Category Archives: Special interest

Anglican and Roman Catholic Dialogue flourishes during Canterbury-Rome Pilgrimage

Bishop delegates for Australia, Catholic Archbishop Christopher Prowse, with Anglican Bishop of Wangaratta, John Parkes. Joint letter by Archbishop Christopher Prowse, Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn and Bishop John Parkes, Anglican Bishop of Wangaratta (pictured on the left).

Representing the Anglican and Roman Catholic communities of Australia, we have returned recently from our anniversary pilgrimage in Canterbury (England) and Rome (Italy). It has been 50 years now since Archbishop Michael Ramsay and Pope Paul VI met to begin formally, the worldwide Anglican/Roman Catholic ecumenical dialogue.

Together with 38 Anglican and Catholic Bishops from 19 countries, we reviewed the progress on the pilgrimage to unity so far. The mood has changed from optimism that organic unity was imminent, to a more realistic assessment. Serious obstacles have arisen on matters pertaining to the ordination of women, and human sexuality. Friendships between our communities have continued to mature in the midst of these complex issues. Continue reading →

23rd Annual International Law & Religion Symposium discussing Religious Rights in a Pluralistic World

religious-freedom-imageAddress delivered on 4th October 2016 at the Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA on the conference theme: Religious Rights in a Pluralistic World

Firstly, thanks very much to Brigham Young University for organising this wonderful conference and for bringing us all together.

Australia is a pluralist society. We are blessed with freedom, a stable system of government and a rich mix of ethnic, racial and religious groups. But inherent in a pluralist society are different views and beliefs and the challenge of how to accommodate those different perspectives.

The Catholic Church in Australia is an established part of the community, with a quarter of Australians identifying as Catholic, with one in five Australian students attending Catholic schools and Catholic hospitals providing about ten percent of healthcare services across the nation. Continue reading →

Finding compassion through the lens of Mercy

screen-shot-2016-09-15-at-9-04-35-am_200Archbishop Mark Coleridge, speaking at Australia’s largest Catholic eConference this week, said the time of Christendom is over, and the Catholic Church must recognise its real credential is in Mercy.

Calling for Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year of Mercy to be enacted as a verb, Archbishop Coleridge said the Pope’s vision gives birth to action within the Church and across the global community.

“When I speak about the covenant of God, it is a community of Mercy in a merciless world. Find the hungry one, the thirsty one, the naked one, the sick one, the one who is infinitely strange and the one who is seemingly imprisoned by the power of death. Look at the Crucified and understand what you see,” Archbishop Coleridge said.

Captivating the eConference audience for over 4 hours, Archbishop Coleridge, along with renowned Catholic scholar, Sr Veronica Lawson and, President of the Refugee Council of Australia, Mr Phil Glendenning spoke compellingly about the plight of the 65 million people displaced around the world. Continue reading →

Ms Michele Castagna OAM, Rest in Peace

Michele Castagna

Michele Castagna

Ms Michele Castagna OAM died peacefully on Saturday morning, 17 September 2016, in the presence of her family at home in Alice Springs. 

Michele was appointed Chairperson of the Australian Catholic Disability Council in 2006 and worked tirelessly in the role promoting the full participation of people with disability and their families. Michele guided the Council with wisdom and tenacity until she stepped down in 2015.

Serving on the Council for 14 years, Michele had over twenty years practical experience and knowledge in community work, community development and service delivery, including fifteen years working in the area of multiculturalism.

Always an active member of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish in Alice Springs. Michele was a member of the choir and other ministries within the parish. Due to Michele’s advocacy within the parish, it became an accessible place of worship.

We pray for the repose of her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God. May she rest in peace. Amen. Continue reading →

Finding the Silver Bullet for Evangelisation

Bishop Nicholas Hudson

Bishop Nicholas Hudson

Interview with Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, on Friday 2 September during the Proclaim 2016, national conference on evangelisation.

‘Are you going to give us a silver bullet for evangelisation?’ Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, was asked on the journey from Sydney airport to the Diocese of Broken Bay for the Proclaim 2016, national conference on evangelisation.

He quickly responded, ‘there is no silver bullet, it’s going to be different in every parish and every local community’. Interestingly, the question stayed with him and ‘I’ve found myself thinking, there is one silver bullet and that is to just start doing it’.

‘Sometimes there is scope for reflection and being strategic that’s the reason why we are all gathered here for Proclaim 2016. We know that Pope Francis has a vision and there is a phrase, “Vision without strategy is hallucination”. That is how Pope Francis sees it and when he says that he dreams of a missionary option for the Church, what he means is that we need to do a lot of rethinking.

