Please come to St. Lawrence's church and spend an hour adoring Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday 24 Feb after 6.00pm Children's Mass. You may wish to pray in silence or sing with us beautiful canons and reflect on short readings. The theme: "Forgiveness." All welcome! :-)

Dear Parishioners, as the children of our Community begin their preparation to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in May, we would like to ask you to take a prayer card from the Confirmation Banner and pray for the child named on the card. Please keep all the children and their families in your prayers.

Dear Parishioners and Visitors, if you need to find out what is happening in our Community this year, please click on Parish Events.

Pope Benedict XVI on Monday, 11 February said he plans on resigning the papal office on February 28th. Pope has given his resignation freely, in accordance with Canon 332 §2 of the Code of Canon Law. Below please find his announcement.

Dear Brothers,

I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep  relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is. Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask    pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.

From the Vatican, 10 February 2013

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

Enrolment Evening will be held in the Alverna Hall on Tuesday 5th February at 7.00pm. Please provide certificates of any Sacraments already received if enrolling for the first time. Attendance is compulsory for all those enrolling in the PREP Program for 2013. Classes commence on Tuesday 12th Feb at 3.40pm in our church, Balcatta. For further information please contact Mrs Clare Di Loreto on 9247 3918.