The government’s recent move to lock-down refugee family reunions was “irony indeed” given Australia’s recent appointment to the UN Security Council, a Perth academic and researcher said this week. G M Joseph said recent changes to the Split Family Provisions meant even the wife and children of a man who had already been granted asylum in Australia would have to prove persecution, suppre...

The WA Indonesian Catholic Community celebrated its 20th Anniversary last week with the theme ‘The Wondrous Journey With Christ.’ For the past two decades it has been a great journey for the Indonesian community; they have overcome language barrier, brought migrants to the Church and evangelised their community. The celebrations began with a Thanksgiving mass at St Mary’s Cathedral. ...

The Catholic men’s group known as menALIVE will kick off a Catholic Man Breakfast Series with Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB on November 15. The breakfast will be an opportunity to “get under the hood” of some of the most interesting and successful Catholic men in Perth, Perth co-ordinator, Kim Metcalf told The Record last week. Archbishop Costelloe was menALIVE’s first choice as th...

A new era of Catholic Education begun last week when Tim McDonald was commissioned as the director of Catholic Education in Western Australia. Mr McDonald’s wife, children and father looked on as he was commissioned by Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB at St Michael’s Chapel in Leederville in the presence of the Catholic Education community. Dozens of principals were commissioned...

It was a beautiful night for the inaugural new event of ‘Shrine Time’ held by the WA Schoenstatt Movement on Sunday, October 28. Fr Clayton Mitchell, the youth music ministry of Sacred Heart Parish, Thornlie and around 25 young adults came to a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration; Benediction; reflection and praise and worship at Mt Richon. Youth and young adults came from Armadale; Ca...

The Society of Catholic Teachers Australia held its annual conference in Perth recently, to coincide with the start of the Year of Faith, featuring internationally renowned Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers as its keynote speaker. The ‘Dynamic Deacon’ TV personality from the USA arrived in Perth for five days of conferences, a men’s retreat, preaching and a youth event. Deacon Harold’s dynam...

The University of Notre Dame hosted the opening ceremony for the Tournament of Minds, a problem-solving program for teams of both primary and secondary aged school children. Over 500 students gathered at the Fremantle campus and listened to the opening address given by Professor Celia Hammond, the University’s Vice Chancellor. “As someone who is passionate about education, about the s...

Over 30 young adults from Perth answered the universal call to holiness when they attended the Catholic Youth Ministry retreat at Eagles Nest in Gidgegannup over the weekend of October 5-7. The aim of the retreat was to bring Christ into the everyday lives of the young as many are of the misguided opinion that holiness is reserved for the clergy. “The retreat’s theme was the ‘universa...

Peace-maker par excellence, Bishop Vincent Boi-Nai SVD, will speak at three different events in Perth next week, sharing his hands-on knowledge of peace building and the state of interreligious dialogue in Ghana. Bishop Vincent has been active for more than a decade in conflict resolution among rival tribal groups in his predominantly Muslim Diocese of Yendi, making him one of the region...

Five Kelmscott Catholics found themselves in a somewhat unexpected place when they hit the stage on October 17 for the final of ABC 720’s Exhumed competition. The String Tanglers, as they are otherwise known, were one of eight Perth bands to make the final, performing their own versions of folk classics Whiskey in the Jar and Dirty Old Town, to a packed Fly By Night Club in Fremantle. ...