We must be careful not to jump to quick conclusions or make judgements. The "reasons" for a suicide are intimate and will always retain, even if it is painful for those around them, their share of mystery.

But this suicide touches all of us. Not only because it involved a prominent, brilliant, and enterprising priest. But also because he was known to be in the grip of difficulties with his bishops and deeply unsettled by accusations that he felt were very unfounded.

This suicide also touched us at La Croix, because we had given this priest the opportunity to express himself in an article in which he gave an unvarnished analysis of the difficulties of ministry in a diocese.

The cry behind the tragic act

This is not the place to look for the causes or to accuse his bishop. Neither is it the place to point out this or that personal psychological fragility.

But there is a cry behind this tragic act that we must pay attention to.

It is the cry of a priest, which is in line with the deep malaise of many others in the Church in France today. Is it not time to question ourselves, collectively, on the way we treat priests in our Church? We celebrate the hero on the day of his ordination, but then what?

No one is concerned about how they are supported and what mediation structures are provided, other than those created by the goodwill of the bishop, who acts as both "father" and boss...

Do priests have time to catch their breath? Are they afforded psychological help? Continued human formation?

There is a lot of talk about the "sense of resignation", an attitude that affects employees in companies who refuse to work without seeing the meaning of their task.

For priests, this "sense of resignation" began fifty years ago, with a drastic drop in vocations, without anyone really caring about it.

Some have blamed it on a lack of faith: we need to pray more! Others blame the lack of marriage opportunities — at a time when marriage is increasingly discredited!

But, instead, shouldn't we be wondering about the opportunities that are opening up before priests?

Guilty indifference towards priests

The way in which they are appointed to a parish, often with a certain amount of arbitrariness, is perplexing. We no longer manage people today as in the past...

The only model that still attracts people is the one of the 19th century, with priests who are very committed but according to a rigid, hierarchical type of Church that no longer corresponds to reality.

The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) spoke a lot about bishops and laity. But very little about priests. Benedict XVI decreed a "year of the priest", but as a model he gave the holy Curé of Ars, St. John Vianney, who - to say the least - did not encounter the same problems as today's priests.

For that is the urgency. Our indifference to what priests are going through is sinful because they are at the forefront of the very deep crisis of the Church.

If the disaffection of the practice and the eradication of Christianity from society are hard for all of us, imagine how terrible they are for the priest who embodies the institution!

"We know what we are losing, but we don't know what we are going to become," a priest confided to me.

The transition is violent, brutal. Many priests are showing great creativity, but others are exhausted.

Who can face such a crisis alone without real support from the community? This is a question that concerns us all, not just the bishops.

During the synodal process that just took place in France many people voiced opinions. But not many spoke of priests, except to criticize them.

Moreover, few priests participated in the proces. There was a significant silence. And that is disturbing.

• Isabelle de Gaulmyn is senior editor at La Croix and a former Vatican correspondent.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

Where to get help:

Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason.

Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357

Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO (24/7). This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends.

Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 (24/7) or text 4202

Samaritans: 0800 726 666 (24/7)

Youthline: 0800 376 633 (24/7) or free text 234 (8am-12am), or email talk@youthline.co.nz

What's Up: online chat (3pm-10pm) or 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787 helpline (12pm-10pm weekdays, 3pm-11pm weekends)

Kidsline (ages 5-18): 0800 543 754 (24/7)

Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254

Healthline: 0800 611 116

Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

In the Church today, we have one single instrument for leadership—the pastor.

Search church positions on any of the many job search forums and recruitment sites and you'll find there is only one tool churches are searching for—pastor.

Senior pastors, teaching pastors, executive pastors, worship pastors, children's, teens, collegiate, campus, in-take, discipleship and volunteers pastors.

We seem to think the only kind of leadership we need can only come in one form—pastor.

To be fair, pastors are important and should be instrumental in leading the Church but it was not God's design for the Church to have but one instrument. Because we only have one tool, every task, goal, obstacle, vision statement, purpose statement, and organizational strategy typically has just one leadership perspective-a pastor's perspective.

When it comes to leadership, the Church in North America is like a small boy with a hammer and because of that, everything looks like it needs pounding.

We cannot reach the world with just a hammer, no matter how great that hammer is.

