“Can I show you our family photo?” Lorrita Liu asks me towards the end of our interview. The 38 year-old from Xi’an City in Shaanxi Province in China reverently takes a framed photo from a bag and shows it to me. “For me,” she says in broken English, “this is the only family photo.” The […]
It seems that what has been the case for some time is starting to be acknowledged publicly — that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world today. Over the past few years Pope Francis has spoken repeatedly about the persecution of Christians around the world, condemning both the persecution and the deafening […]
On 18 July this year it will be 200 years since the world lost one of its greatest writers—Miss Jane Austen (1775 –1817). Of enormous popularity today, all of Austen’s major novels—Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (1817)—have been made into films, plays and […]
“What would I have done? Would I have had the courage to hold out as long as they have?” Regina Lynch often asks herself these questions after meeting Christians around the world who have been persecuted for their faith. As someone who has worked for Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) for 36 years, […]
Australia’s most senior bishops called for justice to be allowed to take its course after the former Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, was charged with sexual abuse offences last week. Cardinal Pell, who is currently Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy at the Vatican, was charged by Victoria Police on 29 June with […]
The religious order founded by the woman who could one day be named as another Australian saint, will operate—as of 1 July this year—under the leadership of the Sisters of Charity. Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor, founded by Eileen O’Connor and Fr Edward McGrath in 1913, have dwindled in numbers over recent decades with […]
Handel’s Messiah is again set to inspire listeners across Australia following the release of a new CD recording by Artes Christi, launched on 11 June by Bishop Richard Umbers. “God finds a way to the soul through music,” explained Bishop Umbers, as he congratulated the work of the “youth Choir and youth Orchestra who have […]
The oldest musical institution in Australia – St Mary’s Cathedral Choir in Sydney – is set to perform a concert that Music Director, Thomas Wilson, hopes will give people a unique encounter with sacred music. The choir – which turns 200 years old next year – will perform works by J S Bach, Benjamin Britten […]
Over 400 children from war-torn Syria and Iraq have been taken in by Catholic schools around Sydney, and that number will continue to rise over the coming months. These incredibly vulnerable children have fled with their families from the terror of ISIS and civil war in their homelands, and have been welcomed into Sydney’s Catholic schools […]
At the final resting place of Australia’s first official saint – a woman – a new initiative was recently launched aimed at inspiring and empowering women to use their unique God-given gifts in the service of the Church and others. The new Australian Catholic Women’s Mentoring Program was launched on 20 May at Mary MacKillop […]
When Dr Ryan Messmore and his future wife, Karin, were dating at university, they longed for a deeper, more meaningful story about love and marriage, than what they were hearing from the hook-up culture around them. They wanted something better than the cultural narrative of sex as merely physical pleasure and marriages that last only […]
‘Fire and Hope’ is an exciting new initiative seeking to form young Catholics as missionary disciples and evangelisers in today’s world. Run by the Emmanuel Community, ‘Fire and Hope’ is a mission for young adults aged 18 to 25, consisting of monthly Masses, Eucharistic adoration, praise, talks and social time. Held on the third Sunday […]
