When she was younger, Sr Renée Buchmann dreamed of becoming a missionary in Africa. Instead the Schoenstatt sister was sent as a missionary to Australia. She arrived on 22 May 1968, three days after the Mt Schoenstatt shrine at Mulgoa was opened and blessed. “It was a big change for me because I grew up […]
St Barbara – patron saint of miners and tunnellers – was invoked in the blessing of a massive roadheader machine which will be used to dig tunnels for the Sydney Metro Railway Project. In a special blessing ceremony on 16 April at the Bligh Street construction site in the city, the Dean of St Mary’s […]
As Deacon Antoun Salama stands among the ladders and paint tins in the stark interior of the almost-completed church, he describes how a beautiful iconostasis from Egypt will adorn the altar. A magnificent icon of the Twelve Apostles will also decorate the sweeping arch above the altar, he says. “It’s a dream for everyone to […]
Fr Danny Nouh—the first married man ordained for the Maronite Church in Australia—says his ordination on 17 March was “surreal” and brought many people back to the Church. “I can’t explain, it was surreal. Just unbelievable. It was more than joy, that’s all I can say,” Fr Nouh told The Catholic Weekly. “Many people were […]
After ten long years of waiting for their church to be built, the St Elias Melkite Catholic community have launched a new initiative to raise the desperately-needed funds to build their new spiritual home at Guildford. “It’s been a long and tumultuous journey for our community, however we can finally see the finish line. Our […]
The French policeman who died after offering himself in place of a hostage during a deadly terrorist attack was a practising Catholic it has been revealed, and was preparing with his wife to be sacramentally married in the Church later this year. Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame died after volunteering to replace a female hostage during the […]
Fr Brendan Quirk says he is looking forward to serving Army personnel and “sharing their journey as soldiers” in his new role as an Army chaplain. Previously the Parish Priest at Arncliffe, Bexley and Rockdale, Fr Quirk was appointed to the Australian Regular Army and sworn-in at Defence Force Recruiting in Parramatta on 27 March. […]
The strength, determination and charity of the woman who could be Australia’s next saint serves as an inspiration for students at a Sydney school named in her honour. Eileen O’Connor Catholic College in Lewisham caters for students with a moderate intellectual disability and its ethos focuses on Eileen’s resilience in the face of adversity and […]
Being a Defence Force chaplain offers Catholic priests a unique and challenging experience of their vocation, according to Lieutenant Gordon Hutcheon, Careers Promotion Team Leader for Defence Force Recruiting. “You’ve really got to be a people person,” Lieutenant Hutcheon says. The role involves a whole lot more than offering the sacraments. The chaplain is the […]
Popular international Catholic speaker and author, Jason Evert, says the #MeToo phenomenon coming out of Hollywood is “terrific” as women are finally standing up and publicaly calling-out sexual assault and harassment. “So much abuse has been suffered silently,” he said. “It’s empowering women to step up and say, I went through this too, you’re not […]
It was the experience of becoming a Muslim for 24 hours that set Charbel Raish—founder of Parousia Media—on a journey to deepen his knowledge and love of the Catholic faith. Despite being born and raised in a Maronite Catholic family, Charbel had fallen away from his faith by the time he was nine years old. […]
Identical twins, Fathers Patrick and John O’Neill CSsR, were both present when the Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened in 1932. But they have no memory of the momentous occasion: they were only six weeks old at the time. The 86 year-old brothers do remember, however, being ordained to the priesthood together at the Redemptorist monastery […]