Ephesians 4:11-13 tell us, however, "So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (NIV).

Leadership in the Church is five-fold and incorporates an array of tools to achieve missional maturity.

Missional maturity is the goal—a maturity that has breadth and depth, that is centripetal and centrifugal.

Missional maturity achieves evangelism and discipleship, community engagement and spiritual formation.

Missional maturity can only be achieved when we have more tools in our toolbox than just a hammer-as great as hammers are.

What the church needs are apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers and pastors.

Even when a church looks for a senior leader who will operate as an apostle (typically a church planter/multiplier) or as an evangelist, they smack the word ‘pastor' on top of their role and superimpose the additional character/gift traits of pastor onto their expectations.

In other words, even when churches are open to a screwdriver, we want that screwdriver to also double as a hammer.

Evangelists, in particular, are important for missional maturity but they often aren't great doubling as a pastor.

To be sure, many evangelists have secondary gifting in pastoral ministry—I'm not one of them.

I've met these people, I envy them, but as much as I've tried, I'll never be like them.

Most evangelists are extremely externally facing, super-passionate about making spaces and experiences open to non-churched people. They think primarily of the ‘milk of the word,' or the simple gospel message and how to colour everything the Church does with that message.

Evangelists are angular in the best sense of the word.

I remember showing up to a leadership gathering with some fellow evangelists some years back and having one of the organizers bemoan our entrance.

With a long, annoying slur, he said, "Oh great! The evangelists, the angular people!"

What was then a slight that hurt my feelings has now become a badge of honour.

I'm not like the pastor, I'm not the one ‘go-to' tool in the toolbox but my leadership is important, even necessary, for missional maturity in the body!

While teachers and pastors are celebrated, rewarded and empowered in the Church, the angular leaders—apostles, prophets, and evangelists—are encouraged to look and act more like a hammer if we want to get by.

This is to our shame and part of the reason why so often our churches lack missional maturity.

Click to read five ways having an evangelist on staff as a senior leader will change the way you think about missional maturity. Continue reading

• York Moore is the Executive Director-Catalytic Partnerships and as National Evangelist for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA.

Many churches have had to close or limit their activity in recent months and priests are struggling to support or even engage with their community, a psychologist says.

Dr. Christina Lynch says the quarantine measures around the US may be causing priests to struggle with their priestly identity.

Encouraging them will help them overcome these challenges, she suggests.

"Shepherds have been removed from their flocks, and flocks have been removed from their shepherds. They're losing their sense of priestly identity and purpose."

"A newly ordained priest [told me], ‘I am not a minister without a community, and it's been really hard'".

There's a reason God created today's priests at this particular moment of pandemic and riots, Lynch says - to bring the sacraments to the people "... and they need to support each other in that."

Although some dioceses haven't reopened to the public yet as they are considered non-essential, many priests are again offering public Masses for the first time since March. However, there are limitations on attendee numbers and regulations including the use of masks and hand sanitiser have been introduced.

Lynch is researching the effect the coronavirus restrictions are having on priests so she can help prepare psychologists to support them.

Her research includes a survey of about a dozen priests, representing different parts of the country and different priestly demographics.

They were asked how the pandemic has affected their mental health, what type of support they need and what pressures they expect in the future.

Those surveyed said they were experiencing a greater psychological strain from the pandemic, resulting in loneliness, depression, cynicism, anger, and fear.

"The number one message I heard was that this quarantine has brought to the surface a growing crisis in priestly identity," Lynch says.

Being without parishioners has led some priests to feel isolated and purposeless - and because priests are limited in their interactions and ministerial duties some feel like they are trapped and lacking control.

"They're getting that message from the secular ... the governments. They're opening all these other kinds of stores and saying they're essential. [But] the churches can't open… They don't consider the spiritual, and yet people thrive when they have faith and when they're in community."

The pandemic has also caused "decision fatigue" and forced priests to make choices they may never have faced before, such as large staff cutbacks. Some are finding it more difficult to pray, Lynch says.

Parishioners need to show their appreciation for their pastors, and priests need to offer fraternal support to one another, to help combat these difficulties, Lunch suggests.

"I think building comradery, calling priests in your fraternity when you're friends with them or not, and just reaching out and supporting each other. I think that's one of the best things priests can do to help each other."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Town & Country Magazine

Hartman's path to the cloth is one he loosely calls his resurrection story.

