Pictured (l-r): Fellowship participants Moira Byrne and Kirby Heath

Look around and what do you see?
Are there plenty of women next to thee?
Do they encourage and inspire you?
What a pity there are so few.
Who guide and nurture, shape and lead.
Don’t you think this is something we need?

Meanwhile media tells the stories
That have not shown the Church’s glories.
Numbers in the Church are falling
So let’s appeal to women’s calling.

Interfaith study, friends and fun –
It’s OK, you don’t have to be a nun!
The Fellowship will provide
Women with the skills to guide.

And so our important vision
Is to find support to help us with this mission.
Mentoring, finance or prayer
We’d really appreciate your help to get us there!

So donate what you can to the Fellowship Program
Because the future waits for no man!

By Moira Byrne and Kirby Heath,
Young Catholic Women’s Fellowship Participants 2015

This opinion piece was first published by the Daily Telegraph.

“DYING with dignity” is a euphemism. It purports to say something ennobling; it means something entirely menacing. ‘‘Dying with dignity’’ is dishonest. It claims to be telling a truth, but it is instead spreading a falsehood.

It reduces people who are dying to nothing more than the pain and suffering associated with their dying.

Language matters in the question of whether or not to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide in Australia.

Adopting emotive slogans to bolster one’s own position, while belittling the reasoning of your opponent, might pass as acceptable in political electioneering but it is not a ploy that should determine debate over the life and death of fellow human beings, our neighbours.

The Judeo-Christian tradition has always claimed that every person is made in the image and likeness of God. This is, of course, a declaration of belief but it is equally a statement of reasoned argument. Continue reading →

Couple-parent families, especially those on low incomes, will bear the burden of Labor’s decision to support some of the Government cuts to Family Tax Benefit Part B (FTB B).

The Chief Executive of Catholic Social Services Australia, Marcelle Mogg, said the Coalition and Labor should not be taking FTB B from low and middle income families with school age children.

“Cuts to FTB B should not discriminate against children who have two parents with a single income, in favour of sole parent families or grandparent carers,” said Ms Mogg.

“The issue here is children living in poverty. Whether the child has one or two parents should not be the basis for discrimination. We must support low income families if we are to secure a better future for their children.

“The cuts mean single breadwinner families with the youngest child aged 13 years or older would be worse off by more than $54 a week. Continue reading →

COP 21 official logo. cop21paris.org

The following appeal was issued by Cardinals, Patriarchs and Bishops from across the globe representing the continental groupings of national episcopal conferences. It is addressed to those negotiating the COP 21 in Paris and it calls on leaders to work towards the approval of a fair, legally binding and truly transformational climate agreement.

Representing the Catholic Church from the five continents, we Cardinals, Patriarchs and Bishops have come together to express, on our own behalf and on behalf of the people for whom we care, the widely-held hope that a just and legally binding climate agreement will emerge from the negotiations of the COP 21 in Paris. We advance a ten-point policy proposal, drawing on the concrete experience of people across the continents, and linking climate change to social injustice and the social exclusion of the poorest and most vulnerable of our citizens.

Climate Change: challenges and opportunities

In his encyclical letter, Laudato si’ (LS}, addressed ‘to every person living on this planet’ (LS 3), Pope Francis claims that ‘climate change represents one of the princi pal challenges facing humanity today’ (LS 25). The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all (LS 23). The natural environment is a collective good, the patrimony of all humanity and the responsibility of everyone (LS 95).

Continue reading →

A gift can transform lives, particularly when passed on in the spirit of kindness, compassion and solidarity. Caritas is the Latin word for love and compassion and this spirit of generosity is never so important than at Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus and rejoice in the hope this brings.

By choosing a Caritas Global Gift this year, you are helping to spread the message that together, as one global family, we are making the world a better place.

Caritas Australia, the Catholic Church’s international aid and development agency, works in partnership with local communities in over 30 countries throughout the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Pacific and Australia.

