Topics to be covered include depression; building self-esteem in kids; bullying, learning to forgive; saying no to drugs; coping with failure; dealing with parent-child conflicts; stress and managing grief.

Called Catholic Faithline, the service was first introduced in October 1992. People around Australia could call a 0055 number to access a recording from a Redemptorist priest. The messages were written and read by priests Bill Stinson, Max Barrett, Michael Gilbert and now Bishop of Ballarat, Paul Bird.

Majellan Media CEO Tony Biviano hopes Faith onLine will be as successful as the original service which ran until the early 2000s.

“As we’ve seen with the pandemic over the past two years, families and individuals have been struggling with a range of issues including mental health, financial problems and domestic violence. We believe the time is right to re-introduce the service but, with modern and easy-to-access technology,” he said.

“The original service was highly successful and ran for many years. Majellan will offer Faith onLine as a free service on our website. Hopefully, many people will listen in as the need for assistance has increased dramatically since the start of COVID-19.”

The first messages will cover Lent which begins with Ash Wednesday on March 2. A new recording will then be posted each week. The recordings will also be available on the Majellan Media App and eventually on ‘Smart Speakers’.

Access Faith onLine.