It's not a resurrection of mortal death, but the ending of one path and beginning of another he'd always felt called to.

He married young.

After five years, he and his wife had two children and a change of heart.

Hartman speaks about that difficult time with love and respect for himself and his former spouse and with a clarity of hindsight only time can yield.

Their relationship began in the early 1990s, and he started working full-time at the family grocery store in Milbank. At that time it was called Bill's Super Value. It now goes by Hartman's Family Foods.

"I was just out of high school thinking I knew everything. I got married to the girlfriend, Becky Johnson. Five years later it ended in divorce," Hartman told the Aberdeen News by phone.

"In that time I realized I didn't know everything. I really just came back to my faith."

Now 48, Hartman is the priest for both St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Groton and St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Turton.

He will also be sacramental minister at the St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center at Northern State University.

The student center has moved away from having a full-time priest to having someone in a part-time ministerial role provide sacraments to the Catholic students.

Hartman, in his decision to divorce, never lost his faith.

He'd tell you the opposite happened - it was strengthened.

"There was just a moment in my life before the divorce that I felt it was better to suffer with God than to suffer without him. When the time came I knew I was going to cling to my faith," he said.

Hartman continued to contemplate romantic love as he worked at his family's grocery store.

"Basically through those years, as I was dating a little bit, I realized my heart wasn't called to be with one person, it was called to serve more," Hartman said. "My heart was a priestly heart."

So Hartman put his focus on raising his children, and he and his former wife had their marriage annulled in the Catholic faith.

It's a necessary process for a person to have the freedom to enter into another vocation in the eyes of the Catholic Church. For him, it meant the beginning of his path to the priesthood.

The annulment process looks at the beginning of a relationship and how two people came to be married.

In Hartman's case, he and his wife were "really pretty young and stupid," he said. Continue reading

He was Director of Religious Education for the Auckland Diocese 1962-1971.

For 20 years Donnelly was a talkback host on Radio Pacific.

Donnelly was a controversial commentator on issues in relation to human sexuality.

His views were often seen to be in conflict with the teachings of the Catholic Church but, although his ministry was at times limited, Donnelly remained a priest.

Donnelly studied for the priesthood at Holy Cross College, Mosgiel (1947-1953).

He was ordained a priest for the Auckland Catholic Diocese by Archbishop Liston on 19 July 1953.

As an academic, Donnelly was director of the Department of Community Health and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science at the University of Auckland, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences from 1972 until his retirement in 1994.

He was the founder and long-term director of the Youthlink Family Trust.

In 1970 Donnelly was instrumental in founding Youthline, a telephone counselling helpline service for youth, run by youth, which still continues.

In 1971 he also established the Youthline Hostel as a home for troubled youth in Auckland.

He was was a prolific writer of non-fiction and wrote one novel.

Felix Donnelly College was named after him.

In the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours, Donnelly was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the welfare of youth.

A service to celebrate Donnelly's life will be held on Saturday 7 September 2019, 11 am at McLaurin Chapel, 12 Princes St, Auckland Central.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• wikipedia.org
• revolvy.com
• Image: artybees.co.nz

The game last Sunday was a farewell celebration for him between Castlecliff St Anthony's XI and a Whanganui combined XI which was attended by almost 100 people.

Buchholz is from Belgium, he was posted to Whanganui by his superiors who have now called him back to resume his work in Western Europe.

Vice president of Castlecliff FC Sean Peterson said that the turnout was a testament to how well-respected Bochkolz was in the community.

Peterson said that Bochkolz had become a close friend of his through playing together at Castlecliff.

"He's a huge loss to the club, he was my right-hand man when it came to motivating everyone. His level of commitment and dedication was infectious.

He has been the guy that has lifted everyone's spirits when it comes to games and when it comes to training."

Bochkolz is a member of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), an international organisation of traditionalist Catholic priests founded in 1970 by the French archbishop, Marcel Lefebvre.

In 1988, Pope John Paul II excommunicated Archbishop Lefebvre for ordaining four "bishops" without permission from the Holy See, as required by canon law.

