PPC session at Our Lady of Fatima Kingsgrove. Photo: Supplied. Nearly 100 parish pastoral council members from across the Archdiocese of Sydney have spent recent weeks wrestling with a question that kept surfacing in every room: what are we doing for our young people? The three workshops, held at Kingsgrove, Leichhardt and Mount Pritchard so that parishes from the […]
Varun (top left) Tania (top right) Christine Solomon (bottom centre). Photo: Supplied. For the growing number of Sydneysiders knocking on the door of the Catholic church, the RCIA coordinator is the first human face they meet and can also be the reason they stay. That conviction was at the heart of an online gathering hosted via Zoom on Wednesday […]
Seminary of the Good Shepherd, Homebush, 2 September 2026 On 30 June 1865 the Sydney Morning Herald reported that “By far the largest and most disastrous conflagration which has ever occurred in Sydney happened last night and resulted in the total destruction of St Mary’s Cathedral. This noble edifice, which was… the finest example of […]
The 2026 gathering will be held at St Mary’s Cathedral Hall on Saturday 19 September, from 7.30am to 4pm. Images by Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2025 There is a fair chance the socks you buy your father this Sunday will be at the bottom of a drawer by Christmas. Michael Jaksic has a suggestion that might […]
There is a photograph of David Stevens from years ago that he barely recognises as being him. Bearded, a bit wild about the edges, a man who could hold his own at a party and often did. “I used to be a massive drinker,” he says. “Oh God, I could drink. I’d go out and […]
The Catholic Weekly managing editor Marilyn Rodrigues accepts the award for Best Column on behalf of Archdiocese of Sydney chancellor Monica Doumit at the 2026 Australasian Catholic Press Association Awards. PHOTO: Jeremy Yuen/Australasian Catholic Press Association The Catholic Weekly has won Best Column at the 2026 Australasian Catholic Press Association Awards for a selection of work by former […]
Msgr Anthony Figueiredo with Pope Leo XIV. Photo: Supplied. A major relic of St Carlo Acutis is travelling from bustling cities to country towns on a four-month mission intended to draw Australians closer to Christ in the Eucharist. Australia is the 25th nation to receive the first-class major pilgrim relic, which contains a section of the saint’s […]
St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 30 August 2026 In 1973, the American writer Ursula Le Guin published a short work of philosophical fiction, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. Set in an imaginary city where all enjoy peace and prosperity, the story opens with a summer festival including a horse-race for the young. Though limited […]
Feast of St Augustine, St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 28 August 2026 Not long ago they were saying that in the Church we are now all Jesuits; these days we are all Augustinians! But it is not just Pope Leo the Augustinian who richly seasons his speeches and documents with quotes from St Augustine.[1] All the […]
Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP. Photo: Giovanni Portelli Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP has called for NSW lawmakers to reconsider whether repeated political protests should be allowed to repeatedly disrupt religious worship, arguing freedom of political communication should not become a “super right” overriding other fundamental freedoms. Addressing the Samuel Griffith Society conference in Sydney on 22 August, the […]
(Archbishop Anthony Fisher. Picture: AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi) Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher has criticised some judges and activists for treating the freedom to protest as a “trumping power” over all other rights, enshrining weekly pro-Palestine protests above the common good, social cohesion and the security of the country. Dr Fisher’s speech to the […]
On any given Friday night, the streets of inner Sydney belong to the revellers, the nightclub queues, the neon and the noise. But in the early hours of Saturday 22 August, the city awoke to a different sound: the deep murmur of the rosary and the steady tread of more than 1,500 men walking through the dark behind a statue of […]
St Martha’s Church, Strathfield, 23 August 2026 “Why, mummy, why?” “Are we there yet Dad?” “How long will it take?” “Do I really have to?” The parents here will all have experienced this incessant questioning at one time or another. It can be exhausting, especially when each question leads to another, an infinite regress until […]
After-Dinner Address for Samuel Griffith Society Conference Hilton Hotel, Sydney, 22 August 2026 Thank you for that warm introduction. I also thank your President, Mr Allan Myers AC KC, and the members and friends of the Samuel Griffith Society for your hospitality and this opportunity to offer a few remarks. Not too long before this […]
Feast day celebrations in 2025. PHOTO: Supplied. Our Lady of Victories Parish at Horsley Park will celebrate its annual feast day on Sunday 13 September with prayer, a procession and festivities for the whole family. Celebrations will begin with Mass at 1pm, followed by a rosary procession through the parish grounds with the statue of Our Lady of Victories. […]
