Author Archives: Mark Wei

BISHOP JOE GRECH MEMORIAL LECTURE GIVEN BY ARCHBISHOP DENIS HART FOR THE SECOND ANNUAL BISHOP JOSEPH GRECH COLLOQUIUM ON ETHICS AND MIGRATION

 BISHOP JOE GRECH MEMORIAL LECTURE

GIVEN BY ARCHBISHOP DENIS HART

FOR THE SECOND ANNUAL BISHOP JOSEPH GRECH COLLOQUIUM ON ETHICS AND MIGRATION

AT AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

ON THURSDAY, 30TH AUGUST 2012 AT 7.00 P.M.

Archbishop Denis Hart

INTRODUCTION

Minister Chris Bowen, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Bishop Joe Grech was passionate about helping refugees and asylum seekers, so I am very pleased we are remembering him in this Colloquium.

Migration and the Church

In acknowledging the Traditional Owners of this area, I invite you all to reflect on how the great majority of us have relatively recent family histories in Australia, how migration has been central to the development of the Catholic Church and how migration has transformed Australia into a vibrant, prosperous, western democracy in just over two hundred years.

I remember that migration has not always helped Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  We have a lot more work to do with our Indigenous brothers and sisters to create a truly just Australia.

The 2011 census shows almost a quarter of Catholics were born overseas.  Migrants to Australia have brought the Church new symbols, practices and devotions which express the richness and diversity of the Universal Church.  We are grateful for example for the people from the Eastern Catholic Churches – the Maronite Diocese and the Melkite, Chaldean and Ukrainian Eparchies.  Their traditions help to enrich the whole Church in Australia.

A recent analysis of the 2011 census data in The Australian newspaper highlights the role of migrant communities in Australia’s most Catholic city suburb, Horsley Park in Sydney’s west.  Almost three quarters of the population there are Catholic, partly explained by the fact that more than 40 per cent of the residents have Maltese or Italian heritage. Continue reading →

Minister Chris Bowen’s address Address to the second annual Bishop Joseph Grech Colloquium on Ethics and Migration, Melbourne Victori

Minister Bowen addresses the colloquium

Acknowledgements

Thank you, and thank you to Father Pettena for the opportunity to contribute to this important colloquium on ethics and migration.

Father Pettena combines passion with action. Last year, Father Pettena came to see me to lobby for faster action in moving children into the community, out of detention. I pointed out to the Father that one of the very real challenges is finding appropriate housing for children and families, and that with more accommodation we could move quickly.

The next day, Father Pettena called back saying that he had found a former monastery in Canberra that could sleep plenty of unaccompanied minors and made it available to us, an offer we accepted with alacrity. He’s my kind of action-oriented advocate.

Your Grace Archbishop Denis Hart, Father Pettena, Associate Vice-Chancellor Mr Chris Sheargold, ladies and gentlemen.

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation, the traditional owners on whose land we meet today, pay my respects to their elders – past and present – and thank them for their stewardship of our land over the millennia.

Continue reading →

Joint statement by Christian leaders on the passing of the asylum seeker legislation

Asylum Seeker Boat

As Australian church leaders, we stand together to express our grave concern at the passing of legislation to allow for the offshore processing and indefinite detention of asylum seekers.

Core to the Christian faith is the principle of ‘welcoming the stranger’, and Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan guides us as we seek to care for those who are vulnerable and marginalised in society. As Christians, we are called to cross the road to help, to not turn away those in need.

The Seventh Forum of the National Council of Churches in Australia in 2010 called on all political parties to meet Australia’s responsibilities by “accommodating and processing in Australia asylum seekers who reach Australian territory”.

Australia is an open and hospitable country. Many of our churches grew here as a result of people having fled places of violence or migrating to seek better futures for their families.

We welcome the commitment of the Government to increase the number of places in our humanitarian program to 20,000 and hope that it will continue to increase the program as the Panel has recommended.

However, we are deeply troubled by the potential for asylum seekers to suffer adverse mental health consequences and to experience other detrimental impacts as a result of this legislation. We are concerned that this damages our credibility and, in particular, our ability to negotiate a humane regional system of protection.

Finding answers to this complicated humanitarian challenge is difficult. As long as our world is broken and countries are ravaged by war, then people will flee violence and persecution. But as a rich and secure nation, Australia has a particular responsibility to ensure that we work positively with other nations to develop a range of strategies that are grounded in compassion and that seek to honour the moral responsibility we have to victims of violence and persecution.

It is only through such cooperation that we can provide asylum seekers with real alternatives to undertaking a desperate boat journey to find safety.

SIGNATORIES

 

The Most Reverend Doctor Phillip Aspinall

Primate, Anglican Church in Australia

 

Reverend Craig Brown

Federal Coordinator, Churches of Christ in Australia

 

Commissioner James Condon

Australia Eastern Territory, The Salvation Army

 

Ms Maxine Cooper

Yearly Meeting Clerk, Religious Society of Friends

 

Reverend Professor Andrew Dutney

President, Uniting Church in Australia

 

Dr Joe Goodall

Moderator, Congregational Federation of Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand

 

The Most Reverend Denis Hart

President, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

2 September 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Youth Ministry Convention: Registration ends tomorrow 30 August!!