The excommunications of the surviving bishops were lifted in 2009 by Benedict XVI

In remitting the excommunications, Benedict noted that "doctrinal questions obviously remain and until they are clarified the Society has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry."

SSPX appears to have abandoned efforts to reunite with Rome, releasing a statement in June 2016 that claims Pope Francis is encouraging the spreading of errors in church teaching.

In July SSPX elected Fr. Davide Pagliarani as their new superior general.

Jean-Marie Guénois, the religion correspondent at French newspaper Le Figaro, said the previous superior, Bishop Fellay had been "ousted" in favour of a candidate who opposes further rapprochement with the Vatican.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• wikipedia.org
• ncronline.org
• catholicnewsagency.com
• international.la-croix.com
• Image: nzherald.co.nz

The priest - Father Ogalo - who says he was using rap music to deliver his sermons to "bring the youth closer to the church," has landed him in hot water with Catholic Church heads. Read only

In addition to being a physical trainer, Father Stephen Gadberry is also a Catholic priest. He hopes that his participation in the upcoming season of American Ninja Warrior will make the clergy appear more human and available. Continue reading

But some 8,000 miles away in South Vietnam it marked the start of an epic 11 day battle known as Operation SWIFT.

Today it is primarily remembered by military history buffs, as well as those who honor the memory of a Navy chaplain who lost his life after 30 minutes of battle, Fr. Vincent Capodanno, MM.

But what Father did during those 30 minutes not only earned him the Medal of Honor, it has propelled his beatification cause.

From Staten Island to South Vietnam

Born February 13, 1929, Capodanno grew up on Staten Island, New York, the youngest of nine children born to a Brooklyn-born mother of Italian ancestry and a father who immigrated to New York from Gaeta, Italy.

According to his last surviving sister Gloria Holman, the home was a happy one, and "Vin" or "Junior" "was serious, his personality, more so than not, you know?"

His cousin Al Lambert remembers Junior, like his mother, had a fantastic sense of humor, and when he laughed, his whole body shook. He also says he was very fastidious.

Capodanno heard his calling to the priesthood at age 18 and entered the Maryknoll Missionary Seminary at 20.

On June 14, 1958, he received holy orders at the hands of New York's Francis Cardinal Spellman.

His superiors first posted him amongst the aboriginal tribesman in Taiwan's mountains.

Then they stationed him at the order's school in Hong Kong. The new assignment did not thrill him, but he went without protest.

By this time the Vietnam War had begun, and so Capodanno asked for and received permission to enter the Navy chaplaincy corps. Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic World Report article by Brian O'Neel, who writes from Wisconsin.
• Image: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

Br Robert's journey began in Bangalore, India. Originally a Hindu, he became an atheist at the age of 10, and in his late teens considered himself an agnostic.

When he was almost 18 he arrived in Australia and began a science degree at the University of Sydney, hoping to major in physics.

In 2001, about three years into his degree, he decided that mathematics was not his forte. At this time, he also began to suffer from depression.

The philosophical side to this depression was a worry about whether his own life, and judgements, human life and human judgements, and the world in general had any transcendent value at all, or if they were mere "sound and fury, signifying nothing."

It seemed to him that the only alternative was that the world and human beings had value because they were valued by someone not transient - God.

And the only reasonable historical claimant to divine status was Jesus Christ.

He was not mythological but really existed. So he began attending an Anglican Church and was baptised in September 2002.

He now realised that Christ is not merely a figure of history but a person to whom we can reach out.

Around this time, Br Robert encountered some Catholics at Sydney University.

One thing which impressed him was the fact that there were many young Catholics who were happy in living what the Church teaches.

"I was converted through their example and conversations, rather than through their arguments" he said.

Of the latter, one which sticks out was the exasperated comment of the chaplaincy convenor at the time, Robert Haddad: "You're never going to get all the answers to all your objections, and at some stage, you need to make a leap of faith."

It was a throwaway line, but it contains a truth which bothered Br Robert until it ended up convincing him.

He was received into the Church in 2003 and confirmed a year later by then-Bishop Anthony Fisher OP, who had just been ordained a Bishop. Continue reading

• Image: Catholic Weekly

The priest said that after confession started, the man pulled a gun out and pointed it before sitting down.

But the man issued no threats, the priest said.

