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1 week ago | 
catholicleader.com.au | Selina Venier
STANTHORPE parishioners and visitors had the opportunity to find the light of Christ in darkness this year. Parish administrator Fr Nathan Webb said the parish’s Tenebrae was a collaboration that grew from the lack of sacred time during COVID lockdowns. Tenebrae, Latin for darkness, is a solemn Holy Week liturgy celebrated in the days leading to Easter. With Scripture, psalms, and gradual extinguishing of candles, it offers deep reflection on Jesus Christ’s Passion.
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2 months ago | 
catholicleader.com.au | Selina Venier
RECALLING the learning and teaching reality of “no teacher aides, Special Needs teachers or photocopiers,” Toowoomba’s Pamela Sullivan travelled within the diocese, to Stanthorpe on February 7, as the guest speaker at the 150th anniversary of St Joseph’s School.
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Mar 4, 2025 | 
catholicleader.com.au | Selina Venier
IT’S not often that a parish and their school community are the able to bask in the joy of two sesquicentenaries. When Toowoomba Bishop Ken Howell visited the parishioners, students, staff, parents and caregivers of St Joseph’s parish and school in Stanthorpe from February 7 to 9, that’s precisely what occurred – the parish’s 150 years officially clocking over in 2024 and the school’s on February 9.
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Aug 5, 2024 | 
catholicleader.com.au | Selina Venier
WHEN Bethany Valente views her portrayal of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, on Australia’s first saint’s feast day, August 8, she will be feeling gratitude more than any other emotion. Beyond feeling “thankful to God” for the chance to be asked by Shalom World Media to play the voluntary role, filmed mostly on her family’s property in Inglewood, in Toowoomba diocese, the 15-year-old told The Catholic Leader that God’s promptings to do so were “divine providence”.
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Jun 25, 2024 | 
catholicleader.com.au | Selina Venier
IMAGINE this. Two Conservatorium of Music students were to exchange wedding vows in St Brigid’s Church, Red Hill, Brisbane. The proposal was made and accepted although the father-of-the bride, after affirming customary permissions, “excitedly spilled the beans”. All was arranged including the ever-so-important selection of music – in fact, the bride-to-be was so accustomed to singing at weddings, it was impossible to make a selection for her church entrance.
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May 9, 2024 | 
catholicleader.com.au | Selina Venier
WHILE the promised cannoli are a certain drawcard, it’s the honouring of God through the intercession of the “Three Saints” – Alfio, Filadelfo and Cirino – that draws locals and visitors to Stanthorpe parish on the first Sunday in May each year. Sunday, May 5 marked recent celebrations in the regional parish, for the 26th anniversary, led by Fr Franco Filipetto who represented Toowoomba Bishop Ken Howell.
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Apr 24, 2024 | 
catholicleader.com.au | Selina Venier
IT will be an Anzac Day like no other before. Only ten days before, 36 students from St Joseph’s School in Stanthorpe, within Toowoomba Diocese, left for a first-time ever International Tour with six staff members and suitcases filled with Australian pride. Today they will visit the Western Front battlefields of the Somme, Pozieres, Villers Bretonneux and Fromelles, also attending the Last Post ceremony at Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium.
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Jan 20, 2024 | 
catholicleader.com.au | Selina Venier
By Selina Venier THE inaugural Storm King Youth Camp came to fruition last month thanks to the suggestion of a teenager. Stanthorpe’s Vayda Heads was the first key driver of the experience that brought dozens of families from Brisbane, Inglewood, Warwick and Toowoomba to the shores of Storm King Dam. Southern Downs residents and active Catholics, Gerry and Clare Purcell opened their property to the extraordinary experience of faith expression, spiritual sharing and activity.
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Dec 22, 2023 | 
catholicleader.com.au | Selina Venier
HAMISH Heads sees the end of 2023 shaping up as the “icing on the cake”. He and his wife Karyn, childhood sweethearts married at 21, are expecting their fourth child – a Christmas gift from God. They have joked with friends that they would “be able to supply baby Jesus” on the Feast of the Epiphany.
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Nov 1, 2023 | 
catholicleader.com.au | Selina Venier
FIREFIGHTERS saved the small border town of Wallangarra from fast-moving fires today. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services confirmed four homes were lost in the blaze. Stanthorpe parish priest Fr Gonzalo Garcia Duran, who administers Wallangarra’s St Mary’s, said he was impressed by the outpouring of community spirit as his community celebrated All Saints’ Day. He said there had been a lot of support for those in need. “The community has helped each other in many ways,” he said.
