Spanish-born Benedictine Monk Rosendo Salvado arrived set foot on West Australian soil 175 years ago, carrying a mission to build an Aboriginal education system in the middle of the Western Australian outback. The result of his arrival was the beginning of New Norcia, the only monastic town in Australia. By Theresia Titus.

Sydney’s Auxiliary Bishop Terence Brady recognised the great courage and unfailing service to others, endured by Eileen O’Connor despite living with great personal suffering herself, at a special mass held on 10 January 2021, to mark the centenary of her death, as she remains on the path to becoming Australia’s second saint.

A middle school music teacher who yearns to be a jazz pianist gets his big break when he’s invited to join a highly regarded quartet. But just before his first performance with them, an accident leaves his body in a coma and sends his spirit into the afterlife. His efforts to avoid going to heaven and return to his earthly existence bring him instead to the realm where the personalities of future babies are formed. There, he’s assigned to mentor a soul who has stubbornly refused to be born for centuries. By John Mulderig

Pope Francis delivered his Christmas message and blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) from the Hall of Blessings at the Vatican on 25 December 2020, highlighting his hope that Christmas would be an opportunity for all to rediscover the family as a cradle of life and faith, a place of acceptance and love, dialogue, forgiveness, fraternal solidarity and shared joy, a source of peace for all humanity.

Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA) has this week outlined its contribution to building stronger WA communities.

Pope Francis kisses a figurine of the baby Jesus as he arrives to celebrate Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican in this Dec. 24, 2019, file photo. The pope will celebrate the traditional Christmas Eve Mass with a small congregation, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Rome so people can get home without breaking Italy’s 10 p.m. COVID-19 curfew.

To allow God to enter our hearts and be a faithful disciple of Christ was the message Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB conveyed in his homily during the Golden Jubilee celebratory Mass for the Congregation of the Mother of Sorrows (Servite Sisters) on 5 December.

Iona Presentation College students are redefining what modern slavery means to them by learning more and by taking action.

St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth WA is one of the buildings illuminated in red light this week in support of a global cause for the gift of religious freedom for those who are persecuted because of their Christian faith.

New Norcia Parish has last month blessed the newly installed ‘Rock of Remembrance’ – an interactive memorial in honour of those who experienced any form of neglect or abuse – following Sunday Mass on 25 October.