"I've never done confession with somebody pointing a gun at me the whole time," the victim said.

The suspect is described as a white man in his late 20s.

His left nostril was pierced, and he has a tattoo of a cross on his left arm.

Continue reading

The girl's parents were furious after the priest told them twice that their daughter was "not ready" to receive the sacrament.

The priest, from Sicily, told the girl's mother that her daughter was "unable to understand the significance" of Communion.

He reportedly told the parents to wait until the girl understands more.

The mother told local media that her daughter would not change over time.

"Barring a miracle, she will never be like other children."

The parents pushed for a private ceremony, to avoid "disorder", but the priest still refused.

Italy's Education Undersecretary, Davide Faraone, subsequently took to Facebook to lambast the "ignorance" and "discrimination" of the Church.

Mr Faraone, whose own daughter is autistic, observed that Italian churches routinely shun autistic children.

"If you search 'priest denies communion to autistic child' on Google, there are pages and pages of results from all over Italy," Mr Faraone wrote.

"But religion is about heart, not mind.

"This only happens because there is so much ignorance around autism.

"We can't go on like this and need to end discrimination."

The priest later told media that he "was ready to celebrate the child".

He denied resisting her parents' requests to allow her to take her first Communion.

According to local media, the priest has been criticised in the past for hanging a photo of Sicily's former president, Salvatore "Totò" Cuffaro, at the church.

This was even though Cuffaro had reportedly been jailed for aiding the Mafia.

Sources

• The Local.IT
• RT
• Image: Irish Independent

"In the vision of Pope Francis, (priests) are the key players in communicating the Divine Mercy to the world. He sees that as our primary mission," Bishop Barron said June 3.

"I think (the Pope) sees the mercy emphasis as the best way to renew the priesthood for our time."

Bishop Barron, founder of Word On Fire Catholic ministries and auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, was invited to give a catechesis to the English-language participants during the June 1-3 Jubilee of Priests.

The three day event is the latest initiative in the Jubilee Year of Mercy, which began last December and will continue until November.

Before being appointed auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles in July of last year, Bishop Barron served as the rector of Mundelein seminary, starting 2012.

A couple years earlier, the Chicago native launched the Word On Fire online ministries in 2000.

See the rest of CNA's interview with Bishop Robert Barron below:

You gave a catechesis to the English-speaking priests taking part in the Jubilee, with some 800 priests gathered at the Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle. What were some of the main points you discussed?

I talked about the woman at the well, which is a favorite of Pope Francis. I drew four points from it about God's mercy. (First), that God's mercy is relentless, crossing boundaries and borders as Jesus does, reaching out to this triple outsider.

Secondly, the Divine mercy is divinizing. It's not just padding us on the head and healing our wounds; it lifts us up to share in the very divine life. He wants to give the woman at the well water bubbling up to eternal life.

And then thirdly, I talked about Divine mercy as challenging. I'm against the view that the more you say ‘mercy,' the less you say ‘moral challenge.' No: it's both/and. It's mercy all the way, and that implies transformation - metanoia. Finally, mercy sends us on mission. Continue reading

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Father John Djonga appeared at the police station in Wamena on Feb. 26 after consulting with the bishop. Accompanied by a lawyer, he answered 55 questions from two police officers during the four-hour meeting.

The police summoned Father Djonga on Feb. 19, four days after he led a prayer service to inaugurate the office building of the Papuan Customary Council, where a banner of the separatist United Liberation Movement for West Papua was displayed. However, he refused to appear at that time, telling police to contact his superiors at the diocese instead.

"He had nothing to do with political matters," Bishop Ladjar told ucanews.com Feb. 27.

Continue reading

There are three modified bricks, his roman collar, the sacramentary and the lectionary.

Also available a set of four vestments (a green chasuble for Ordinary Time, red and white for feast days, and purple for Advent and Lent).

Domestic Church Supply Company, which is marketing the leggo father says overwhelming interest means current delivery times are approximately 4-6 weeks from when you place your order.

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The priest made the comments in an end-of-term service for a Catholic primary school.

He reportedly said that if Irish woman Jill Meagher had been more "faith-filled" she would have been at home instead of out in the early hours of the morning when she was raped and killed.

The vicar-general of the archdiocese of Melbourne, went on radio to apologise.

