Catholic Identity

SANDPIPER e-NEWS

2025 SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM - RECONCILIATION

IMPORTANT SACRAMENTAL DATES

TERM 2 UPCOMING FRIDAY CLASS MASSES

GRADE 3 - EUCHARIST & CONFIRMATION 

Congratulations to our Grade 3 students who became fully initiated into the Catholic faith through the sacrament of Confirmation and who also received the sacrament of Eucharist for the first time during our Sacramental service last weekend. A big thank you to all staff involved in ensuring the celebrations ran smoothly, especially Miss O’Sullivan and Miss Doyle who conducted all the class learning and final preparation of the candidates. It was wonderful to see many of our Choir group in attendance to help with the singing and our Grade 6 Altar servers supporting Bishop Shane and Father Boniface. Without our officiating Prelates such services are impossible, so we also thank Bishop Shane and Father Boniface for their spiritual guidance throughout the evening. May our newly confirmed faith members continue to grow strong in their belief in bringing faith to life. 

REFUGEE WEEK - 16TH TO 22ND JUNE

The Refugee week theme this year is “Community as a Superpower.” Refugee week is a time for us all to come together through various Arts and Cultural activities designed to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions, resilience and creative talents of our refugee communities. Check out the website for more information.  

SHANE MACKINLAY APPOINTED ARCHBISHOP OF BRISBANE

Pope Leo XIV has this evening appointed Most Reverend Shane Mackinlay, currently the eighth Bishop of Sandhurst, as the new Archbishop of Brisbane. Bishop Mackinlay will replace Archbishop Mark Coleridge, who is retiring after 13 years as the Archbishop of Brisbane and 51 years as a priest. 

A Statement from Bishop Shane Mackinlay   

I am deeply honoured by Pope Leo’s decision to appoint me as Archbishop of Brisbane – a diocese that has such a strong tradition of fostering the liturgical, spiritual, evangelising and educational endeavours of the Catholic community, both within the Archdiocese and more broadly.  

I am particularly pleased that I will be following Archbishop Mark Coleridge, who has been a friend and mentor to me for many years. In his thirteen years as Archbishop of Brisbane, he has led the Archdiocese with great conviction and generosity, as well as making a very significant contribution to the Church beyond the Archdiocese. In particular, I see the Action Plans that he promulgated after last year’s Archdiocesan Synod as providing a clear direction for the Church in Brisbane, as we seek to develop a more synodal Church that effectively proclaims Jesus’ good news in our contemporary world. I look forward to working to implement those plans, in collaboration with all who contributed to the process of developing them.  

Since I became the Bishop of Sandhurst nearly six years ago, I have been greatly encouraged and inspired by the lively faith and commitment of the people, priests and communities of the Diocese, and by the generous friendship and welcome they have offered to me personally. I am grateful to have shared in the pilgrim journey of the People of God here, where we have together begun new initiatives in living out our mission as Jesus’ disciples. While I will be sad to move on from the Sandhurst Diocese, I am excited by this opportunity to serve the broader Church in a new way.  

I ask for your prayerful support for me, for the Archdiocese of Brisbane, and for the Diocese of Sandhurst, as I prepare to take up this ministry.