NEWS ARCHIVE

17th March 2009: Pope Benedict cautions against any dilution of the priestly ministry. Read it here.

17th March 2009: Happy St Patrick's Day.
Baptismal Font: Last week we succeeded in bringing the original St Francis Xavier baptismal font forward from the front of the church to the baptismal space to the right of the sanctuary. You would have noticed it on the weekend. It has been cleaned and 'spruced up', and is showing off its sandstone better than ever. It is now ready for use.

New fence: During December and January we completed the safety fence around St Francis Xavier Primary School, and now we can see the fence being erected around the rest of our parish property. The level of vandalism and nighttime use of our grounds for nefarious purposes led to advice from various security sources for us to fence the property. These are both 2008 projects that are just being completed now. We all know that most projects seem to run over the expected timeframe. The fence will include gates at church and admin entrances and these will be open during each day for easy access to the church and Parish Admin Centre.

13th March 2009: Many people have been confused since the Pope's lifting of the excommunication of four bishops (earned automatically when they were illegally ordained twenty years ago). The four bishops have not been offered any office or role in the Church. They are members of the Society of St Pius X, which is not recognized by the Church. Secular media around the world been highly critical of the Pope, and have falsely accused him of lifting the excommunication while knowing that one of the four, an Englishman named Richardson, had denounced the veracity of the Holocaust. Pope Benedict that made it clear that at the time of the lifting of the automatic excommunication, he had not known about it. He has released a very personal letter to explain the truth of the matter to the world's bishops, and made it public. Read the letter here.

25th February 2009: Pope Benedict XVI has issued his annual message for Lent. Read it in full here.

14th February 2009: "Pride, avarice, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth: sometimes it feels as if Britain is in the grip of the seven deadly sins.": Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor - outgoing Archbishop of Westminster said. In a wide-ranging comment on the difficulties we face in Western society, Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor had much to say. See the full story in 'The Times' here.

13th February 2009: Pope welcomes Ambassador Fisher: Former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fisher has taken up his post as Australia's first fulltime Ambassador to the Holy See. Previously Australia was represented at the Vatican by a part-time ambassador who was usually the ambassador to Ireland. Mr Fisher has presented his credentials to Pope Benedict XVI. See the story here.

12th February 2009: Appointment to the Diocesan Council of Priests: Bishop G. Jarrett has announced the resignation of Fr Peter Karam from the council, and his appointment of Fr Michael Nilon to complete Fr Karam's term of office.

10th February 2009: At the 9 am Mass at St Francis Xavier's on Sunday 8th February, Shelwin Fernandez was installed as a Lector by Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett. We congratulate Shelwin on this important step in his journey toward the priesthood of the diocese. On Sunday we also farewelled Shelwin from both our parishes as he prepares to return to the seminary for the new academic year.

5th February 2009: Pope Benedict proposes Lenten fasting 'therapy'. See the story here.

5th February 2009: 20% of Federal Government economic package is directed at Catholic schools. See the story here.