Young person campaigns for YCS

Australia is facing a crisis against children our age.

1000 children are without proper access to education

1000 children are being imprisoned.

1000 children are without their basic human rights, outlined in the Conventions Of The Rights Of The Child, a UN document Australia signed in 2000.

1000 children are currently being held in immigration detention in Australia and just off our coast.

As a high school student of Australia, I find this totally unacceptable.

YCS is standing with Catholic Mission, Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office, Uniting Justice, Catholic Religious Australia and Chilout collectively in the Coalition- End Child Detention Australia- to show solidarity with those facing immigration detention. This May, we are all inviting you to undertake a ‘Detention4Detention’ doing a voluntary lunchtime detention with other high school students all around Australia to provide asylum seekers with a message of hope, and a welcome to our country. We will be asking students to take action by signing a petition and taking photos in support. Continue reading →

Bishop Bill Murray, photo

Family members of Bishop William Murray were joined by Bishop Peter Ingham (Bishop of Wollongong), Cardinal George Pell (Archbishop of Sydney), Archbishop Denis Hart (Archbishop of Melbourne and President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference), other archbishops and bishops, many clergy and about 500 parishioners at St Francis Xavier Cathedral, Wollongong, yesterday (1 May) for a Mass of Christian Burial for the late Bishop William Murray (Bishop Emeritus of Wollongong).

In his homily, Bishop Ingham paid tribute to Bishop Murray’s contribution to the life and development of the Diocese of Wollongong over 21 years, particularly his foresight in relation to the development of parishes and schools, the establishment of CatholicCare and the setting up of the Catholic Education Office.

Bishop Ingham said, “Today we celebrate the birth into eternal life of Bishop William Edward Murray, a member of a large extended family, a parish priest, seminary rector and the second Bishop of Wollongong. He came to a multi-cultural, urban and semi-rural part of Australia that was growing and developing and still is.

“In many ways the Bishop’s death has been a happy release after suffering a debilitating stroke that robbed him of his mobility and of his ability to communicate easily some six years ago… Yet to those who knew Bishop Murray well, and to his family particularly, his passing strikes a chord of pain and separation with which the reality of death confronts all of us.” Continue reading →