The Cathedral of St Stephen "Church bells pealed, long separated family members and friends fell into each other's arms and complete strangers embraced": so wrote the New York Times in November 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down, bringing the Cold War...

Christianity can be described in many different ways. In the first of his Encyclical Letters, way back in 1979, the then new Pope John Paul II offered one remarkable description. He wrote that Christianity is not a religious system or even a religion...

Christianity has been an undeniably creative power through history, but not always. At times Christianity has identified not with the victim but against the victim or with the victimiser. The Church itself has been at times the victimiser, often seeing...

The Cathedral of St Stephen, Brisbane Olives are everywhere in the Mediterranean world, and the human communities which gather round the Middle Sea float on a sea of olive oil. The oil of the olive is a marvellous thing, given the many uses to which it...

The Cathedral of St Stephen 22 February 2022 The appointment of Tim Norton as bishop was a surprise to many, including himself. So too was the prophet Jeremiah's call, not least to himself. When the call comes to Jeremiah, he protests that he is too young...

It is not by chance that we install the fifth Chancellor of Australian Catholic University on this day, 11 February. It happens to be the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes on the date of the first apparition to Bernadette Soubirous at the grotto of Massabielle...

THE CATHEDRAL OF ST STEPHEN A great promise had been made to Mary by the angel Gabriel: she was to be the mother of the royal messiah - she a young woman who was a nobody from nowhere. It was almost incredible, but still she spoke her word of faith: "Let...

All Souls Day responds to one of life's deep experiences. When those we love die, the love lives on and becomes the prayer of this day, reaching out to embrace the dead, who are still with us, albeit mysteriously. The post Homily from the All Souls...

THE CATHEDRAL OF ST STEPHEN, BRISBANE Jeremiah 31:7-9; Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52 Through the two millennia of Christian history there have been 2 Ecumenical Councils, roughly one every century, though it hasn't been as neat as that. The first of them...