On Monday, June 24, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference commenced its Ad Limina Apostolorum visit with Mass at the tomb of St Peter. This is Conference president Archbishop Mark Coleridge’s homily.

In the years when I worked here, I would often walk through St Peter’s from Santa Marta where I lived to the Palace yonder where I worked. Now and then I would think of St Peter, the Galilean fisherman lying beneath this grand pile and wonder what he makes of it. I would think of those haunting words at the end of John’s Gospel which Jesus speaks to Peter: “When you grow old, someone else will put a belt around you and take you where you would rather not go”. Continue reading →

A screenshot from the Australian bishops’ video message for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday

Australia’s Catholic bishops have called for greater collaboration to stem the tide of the terrible loss of life through suicide among not only the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, but throughout the wider Australian society.

In their annual Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday message, the bishops have identified five key principles to help government, faith-based and other organisations to walk together with communities struggling to cope with and to prevent the further loss of young lives. Continue reading →

The Australian bishops will celebrate Mass in the papal basilicas, including St Peter’s, during the Ad Limina visit

Australia’s Catholic bishops have arrived in Italy and are preparing for their pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul with a period of prayer and discernment.

Almost 40 bishops will be in Rome next week for the Ad Limina Apostolorum visit, translated as “To the Threshold of the Apostles”. Continue reading →

Kevin and Gail Shorthouse during their time in Papua New Guinea (photo supplied)

A Brisbane couple who spent 40 years as volunteers for Catholic Mission services in remote northern Papua New Guinea have been awarded Queen’s Birthday honours.

Kevin Shorthouse, 79, a former Catholic Mission pilot and teacher, and his wife Gail, 76, were pleasantly surprised on Monday to receive the Order of Australia Medal for their service to the people of Papua New Guinea. Continue reading →

Andrea Dean, director of the Office for the Participation of Women

Last week, Brisbane’s Sunday Mail carried the headline “Brisbane Girls’ Schools Go Gender Neutral”.

Not surprisingly, the story, perhaps intended to sensationalise, was about how these schools would refer to God during prayer. It was picked up by a number of aggregation services and discussion ensued. Continue reading →

Sr Mary Shanahan was among a number of prominent Catholics to receive Queen’s Birthday honours (photo supplied)

Queen’s Birthday honours have been bestowed upon a number of leading Catholic lay and religious leaders, recognising their decades of work as servants of the Church in Australia.

Among the many Queen’s Birthday honours awardees are: Sr Mary Margaret Shanahan RSCJ, Fr Robert (Bob) Sheridan and Sr Patricia Caroline Bailey OP. Justice Neville Owen, the former chair of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, who currently serves on the Pontifical Council for the Protection of Minors, has also been recognised in the awards. Continue reading →

The Plenary Council 2020 moves into its next phase of preparation today with the announcement of the National Themes for Discernment that emerged from a historic process of listening to the voices of more than 222,000 people.

Between May 2018 and March 2019, almost 17,500 submissions, from individuals and groups of all sizes, addressed the Plenary Council’s central question: “What do you think God is asking of us in Australia at this time?” Continue reading →

Bishops and members of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council visit St Vincent’s Hospital

A delegation of bishops has toured a Sydney Catholic hospital that is improving the health of Indigenous people via a range of innovative reconciliation and Closing the Gap programs.

Members of the Bishops Commission for Relations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC) recently visited St Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst. Continue reading →

A combination of data analysis, prayer and reflection has helped the Plenary Council 2020 process move from the voices of more than 222,000 people across the country to a number of National Themes for Discernment.

More than 75 people met last week to listen to and understand the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the submissions received during the 10-month Listening and Dialogue phase of the Plenary Council. Continue reading →

Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett greets Deacon Kopel Gibuma at his Ordination Mass. (Photo supplied)

The first ordination of a Torres Strait Islander into the Catholic priesthood in Australia was celebrated with a culturally-symbolic ceremony in Far North Queensland last Sunday.

In St Francis Xavier Church in Cairns, Lismore Emeritus Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett ordained 55-year-old Fr Kopel Gibuma to the Catholic priesthood to minister in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross (OLSC). Continue reading →