On a cold winter’s night, Joan Wester Anderson believed her son and his friends would freeze to death in an isolated cornfield when their car broke down while driving from Connecticut to Chicago. Instead, Mrs Anderson owes her son’s life to a mysterious tow truck driver who appeared out of nowhere and towed the boys to a nearby town; when Mrs Anderson’s son turned to pay the man he had v...

Sid and Marie Gasper of Good Shepherd Parish in Kelmscott have been married for six decades. PHOTO: Juanita Shepherd[/caption] Surrounded by an assortment of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, family and friends, Sid and Marie Gasper celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Mr and Mrs Gasper grew up together in a small town called Syriam in Burma; they have known each ot...

Frank Hacket passed away just a month after celebrating his 60th wedding anniversary. PHOTO: Supplied[/caption] Frank Hackett lived a life of faith, love and family. After celebrating 60 years of marriage to his wife Pat on May 17 at St John of God Hospital Murdoch, he passed away peacefully on June 27 at Frank Prendergast House, Southern Cross Village, at Success. His Requiem Mass w...

Pope says Sunday must be kept free from retail trading seven days as its the day for family and for God. The Pope has made poignant comments about keeping Sundays free, just as legislation allowing general retail shops to trade seven days a week seems likely to be passed by the Western Australian parliament. “Sunday is the day of the Lord and of man, a day which everyone must be able to b...

Much-loved former parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Rockingham for 31 years, Fr Finbarr Walsh passed away peacefully at Fremantle Hospital on May 31, aged 83. His Pontifical Requiem Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Thursday, June 7, was attended by more than 600 people and over 60 priests and was concelebrated by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, Emeritus Archbishop Barry Hickey,...

Dear Father, now that we are celebrating the “Year of Grace” in Australia, can you just remind me what grace is? There are two main types of grace – sanctifying and actual: in order to do justice to your question, I will speak now of the first and leave the second for next week. The word grace in general refers to that freely given, a gift. For example, we say “by the grace of God” meaning ...

One of the basic tasks of the Christian life is understanding that although life can be unfair, God has given us eternal life Having grown up in North America during the decades of girl-power, materialism, and exaggerated self-esteem, I was encouraged to ‘dream big.’ Not by my humble parents, who stressed holiness over human achievement, but more so by our secular school system and the culture...

Giving more people degrees doesn’t make us a more educated society. Certain politicians in Australia, Britain and America have set a political goal of increasing the number of students at universities. The Australian Prime Minister has mentioned a target figure of 40 per cent of the population to have bachelors’ degrees by 2025, at a cost of more than $5.2 billion in public money over five ye...

One of the persistent disappointments for those committed to the cause of unborn children has been the witness over several decades of Catholics who, as politicians, voted for practices such as the legalisation of abortion. It happened in Western Australia in 1998 and it happened in Victoria in 2008 and it has happened around the world since the early 1970s, most notably in the US where Hous...

Susan (not her real name) is in her 20s and told The Record why she took part in the Walk and Rally for Life on May 22. What has been your personal experience of the issue? Abortion was one of those touchy subjects that I tried to avoid and ignore until it just couldn’t be ignored anymore. One of my best friends, a Catholic girl who was engaged to be married, told a group of friends that sh...