REGISTRATION FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC YOUTH MINISTRY CONVENTION ENDS TOMORROW!

The ACYMC is the main formation opportunity for Youth Ministers working in schools, colleges, dioceses and movements and anyone interested in this
important work of the Church is welcome to attend.

Registration for ACYMC

The Australian Catholic Youth Ministry Convention has been developed to provide a quality event for youth minsters in Australia at an affordable price.

Full Price: $360 – registrations close Thursday August 30th Continue reading →

Archbishop Hart and Minister Bowen to speak on Australia’s moral obligations to people seeking asylum

Immigration minister Chris Bowen

Media Release 22 August, 2012

Next Thursday the 30th August, Archbishop Denis Hart, President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and the Hon Chris Bowen, Minister of Immigration and Citizenship will come together to reflect on Australia’s moral obligations to people seeking asylum.

The Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office, in association with the Australian Catholic University, host this public lecture in honour of Bishop Joseph Grech who passed away in late 2010.

This public event is the second annual memorial colloquium on ethics and migration to be held and is also part of the Catholic Church celebrations for the 98th world day of migrant and refugees.

“The colloquium represents a formal platform for both speakers to invest in the ethical education on migration governance and ethics” said Fr Maurizio Pettenà, National Director of ACMRO.

Continue reading →

Walk as one Media Launch – TOMORROW @ St Aloysius, Milson’s Point

 

 

 

WALK AS ONE: CONNECTING THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLE STORIES FROM BESWICK TO BOLIVIA

MEDIA LAUNCH – THURSDAY 23 AUGUST, 6.30pm Rooftop, St Aloysius College, 47 Upper Pitt Street, Milsons Point WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES FORUM – SYDNEY Friday August 24 and Saturday August 25 St Aloysius College, Milsons Point
In a bid to bring vital attention to the plight of the world’s Indigenous Peoples, Caritas Australia is preparing to launch its 2012/13 advocacy campaign next week in Sydney – Walk As One: Connecting with the World’s Indigenous Peoples. Connecting Australians with the stories of Indigenous Peoples from Australia and all over the world, Caritas will hold valuable sessions on the big issues at St Aloysius College, Milsons Point in Sydney on Saturday August 25 and Sunday August 26. Participants will have the chance to take part in a series of workshops and learn about traditional culture from artists and performers including weavers, traditional healers and contemporary dancers. Continue reading →

ASSISI Formation Program: Animators for Sustainability – October 9th-12th 2012

Assisi Program

Catholic Earthcare will offer the Assisi Program in 2012 and there is more information on their website.

“…someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire.”

(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)

Are you wondering …

  • What would it take to animate the call to justice, peace and integrity of creation such that we learn together how to live and work sustainably on our planet?
  • What is required for your organisation to take the transformative journey to ecological sustainability?
  • What wisdom exists in Catholic Teaching that may help you and your organisation respond to the call for ecological conversion and sustaining God’s Creation?
  • What would it take to truly harness the energies of God’s love?

I would like to invite you to participate in the ASSISI Animator for Sustainability Program and, secondly, to pass this invitation to others in your network for whom this might be applicable. Continue reading →

Australian Catholic Youth Ministry Convention -Registrations close soon!!

The Australian Catholic Youth Ministry Convention (www.acymc.org) will be held in Campbelltown from September 21-23. All those involved in ministry with young people from parishes, communities, movements, religious orders, schools and diocese are invited to attend to be formed and inspired for Catholic youth ministry. visit www.acymc.org to register.

Click below to see the promotional video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZcNtjIdwkc

Catholic Church celebrates our newest Aussies!

By Daniel Hopper Oo’s family after the Citizenship ceremony with Sr Elaine Troy OLSH and Ted Booth SCARF

By Daniel Hopper

Meet our newest Australian family – Oo Reh (husband), Phray Meh (wife), Soe (16), Christina (14), Joseph (10) and Leh Leh (7) – who only this week celebrated receiving their Australian citizenship. Prior to coming to Australia they had spent ten years in a refugee camp. They, along with 600 other migrants, refugees and members of all our cultural communities will be attending the annual “Many Cultures, One in Christ” Mass and Cultural Celebration at St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral in Wollongong at 2pm on Sunday 26 August.

Oo grew up in a remote lowland village in Karenni State (a former independent state in Burma) and worked as a policeman. In his early twenties he met Phray who lived with her family in a small mountain village with 40 other families. After they married, Oo moved into Phray’s village, where they lived a subsistence lifestyle, without electricity, in a region regarded as one of the least accessible and poorest areas in the Union of Burma. Continue reading →