The National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) will release a statement on their response to the Gonski Report, Review of Funding for Schooling, on Monday, 20 February at about 2.00 pm (following the Report’s release by the Australian Government).

NCEC Chair, Mrs Therese Temby, will also be available for comment.

By Beth Doherty

Brazil’s most well-known tourist attraction is the huge Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro on top of Mount Corcovado. A striking symbol of the world’s most populous Catholic country, its situation and placement has a message to convey.

Mount Corcovado where the statue is placed is characterised by a rich side with mansions and palm trees, and a poor side which is a hill-side slum, heavily populated by Brazil’s poorest living in dilapidated houses.

In the 1990s, photojournalist Mev Puleo attributed traveling on an air-conditioned tour bus to see the statue as a catalyst for her conversion. She peered out the window and was suddenly starkly aware of the sheer inequality she saw before her. As a committed Catholic, she couldn’t reconcile this inequality with her faith. Continue reading →

By Bishop Greg O’Kelly SJ,

Bishop of Port Pirie and Chairman of the Australian Catholic Bishops Commission for Catholic Education

The report of the Gonski Funding Review will soon be made public, and there has been a lot of commentary in the media about the new funding “model”. These commentaries typically focus on the benefits this model will deliver for the future schooling of our young people. Continue reading →

To download the Valentine’s Day Kit 2012, click here!St Valentine Resource 2012

Heart shaped chocolates and teddy bears have become a symbol of February in the commercial world, and, for the lucky ones who have someone to share February 14th with, this is another chance to celebrate. Yet it is not an unreasonable question to ask why the Catholic Bishops’ Conference would put out a kit for St Valentine’s Day each year.

In 2010, the Bishops’ Commission for Pastoral Life through the Australian Catholic Marriage and Family Council developed a kit devoted to the celebration of St Valentine’s Day for use in parishes. Continue reading →

By Pat Ransom

As an 18-year-old in between jobs and about to move out of town for university, I was in a position in which I had about a week of time I needed to fill.

Rather than spending this time eating all the food in the house and spending 12 hours a day on the computer slaying dragons, I elected to go in search of volunteer work for this short period.

As it would turn out, I ended up spending this week working at the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) and it’s been a fantastic learning opportunity, seeing the inner workings of the Catholic Church and the contributions the people there make to spreading the message of the Christ. Continue reading →

By Lu Danieli and Gary Fry

Former Catholic Bishop of Armidale, Most Rev Luc Matthys, was the principal celebrant of the Episcopal Ordination and Installation of his successor, Bishop Michael Robert Kennedy. Continue reading →

Maria Jose Centurion at Congresso della Stampa Cattolica, Roma, 2010

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC MEDIA CONGRESS 2012 AT WWW.COMMUNICATINGTHEWORDACMC2012.COM

Dear friends,

It is my great pleasure to invite you to the Australian Catholic Media Congress 2012. The congress is run by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference through the Australian Catholic Media Council and aims to bring together Catholic media, Christian media, secular media, people working within Church agencies, and anyone with an interest in how we communicate the Gospel message in our society today.

The ACMC will be held from Monday April 30 to Wednesday May 2 at the Menzies Hotel, Sydney with the theme Communicating the Word: Timeless messages, new media.

The Congress aims to look at the phenomenon of Social Media and how the Church can use everything from Facebook, to Twitter to more traditional means to spread the message of Christ in our world.

Already, we have booked a tremendously exciting international guest Monsignor Paul Tighe from the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and we are planning to have great line-up of Australian guests also including former Young Australian of the Year and filmmaker Khoa Do; Social commentator Melinda Tankard Reist; and musical contributions by Fr Rob Galea and Simon Hyland.

Please enter the site here and browse the program, and register early! This Congress promises to be the Catholic Media event of the year and I warmly invite you to consider attending.

With every blessing in our Lord Jesus Christ,

Bishop Peter Ingham

This is the Official message from the Pontifical Council for Social Communications
for the Occasion of the 46th World Day of Communications, May 20, 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As we draw near to World Communications Day 2012, I would like to share with you some reflections concerning an aspect of the human process of communication which, despite its importance, is often overlooked and which, at the present time, it would seem especially necessary to recall. It concerns the relationship between silence and word: two aspects of communication which need to be kept in balance, to alternate and to be integrated with one another if authentic dialogue and deep closeness between people are to be achieved. Continue reading →