If The Record – or any other newspaper – were to publish an editorial asserting that the problem of methamphetamine production in suburban drug laboratories was obviously impossible to stamp out and that the best course of action to handle this pernicious problem would be to legalise drug production in contained areas for later sale in the nightclubs of Northbridge, people would think this we...

Graduates from Acts 2 College celebrate as they become the new messengers of Christ in today's world. Perth’s Catholic College, Acts 2 College of Mission & Evangelisation, celebrated the graduation 2011 class on Sunday, March 18 with Mass, a graduation ceremony and reception. Then-Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey, along with priests Fr Steve Tynan MGL and Fr Andre Nahhas, celebrated Mass...

Former ABC political editor, Peter Kennedy, pays his respects to a departed minister of the crown. The former Labor Deputy Prime Minister, Lionel Bowen, who died in Sydney earlier this month, was a great supporter of Catholics getting more involved in politics instead of complaining from the sidelines on issues such as state aid, abortion and family law. Mr Bowen, who was 89, was a high p...

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If Fr Sean Fernandez had brought a ticket to the Pell-Dawkins debate, he would have asked for his money back. There was a great deal about ABC’s Q&A  of April 9 with which one could be disappointed. In increasing gravity, one could be disappointed with the ill-mannered man who addressed the Cardinal as ‘George’; but perhaps he had not been taught manners. One could be disappointed ...

Have we sacrificed once traditional courtesies at this altar, asks Fr David Watt, and if so, is Satan involved? Have you ever been with someone and had your conversation interrupted by a phone call? If a third person is present, courtesy dictates he wait for a break in the conversation before saying his piece, but someone who isn’t even there can just barge ahead. Or have you ever been tal...

Nuong Nguyen recalls the difference people she met made in her journey. I was a Buddhist by default. In Vietnam when you are not baptised you are automatically considered a Buddhist. I grew up in an environment where there was superstition and I was not happy with it. I looked for meaning in philosophy. I read the works of all the French philosophers but I was not happy with their answers. T...

As we celebrate Easter, we can all look forward to receiving Christ’s Spirit, enabling us to draw on his courage, his fidelity and his commitment in the events of our daily lives, writes Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB. My recent installation as the new Catholic Archbishop of Perth was a deeply moving occasion for me and, I suspect, for many others as well. One of the things which struck m...

  In a move highlighting how seriously they view the issue, Victoria’s Catholic bishops circulated 80,000 letters through Victorian parishes last weekend urging parishioners to write to their MPs, asking them to defend marriage as being between a man and a woman (see breakout box below). The idea of same-sex marriage seems both reasonable and tolerant to many people. But, as US academic J Budz...

This is Archbishop Timothy Costelloe’s Homily, which he said on 21 March, 2012 at St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth. A few moments ago Archbishop Hickey and Archbishop Lazzarotto led me to the Bishop’s chair, the Cathedra, from where I will preside as the Archbishop of Perth. In doing so Archbishop Hickey is representing not just the Archdiocese of Perth or the Church in Western Australia but...