This year there are seven Caritas Australia Global Gifts which encompass the range of Caritas Australia’s community development programs including; water, food, agriculture, healthcare, education and emergency assistance. You can also make a gift to whole community. The Global Gifts start from $10 to $1,500 or more – the choice is yours. Continue reading →

National Director of the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office, Fr. Maurizio Pettenà CS, welcomed news the Australian Government has given visas to the first of the 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees to be resettled in Australia.

On Tuesday, at the Australian Embassy in Amman, Jordan, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton personally gave out the first refugee visas to four families.

According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports, two of the families fled the war in Syria, and the other two are Christian families who fled Iraq.

Fr Pettenà also welcomed the news that depending on the success of the resettlement of the 12,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq, Australia will look at expanding the refugee intakes. Mr Dutton said, “…we do think it’s a reasonable thing to look at the prospect of offering more places beyond the 12,000, over coming years”. Continue reading →

By Matthew Howard

October 24th marked the beginning of Children’s week in Australia, a time to reflect on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a revolutionary document which has helped change the way we view and treat Children.

Since the ratification of this convention there has been much to celebrate, from declining infant mortality rates to rising school enrolment. While these successes give us hope, children around the world still suffer from injustices which rob them of their youth.

One particularly cruel injustice which some children are forced to endure is child detention. The most recent data shows that there are 197 children in detention due to Australia’s current immigration policy, 104 in Australia and 93 on Nauru, in addition to the 405 children who are in community detention in Australia.

The Catholic Church in Australia has been a vocal critic of mandatory detention centres since their inception. The Catholic Bishops highlighted the dangers of mandatory detention in the 2015-2016 Social Justice Statement For Those Who’ve Come Across the Seas; Justice for refugees and asylum seekers. Continue reading →

Bishop Tarabay

Bishop Antoine Tarabay OLM of the Maronite Church in Sydney is no stranger to Rome, however, it is his first time visiting the eternal city as one of the Synod Fathers attending the XIV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

For the past three weeks Bishop Tarabay has joined with His Eminence Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Cardinal Rai, and Bishop Antoine Nabil Andari, in representing the Maronites in Lebanon and the diaspora.

Together with bishops, cardinals and representatives from around the world, he has been discussing the synod theme: ‘The vocation and mission of marriage and the family in the church and in the contemporary world’. While in Rome, Bishop Tarabay caught up with fellow Australian and photojournalist Fiona Basile.

You were in ‘English-speaking Group D’ for the synod; what was it like working in these small groups?

The small groups were divided into language groups and in my English speaking group, I was the only one from Australia. So from the beginning the thought was to provide a new experience for the synod fathers, to meet with new people from the different parts of the world and to discuss the theme with each other.

Continue reading →

They might come from parishes 1933km apart but they have a common goal: to share their Catholic faith at the Australian Catholic Youth Festival.

“It’s hard in today’s society to be a young person of faith,” says Duy, from the Adelaide Archdiocese, which is hosting the festival from December 3-5.

“You feel as though you are on your own,” he says. “The festival is a great opportunity to meet like-minded youth and express your faith together.”

Duy is coordinating the largest South Australian group of festival pilgrims – up to 60 from the Vietnamese Catholic Community. Continue reading →

Richard McMahon

Richard McMahon, Deputy Chair of the Australian Catholic Council for Lay Pastoral Ministry, recently chatted with Aoife Connors at ACBC Communications about his work as a pastoral associate and his role on the Council.

How did you get involved in lay pastoral ministry? Are there challenges to getting involved?

In the mid 1990’s, I was recommended to a priest looking for a pastoral associate. My wife and I were housed with our baby at one end of a renovated convent. As our family grew, we needed to look for other accommodation. I served as pastoral associate in two more parishes over a ten-year period, all in the Archdiocese of Sydney.

An ongoing challenge is remuneration for people in pastoral ministry roles, especially when trying to support a young family. At that time when I changed roles, there was no portability of entitlements, though fortunately long service leave and holiday pay can now be transferred to new positions. Continue reading →