HOMILY AT THE SOLEMN PONTIFICAL MASS FOR THE REPOSE OF THE SOUL OF POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI The Cathedral of St Stephen 7 January 2023 Readings: 1 John 5:14-21; John 2:1-11 Joseph Ratzinger was Pope for not quite eight years, but he was influential...

The Cathedral of St Stephen Thirty years ago the poet and song-writer, Leonard Cohen, released a song called Anthem that became one of his best known. It contained a line which also became one of his best known: "Ring the bells that still can ring. /...

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...

Last Saturday, Archbishop Mark ordained two deacons, Ernesto Villalba and Adrian Elridge at the Cathedral of St Stephen. In his homily, the Archbishop mentioned, "Deacons are called and graced by God; given everything they need for what lies ahead - and...