The logo for the Australian Catholic Council for Lay Pastoral Ministry has been created to reflect the mandate given to it by the Bishops Commission for Church Ministry. That mandate requested Council members to plan for the current and future needs of Lay Pastoral Ministry in Australia.

Council members from across Australia have been meeting since November 2011. They have discussed the many and varied aspects of Lay Pastoral Ministry in the Catholic Church, as it operates within Australia and overseas. One of the directives from the Bishops Commission for Church Ministry was for the Council to develop an information network for lay pastoral ministers across Australia.

To that end, and mindful of access to modern communications, the Council has commenced the production of Lay Pastoral Ministry News and selected a logo to use in its networking. Logos are a powerful visual first point of contact for the viewer.

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Fr Rob Galea

Father Rob Galea’s living example of how to be ‘cool and Catholic’ will take centre stage before thousands of young people at next month’s Australian Catholic Youth Festival.

The assistant parish priest from Bendigo is a guest speaker at the festival in Adelaide, as well as leading workshops and performing.

Fr Galea last month said he was hoping to have released one of two new singles before the festival, which runs from December 3 to 5. “We have a lot of new and exciting things planned for Adelaide,” he said.

One of his workshops, “Jesus and the X factor”, will explore how youth can live as Christians in the world of popular culture.

It’s a disparity he’s successfully merged as a pop-singing consecrated man and which was recently evidenced through his audition performance on the popular Australian television show X-Factor. Continue reading →

Sister Corazon with Henny

With the festive season nearly upon us again, Catholic Mission is urging its supporters to remember the most vulnerable children around the world this Christmas.

Catholic Mission has today launched its 2015 Children’s Appeal, which specifically highlights the work of dedicated Catholic missionaries in the Philippines, who are caring for children in desperate need.

The Christmas direct mail appeal raises funds for children’s projects all around the world, including those in the Philippines, so that even the most vulnerable children can live a happy and healthy life with access to greater opportunities.

This year the campaign highlights the work of Baptistine Sister Corazon Riconalla, the Superior at the Our Lady of Providence Home in Cebu. The Sisters of St John the Baptist, who run the orphanage, care for young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, many of whom are afflicted with conditions such as malnutrition. Continue reading →

Bishop Hurley outside the Synod hall. Photo by Fiona Basile.

For the past three weeks, Bishop Eugene Hurley of Darwin has been in Rome attending the XIV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, discussing the theme: ‘The vocation and the mission of the family in the Church and the contemporary world’. He was accompanied in Rome by fellow Australian bishops Mark Coleridge of Brisbane and Bishop Antoine Tarabay OLM of the Maronite Church. In the final days, Bishop Hurley took some time out to catch up with fellow Australian and photojournalist Fiona Basile.

Tell me about your experience of the synod.

I think my overwhelming sense is one of great privilege. Firstly, to represent the Australian Church as a representative of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, and secondly, it’s an enormous responsibility to listen carefully to the real lives of families, particularly Catholic families, many of whom find themselves trying to manage the Church’s teaching. They’re great people of great faith and I think we need to listen really carefully to the struggles they’re having. Continue reading →

Cardinal Pell. Photo by Fiona Basile

At the conclusion of the 3-week synod on the family in Rome, Australia’s George Cardinal Pell has said that he agrees with the Holy Father, ‘that everyone will have been changed by the synod’.

He said, ‘It made people realise even more, if it was necessary or possible, how important the family is and how imperfect it often is, but we encourage people to keep on keeping on.’

Speaking on the final document, which is currently only available in Italian, and which contains 94 paragraphs on the theme ‘The vocation and the mission of the family in the Church and the contemporary world’, Cardinal Pell said, ‘it demonstrates that the Church is first of all about love’. Continue reading →