"I've spoken with the priest; he acknowledges that the homily wasn't appropriate and apologises for the offence and upset it has caused," Msgr Greg Bennett said.

Continue reading

When the girl was 16, her parents interpreted her problems with anorexia and anxiety as a sign of demonic possession.

Her parents turned to exorcism after stays in hospitals didn't see her recover.

The parents sent her to a priest in Valladolid who allegedly carried out the exorcisms.

The girl told authorities she was forced to lie on the ground and was tied up with crosses placed over her head.

Images of saints were put on her body during the ritual, which often lasted between one and two hours.

The girl and members of her extended family complained to authorities.

A judge has declared that the exorcisms on the girl may have crossed the line into "domestic violence, causing injury and abuse".

Continue reading

The Rev. Joshua Johnson, serving at Christ the King Catholic Church at Louisiana State University, is 27, and in his first year as a priest.

"I was raised Catholic, but I just never liked the Catholic Church growing up. I thought it was boring, and I didn't understand it," said Johnson, a native of Baton Rouge whose rapping has brought him a measure of renown on YouTube and social media.

He hosts the hip-hop show "Tell the World" on Catholic radio.

Johnson's biggest difficulty with the church was with the Eucharist: "I never believed that it was the body and blood of Jesus Christ that the Catholic Church teaches."

That changed one summer night before his senior year at Lee High School, during a retreat in Alexandria.

He attended "Eucharistic Adoration," when a piece of consecrated altar bread — the Holy Eucharist or host — is the focus of devotion and meditation.

"That night in adoration, when the bishop exposed Jesus Christ with the Eucharist, all I could say was it was God's grace that overcame me," Johnson said.

"And looking at the Eucharistic prayer, I knew it was God, that it was Jesus Christ. It was as if I fell in love in an instant. I started crying. I was on my knees worshipping God."

The long ache in his heart was lifted, he said.

"The first thing I heard him say was 'I love you,' and it pierced my heart then and it continues to pierce my heart today, because I was living in pretty serious sin, but he told me he loved me."

Johnson said he was also told to become a priest. Instead, he said, he enrolled at Southern University. Continue reading

Sources

• Huffington Post
• Image: ChurchPOP

He plays to hundreds of thousands of people every year.

He gets mobbed on the streets of many countries.

He was invited to perform on the US version of The Voice, but was too busy.

Is he based in Hollywood? London? No, Rob Galea lives in Shepparton, in central Victoria.

Such is the Galea paradox. He's young - 32. He's handsome - as evidenced by his selfies on Instagram.

He has undeniable sex appeal - women are known to weep and scream "I love you!" during concerts. He's a gym junkie who lifts 110 kilograms.

But as well as being a pop singer and aspiring body-builder, this gently-spoken man with "Forgiven" tattooed down his well-honed bicep is an ordained Catholic priest; perhaps the world's biggest celibate sex symbol.

Father Rob Galea is an assistant priest in the Catholic diocese of Sandhurst.

He says his vocation isn't to top the charts, but to convince young people they are loved unconditionally: "I'm first and foremost a Christian, then I'm a priest and then I'm a musician."

Only four years after his ordination, Galea is already being credited with re-energising the Catholic Church in Australia.

When not undertaking parish duties - Galea is chaplain at Shepparton's Notre Dame Secondary College, visits two hospitals and six retirement homes, and manages the diocese's youth program - he tours the world playing packed stadiums, schools and conferences with his band of hipster Christians and makes albums, which have sold tens of thousands.

His music is catchy, upbeat and gently plugs God.

In Angel, from his recent fifth album, an apparently poppy love song morphs into an exhortation for God's protection: "Let his face shine bright on you and lead you to a place called home, a home for you, my little angel." Continue reading

Sources

• The Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: Salt & Light TV

Fr Maks Suard, 48, reportedly hanged himself after being accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl some 17 years ago.

According to the Messaggero Veneto newspaper, the priest had admitted his guilt.

He had asked Trieste Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi for two days to prepare a letter asking for forgiveness from God, the Church and the victim.

But when the bishop arrived to officially divest the priest of his duties, Fr Suard was found hanging in a church sacristy.

Lifeline: 0800 543 354 - Provides 24 hour telephone counselling

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