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...

This week, Archbishop Barry Hickey thanked the people of Perth for their support. Here is the text of his message. As we look forward to the Solemn Liturgical Installation of Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB as the new Archbishop of Perth, I take this opportunity to thank the Catholic people of Perth for their prayerful support, their tolerance at times and their forgiveness, but most of all...

Q: I have often heard people speak of the seven sorrows and joys of St Joseph, but I don’t know anything about them. Can you tell me anything about this devotion? A: The devotion of the seven sorrows and joys of St Joseph is traditional in the Church. It may have its origin in the following story which is often recounted in relating the history of the devotion. It seems that two Franciscan f...

Daniel Matthys gave in to his misgivings about online shopping, stumbling upon a hidden treasure, a personally signed copy of GK Chesterton’s 1928 book The Sword of Wood. Being a localist at heart, I must confess my misgivings concerning online shopping, suspicious of the detachment embodied by online transactions. In an ideal world I would buy only local products from local shops owned a...

At the heart of the push for infanticide is an identity crisis about what it means to be human, writes Jing Ping Wong.