Margaret Nora Neesham, fondly known as Peg, left behind more than a hundred children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and a legacy of enduring grace and unshakeable faith. The youngest of 13 children, Mrs Neesham was born in Fremantle on March 31, 1922. At the age of six, Mrs Neesham’s family moved from East Fremantle to Palmyra and built their house opposite Our Lady of Fatima ...

By Archbishop Charles Chaput The day may come when Catholics in the US can support neither of the main American political parties or their candidates. Some think it’s already arrived. Alasdair MacIntyre, the Notre Dame philosopher, argued along those lines a few years ago, explaining why he couldn’t vote for either a Democrat or a Republican. I don’t know what Professor MacIntyre d...

By Judith Sudilovsky Comboni Sister Azezet Kidane is fluent in Amharic, Tigrit, Arabic and Sudanese dialects, so she was a natural choice when a shelter for African refugees needed help. It was only after the nun, known as Sister Aziza, began conducting interviews with Eritrean refugees that she realised the people she was talking to had been tortured. “It is a horror story what is...

My daughter just turned nine. But to my way of thinking she is nine – going on 16. Soon, I fear, I will be ringing other fathers, men with grown-up daughters, seeking their advice on how to handle this mystery that is a girl somewhere on the path to becoming a woman. But I doubt they will be able to help one iota. A year or so ago we were at Mass one Saturday night. I was seated with ...

I can’t believe November is nearly at an end. It seems we’ve scarcely become accustomed to our family’s autumn schedule, and now it’s time to start getting stressed out about Christmas. The challenges of homeschooling four children and meeting my other commitments have occasionally stretched me to my limits. Then there are the mountains of laundry, editorial deadlines, household chore...

By Michael Cook Brother, have you been saved? That's a question we associate with soapbox preachers. But  the question of salvation has not gone out of style. Only the answer has. Only last month, for example, two leading bioethicists published a book on salvation. Julian Savulescu, of Oxford University, and Ingmar Persson, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, have written a pas...

Recently I was in Mass with my wife when a lady in front of us began talking to someone beside her during the Offertory. It may have been important to her but I always find this exceedingly distracting and annoying. Is there anything that can be done about it? Let me begin by considering the importance of silence, not only in Mass, but in general. Modern life tends to be noisy. People...

If the government passes a law requiring priests to inform the police or to testify in court about any serious matters they hear in confession, what will happen? Will priests comply? This issue has suddenly leapt into the public arena with respect to the sexual abuse issue, so it is important to be acquainted with some facts. First, the requirement that priests never divulge to anyone...

Hope springs eternal in the priestly breast - A research study on procedural justice for Priests – Diocesan and Religious. Reviewed by Fr Anthony Paganoni CS This book is an attempt to unravel the subtle, even if hushed-up, consequences of the delirium surrounding the often-reported appalling behavior of clergy, both diocesan and religious, whether or not that behavior has been correctly...

On Monday November 12, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the formation of a royal commission into “institutional responses to instances and allegations of child sexual abuse”. The media spotlight has been on child abuse claims in the Catholic Church. But the Prime Minister is wise enough to realise that sex abuse is so widespread that it is not just a problem in one denom...