souza arrived in Perth from India three and a half months ago and has already made contacts with other orders derived from St Francis of Assisi as well as lay members of the Secular Franciscan Order. “I don’t feel orphaned. God, in his plans, is doing wonders,...

The Catholic Church will cancel registration to conduct legal marriages if hand forced on same-sex unions, says Perth's Archbishop Hickey. If the state forced the Perth archdiocese to officiate at same-sex unions, the archdiocese would cancel its registration to celebrate legal marriages, Archbishop Barry Hickey said last Sunday. His comments were made to members of the Traditional Anglican...

The impending establishment of an Anglican Ordinariate was both “timely” and “welcome”, Perth's Archbishop Barry Hickey said during a visit to the Traditional Anglican parish of St Ninian and St Chad Church in Maylands on Sunday, September 25. Under the Pope’s leadership, Archbishop Hickey said, Catholics and Anglicans could worship and share their treasures with one another. “You will brin...

Priests need to reach out to young people growing up in dysfunction and at risk of violence, Archbishop Barry Hickey told Perth’s three newest priests at their ordination on 12 August.   The world had changed dramatically since he was ordained 52 years ago and priests needed to adapt their age-old mission of being Christ in the world to new realities, Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey said at...

Migrants come in all shapes, colours and sizes. Some even come from New Zealand, writes Robert Hiini.  I remember thinking my parents the most self-centred people in the world when they told my two sisters and me we were moving to Australia. I was 15 when we left Auckland to live in the Wait-A-While state, as we would affectionately come to know it. And wait we did. My father had gone to Pe...

This week:   - Haiti: Where was God?   - Bishop Porteous: The Pope's brand of environmentalism   - The shock and awe of evolution   - Notre Dame grabs lead in palliative care training   - Church Life Survey shows Catholics lag in welcoming stakes   - Pope urges priests online, to embrace new media ...

CLIMATE change critics are back on the front foot, announcing a national tour of two of the most prominent climate change sceptics on the world stage. Lord Christopher Monckton, columnist, business consultant and former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, will be joined by Australian Professor Ian Plimer, author of Heaven and Earth on a tour that will take in Perth, Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Noosa...