By Barbara Harris There is one word that has been used for a very long time and by many people across the social, economic, cultural, religious and political divides that is beginning to grate on me. The word is “disability”. Like an old shoe, perhaps, the word has been with us so long that even though it doesn’t quite fit now, we have somehow become attached to it. For many people...

Quo Vadis? Whither goest thou—do you know? Many of us don’t, though we are constantly on the move. We are a pilgrim people, and “Companions on the Journey” (shudder) is our song. (How many words rhyme with “care and share”? You really don’t want to know.) As a volunteer catechist who has served in many capacities and parishes over the decades, I have grown weary of the pedagogical mod...

Plenty of eyebrows would undoubtedly have been raised upon hearing in mid-September that the right forearm of 16th century Spanish missionary, St Francis Xavier was commencing a three-month national tour of Australia. A large number of those eyebrows would have been Catholic. A Google search of ‘relic’ produces responses such as “grotesque”, “mediaeval”, “idolatry”, “superstitious” and e...

Joe (Giuseppe) and Maisie Cinanni, from Applecross parish, have been married for 50 years. The couple were married in St Joachim’s Church, Victoria Park, on June 16, 1962, but on Sunday, September 23, were “shocked and surprised” to receive a papal blessing via St Benedict’s Parish Priest, Fr Peter Whitely, after the 6pm Mass. It also happens to be St Benedict’s parish’s 60th annivers...

By +Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, Archbishop of Perth. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Having been archbishop here in Perth for six months I would like to take this opportunity to write to you and share some reflections with you on the journey so far. Rather than write a formal pastoral letter I simply want to offer you these simple thoughts. It has been a busy and in s...

Fr Robert McCulloch doesn’t look shocked. Given the kind of news he is receiving down the phone line from Hyderabad, in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh, one might have expected he would be. It’s September 17 in Rome and outside thousands of perspiring tourists are strolling past Propaganda Fide, the global headquarters of the Catholic Church’s missionary work. With their water bottl...

Dominican Sister Catherine Brophy, of St Catherine’s Convent, Doubleview, passed away suddenly and peacefully at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital on October 1, aged 75. Her Requiem Mass was celebrated at Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Doubleview, on October 6. Sr Catherine was born on April 9, 1937 in County Clare, Ireland, the middle daughter of Michael and Frances Brophy, who had eight...

By +Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, Archbishop of Perth As  I write these few words the Australian Parliament has recently rejected, in both houses, proposals to legalise what is becoming commonly known as “same-sex marriage”. A similar proposal has also been defeated in the Tasmanian parliament. Many people will welcome these developments while others will be distressed or anger...

By Tom Gourlay With the month of November looming,  we are reminded of the fanciful season where our brothers, colleagues and friends begin the now-annual ritual of moustache growing. These men, young and old, begin with wisps of fur on their upper lips which, over the course of that dreaded 30 day period, grows into full-blown moustaches. And with this begins the flurry of emails ...

With apologies to the Beatles (or maybe just Paul McCartney), I don’t believe in Yesterday. The song by that name is wistfully lovely and immensely popular (according to the Guinness Book of Records — and they should know — it’s the most covered pop song of all time) but it makes for lousy theology and even worse day-to-day spirituality. But this is not a critique of the song (I am, i...