Bishop Comensoli leading morning prayer during Proclaim 2016

Bishop Comensoli leads morning prayer during Proclaim 2016

‘We need to rethink our strategies, our methods and our structures in order to be more evangelising but the way we become more evangelising is just by getting on with it.

The Proclaim conference was hosted by the Diocese of Broken Bay in partnership with the Australian Catholic Bishops Commission for Evangelisation.

Bishop Hudson’s address at the Proclaim conference focused on parishes becoming oases of mercy. ‘I learnt from my Dad when I was six years old, he used to take me out to visit the neighbours who were elderly or alone. He wasn’t self-consciously teaching me to make our family or our parish an oasis of mercy, but I realised that he was for those vulnerable people around us, an oasis of mercy.

‘He would say to me, Nick, let’s go and see Bob, next door, or we would drop off a shepherd’s pie to Mr Flood every Saturday. It was a way of showing mercy. So I believe that parishes need believe in being oasis of mercy, by simply showing mercy to their neighbours. The clue is to simply ask, who is my neighbour? And if you ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in the response, you can’t but become more evangelising.’ Continue reading →

National Fertility Conference to focus on Infertility in the Year of Mercy

screen-shot-2016-09-14-at-3-42-47-pm_200Bishop Mark Edwards, a member of the Bishops Commission for Family, Youth and Life will deliver the opening address at the National Fertility Conference in Melbourne this weekend, 16-18 September 2016.

On Friday evening, Bishop Edwards will address a public forum on the topic, ‘Infertility in the Year of Mercy- a Pastoral Response’.

The journey of infertility is a difficult one affecting one-in-six couples. Our technological culture promotes treatments like IVF which, unfortunately, have a low success rate and bypass the underlying cause(s).

Couples who prefer to conceive naturally, because of their religion or a desire for a healthier outcome, may struggle to find medical assistance, which aims to restore their fertility and offer hope.

In recent years, the number of Australian health care practitioners dedicated to a restorative approach to solving infertility has grown. The network includes doctors and members of the three national fertility awareness agencies*. Since 2014, they have met annually to promote therapies for infertility which are respectful of physical, mental and spiritual health, relationships and embryonic life. Continue reading →

ACBC Media Blog recognised in 2016 Catholic Media Awards

fullsizerender1_200Archbishop Mark Coleridge’s daily blog during the Synod on the Family, ‘On the Road Together’ was awarded ‘Best Column or Blog’ at the Australian Catholic Press Association’s annual awards for excellent this year.

The judges acknowledged the daily personal insights into the Synod process, which the blog provided and highlighted the Archbishop’s ‘self-deprecating sense of humour’ throughout the blog posts.

This Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Media Blog, was also highly commended in the ‘Best Editorial’ category for an opinion-editorial, ‘Interconnectedness a major principle of encyclical’, written by Bishop Michael Kennedy following the publication of Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’.  Continue reading →

New Evangeliser has four qualities: courage, confidence, a sense of urgency and joy, Cardinal Wuerl tells Proclaim 2016 delegates

Cardinal Wuerl

Cardinal Wuerl

The new evangeliser needs four qualities for successful parish renewal: courage, confidence, a sense of urgency and joy, keynote speaker Cardinal Donald Wuerl told Proclaim 2016 delegates during his opening address on 1 September in Sydney.

‘Many young people today have these qualities,’ the Archbishop of Washington said.

‘Courage could also be described as boldness. We only have to think of Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth in order to understand the sense of urgency in our task, she set off at pace. We are not passive bystanders.’

Speaking about Pope Francis, parish renewal and evangelisation, the Cardinal said, ‘others have gone before us but the responsibility of parish renewal falls to us. It’s our turn now. Continue reading →

Show Mercy to our Common Home

dreamstime_l_19675611_200Pope Francis’ message for today’s World Day of Prayer for the care of creation

United with our Orthodox brothers and sisters, and with the support of other Churches and Christian communities, the Catholic Church today marks the “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation”.

This Day offers “individual believers and communities a fitting opportunity to reaffirm their personal vocation to be stewards of creation, to thank God for the wonderful handiwork which he has entrusted to our care, and to implore his help for the protection of creation as well as his pardon for the sins committed against the world in which we live.” 1

It is most encouraging that concern for the future of our planet is shared by the Churches and Christian communities, together with other religions. Indeed, in past decades numerous efforts have been made by religious leaders and organisations to call public attention to the dangers of an irresponsible exploitation of our planet.

Here I would mention Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople who, like his predecessor Patriarch Dimitrios, has long spoken out against the sin of harming creation and has drawn attention to the moral and spiritual crisis at the root of environmental problems. Continue reading →