Bishop Charles Gauci, John Lochowiak and Sabrina Stevens are among the Australians who will participate in the International Conference on Catholic Indigenous

Five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will attend an international Catholic gathering in Washington D.C. next week, along with indigenous people from the United States, Canada and New Zealand.

The Australian delegation will take part in the International Conference on Catholic Indigenous, which had originally been scheduled for 2020 but was postponed due to COVID-19 travel restrictions that year.

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Catholic communities across Australia are being encouraged to reflect on the Holy Family’s experience as migrants as the Church prepares to mark the 109th World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

Dating back to the First World War, the commemoration takes places on the final Sunday in September – September 24 this year. It will come just after Pope Francis travels to Marseille, France, for a cultural festival called “the Mediterranean Encounter”.

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The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia have published a report updating the Church’s progress in implementing the relevant recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

On the five-year anniversary of the initial response, the report is part of the Church’s ongoing efforts to be publicly accountable for how it is working to create, maintain and enhance safe environments for children and all people who are at risk.

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The National Centre for Pastoral Research has published a pair of reports on pastoral councils, as part of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s response to a review of Church governance.

Each of the reports – one into diocesan pastoral councils, the other into parish pastoral councils – draws on Church documents on such bodies, the writings of recent Popes and research in Australia and overseas, before offering various models for how councils could operate.

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Jason McFarland, who has worked in the field of liturgy for more than two decades, has began work as executive secretary to the Bishops Commission for Liturgy, also serving as director of the National Office for Liturgy.

Dr McFarland’s significant experience in liturgical roles over the past 25 years includes working with the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and as an academic in the United States and Australia.

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Australia’s Catholic bishops have called on the nation to seek “a new engagement” with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in their annual Social Justice Statement being launched today.

Since the 1940s, the bishops have published annual statements that urge the Catholic community to reflect and act on social, economic and ecological issues. The statements are published as a focal point for Social Justice Sunday, which will be marked on August 27 this year.

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The Australian bishops’ decades-long tradition of publishing an annual Social Justice Statement continues this week, with the launch of Listen, Learn, Love: A New Engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples on Thursday.

In May last year, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference agreed the 2023-24 statement would consider the place of First Nations peoples in Australian society today. It was prepared in partnership with the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council.

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Members of the Australian delegation to Ukraine in front of a war-damaged building (Photo supplied)

At the invitation of Bishop Mykola Bychok CSsR, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania, a delegation from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference visited Ukraine from August 8-11 in an expression of pastoral solidarity with the country’s people.

This was an important opportunity to witness first-hand the human experience of this ongoing war, and to hear from Church leaders and civilians where future humanitarian support might be best directed.

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Diocesan Social Profiles are available for all 28 geographical dioceses in Australia, based on data from the 2021 Australian Census.

One in four Catholics in Broome Diocese are aged under 15, Wagga Wagga Diocese has the largest proportion of Catholics and the Archdiocese of Melbourne the largest number of Catholics, new reports have revealed.

The National Centre for Pastoral Research has just published Diocesan Social Profiles for all 28 geographical dioceses in Australia, based on data from the 2021 Australian Census.

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The new website for the online edition of the Official Directory of the Catholic Church in Australia has been launched, coinciding with the opening of pre-orders for the new print edition of the Directory.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has taken over management of the Official Directory in 2023, after many years being overseen by the National Council of Priests.

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