A range of new Catholic podcasts have hit the streets in recent months, offering opportunities for spiritual reflection and nourishment, engagement with the big issues of the day, and support for families.

Religious were well-represented in the winner’s circle of the Australasian Catholic Press Association awards with the Sisters of the Good Samaritan’s e-publication, The Good Oil, taking out the top award for overall excellence and other honours going to publications from the Jesuits, Redemptorists, Marists, and Columbans.

It was definitely ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ for the Franciscan Fathers at this year’s blessing of the animals at Australian Catholic University’s Brisbane campus, thanks to an eclectic turnout including dogs, cats, police horses, chickens, ducks and an alpaca, The Catholic Leader reports.

Catholic Youth Parramatta celebrated National Vocations Awareness Week by hosting a ‘Convent Crawl’, giving an opportunity to glimpse the life of consecrated women across the Diocese, reports Catholic Outlook.

Brisbane in Queensland and Ceduna in regional South Australia have welcomed two congregations of Religious women into their communities to pray for and accompany women, indigenous people and those seeking Biblical, theological and spiritual formation.