The Eileen O’Connor Centre has now opened in Coogee. Images by Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2025 The Eileen O’Connor Centre has opened in Coogee in Sydney’s east honouring the life’s work and legacy of the co-founder of the Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor. Also named the Brown Nurses due to their trademark brown cloaks […]
ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, 1 JUNE 2025 There are many stories from the Middle Ages about court jesters teaching their masters a thing or two. In one, a king is so amused by his jester, he hands him a staff and says, “Keep this staff till you find someone more foolish than yourself—then give it […]
ST MARY’S BASILICA SYDNEY, 31 MAY 2025 Unparalleled in wisdom about our origins, lives and destinies, about the perennial battle between good and evil, and about the possibility of redemption… I am speaking, of course, not of the Bible or the Summa but the Marvel comics and films. Connecting the stories told there is the […]
Four Seasons Hotel, The Rocks, 30 May 2025 Bishops, Fathers, Sisters, Sponsors, Business Networkers, Friends all, I. Winter for the Church 173 years ago, St John Henry Newman began a sermon to the clergy of Westminster with a beautiful reflection upon “the perpetual renovation” of our world—not constant home renovations a la contemporary Australia, but […]
Our term “digger” has a contested history. Some date it back to the gold rushes, others to the Aussie miners in South Africa around the time of the Boer War. More obviously, it was the nickname Australian and New Zealand soldiers got for digging trenches in Gallipoli, the Somme and elsewhere. Photo: Alphonsus Fok. This […]
Streetscape view of St Brigid’s Church-School. Photo: Supplied. The weekend of 24-25 May brought to a close a series of special events to celebrate the 190th anniversary of St Brigid’s Church-School, Millers Point, the oldest surviving place of Catholic worship in Australia. St Brigid’s is within the territorial parish boundaries of St Patrick’s, Church Hill. […]
Music at the Walk with Christ serves a crucial purpose. Images by Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2024 If an army marches to a beat, then the 20,000 strong Walk with Christ brigade will march to the divine tempo set by the talented performers at the Corpus Christi festival event before the 22 June procession begins. […]
It was a day of celebration for the new Catholics of Sydney, as they were welcomed into the fullness of the faith by Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP at a solemn Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral on 25 May. This special milestone saw more than 200 neophytes and 100 of their families, godparents, sponsors and RCIA […]
Fr Paul Monkerud formally unveiled the parish’s new mission and vision on 25 May, Photo: Patrick J Lee. It was an historic and joyful occasion for All Saints Parish in Liverpool, as parish priest Fr Paul Monkerud formally unveiled its new mission and vision on 25 May, marking what parishioners describe as a transformative moment […]
Associate Professor Philip Kariatlis of St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College. Photo: Alphonsus Fok. In a world of military conflict and social polarisation, the Nicene Creed and ecumenical dialogue can provide everyone with the ability to, “walk together even if we do not stand together at the Eucharistic table,” according to Associate Professor Philip Kariatlis […]
Giovanni Julio and Jorge Luis Mairena as they prepare for their diaconate ordination. Photo: Alphonsus Fok A soggy Wednesday, 21 May, saw the worst traffic jams and public transport chaos in years in Sydney. But that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the faithful who attended the ordination to the diaconate of two men from the […]
Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass for Pope Francis. Photo: Giovanni Portelli. This is the edited text of the Homily for the Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass for Pope Francis, St Mary’s Basilica, Sydney, 1 May 2025. “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the wise and learned, and revealing them […]
Archbishop Fisher OP hosts student leaders in Cathedral House. Images by Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2025. Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP has held a school leaders’ lunch in Cathedral House, giving students the opportunity to speak and ask questions about Catholicism. Each year, the archbishop hosts lunch for a number of prefects, house captains, and school […]
Best-selling author and literary scholar Joseph Pearce. Images by Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2025 Best-selling author and literary scholar Joseph Pearce looks for beauty in places as diverse as the works of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky to ripples on a Monte Carlo biscuit in a Sydney school office. He has known plenty of ugliness in […]
NSW Premier Chris Minns popped in early, collecting a coffee from the van just as it opened at 7am. Images by Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2025 CatholicCare has held the grand opening of its third BariStars mobile café, located alongside St Mary’s Cathedral. BariStars is a social enterprise offering people with disabilities valuable life and career […]
