The following statement was issued by Australia’s bishops on Monday: The President and Permanent Committee of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, on behalf of the Australian Bishops, support the announcement by the Prime Minister of a Royal Commission into child sex abuse in our community. This is a serious issue not just for the Catholic Church but for the whole community. A...

Churches have failed to emphasis a message of hope to help people who over-dwell on the sadness of death, overcome grief. The presenter of ABC TV’s Compass, Geraldine Doogue, said last week in a radio interview on ABC 720 that the sign of a decently tilled faith is that it tells you death is an invitation to life but no church had emphasised this message. “A lot of the unchurched I fo...

Ongoing and at times one-sided media coverage has prevented Australians from getting an accurate picture of how the Catholic Church in Australia is dealing with child sex abuse claims, Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell told media earlier this week. Cardinal Pell said he welcomed Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement of a Royal Commission into child sex abuse “to help the victi...

The head of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart has welcomed the whole-of-community focus of the recently announced Royal Commission into child sex abuse. Prime Minister Julia Gillard made the announcement on November 12 after securing the cooperation of the Victorian and New South Wales Premiers, Ted Baillieu and Barry O’Farrell. Archbishop Ha...

A fledgling religious order of Sisters in New South Wales is urging Western Australian young people across the Nullabor to attend their sixth annual mission school in Lewisham in the New Year. The January 1-14 mission school is for young people aged 16-35 and is billed as an opportunity to discover the “beauty of the Catholic faith through great speakers” and “the joy of new friendships ...

As uncomfortable as some Catholics may be with the concept of evil personified, the Church is uncompromising on this fact. “Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God ... Scripture and the Church’s tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called ‘Satan’ or the ‘Devil’”(Catholic Catechism of Catholic Church, 391). So convinced is Bisho...

The winning game that secured the North American Martyrs a position in the finals, which they went on to win, had the feel of a great sporting movie. “It was in one of the knockout games. We had taken an early lead but the game was just like a tennis match. We took a goal and then the other team scored a goal; we started to feel the pressure. One of our players was fouled; no one was hap...

By Andrew Rabel A filipino man who says Jesus Christ appears to him in dreams in the image of the Divine Mercy has just concluded a national tour of Australia. Although he is married with 13 children he is usually known as Br Stanley Villavicencio (a term used in the Philippines for someone who devotes himself to evangelisation). The Divine Mercy devotion approved by Pope John Paul...

The only Labor member to cross the floor during the vote to pass the same-sex marriage bill in Tasmania, the member for Lyons and Speaker, Michael Polley says same-sex marriage is a bridge too far. The Labor-Green bill passed 13 votes to 11, with all members of the Liberal Opposition voting against the bill. Mr Polley crossed the floor on August 31 for the first time in his 41 years i...

The strain of dealing with historic cases of child sex abuse was one reason Bishop of Ballarat Peter Connors sought early retirement from his diocese, he told The Record last week. Bishop Connors will be the diocese’s Apostolic Administrator until his newly announced successor, Fr Paul Bird CSSR, assumes the role on October 16. In his 15 years as bishop of Ballarat, Bishop Connors sai...