Many workers earning the minimum waging are hoping to see their pay packets increase when the Fair Work Commission releases its determination on the national minimum wage.

A significant increase in the national minimum wage will deliver economic and social benefits, a key adviser to the Catholic Church’s submission to the Fair Work Commission has told the Media Blog podcast.

Tom Barnes, a senior research fellow at the Australian Catholic University, prepared detailed analysis to support the Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations’ submission.

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Catholics across Australia are being invited to participate in a special Refugee Week prayer service that will be streamed online on the evening of Monday, June 20.

The prayer service is being jointly hosted by the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office (ACMRO) and the Office for Justice, Ecology and Peace (OJEP) – both agencies of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

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The 30 motions that will be considered during the second assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia in July, rising from four years of national conversation, have been published.

The Framework for Motions “will form the backbone of our reflection, discussion and decision when we gather”, Plenary Council president Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB wrote in a message to fellow Members.

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The Abdallahs from western Sydney are among the Australian families who will attend the World Meeting of Families in Rome.

Dioceses around the country are organising a range of local events to participate in the 10th World Meeting of Families next month.

Held from June 22-26, the World Meeting of Families will take place in dioceses across the globe for the first time, after being postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The theme for the event is “Family love: A vocation and a path to holiness”.

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Ethiopian Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel and Fr Stephen Hackett MSC, general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

Ethiopian Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel CM says his trip to Australia gives him the chance to thank individuals and organisations supporting projects that are helping transform the lives of people in the east African nation.

Cardinal Souraphiel is a guest of Catholic Mission, which is funding key educational, agricultural and social initiatives in Ethiopia. He said the support from Australia allows the Church in Ethiopia to make a major contribution to alleviating poverty.

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The conference scheduled for October consolidates a number of national events supporting evangelisation and mission.

The Australian Bishops Commission for Evangelisation, Laity and Ministry will host a national online conference on evangelisation from October 20-22.

The conference, drawing on the Commission’s mandate, will promote understanding and explore practices of evangelisation in Australia through encounters with Christ, formation in discipleship, and mission in the world. It seeks to encourage Catholics to carry forward the Church’s evangelising mission after the second assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia.

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A woman sits with children as evacuees, including civilians who left the area near Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, arrive at a temporary accommodation center in Bezimenne, Ukraine, May 1, 2022. (CNS photo/Alexander Ermochenko, Reuters)

Australia’s Catholic bishops have again expressed their prayer for and solidarity with the Ukrainian people, in a letter to Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Archbishop Mark Coleridge told Archbishop Shevchuk that the Church is Australia is watching on with horror at “the tragic situation in Ukraine where an invasion based on lies and injustice continues with no end in sight”.

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Thanks to the journey of the Plenary Council, the People of God in Australia are well placed to respond to Pope Francis’ exhortation to be people who listen, Australian Catholic Media Council chair Debra Vermeer says.

Pope Francis’ message for World Communications Day, which is celebrated in Australia on May 22 this year, has the theme “Listening with the ear of your heart”.

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The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has elected Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB president of the Conference and re-elected Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP vice-president on the opening day of its plenary meeting.

The Conference agreed that the president and vice-president’s two-year terms will commence on July 13, 2022, after the Second General Assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia.

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To help better understand the place of synodality in the Catholic Church, ecumenical leaders will attend national Uniting and Anglican gatherings this month to see how synodality works in those communities.

The global Synod on Synodality has encouraged engagement with ecumenical and interfaith groups as part of the process leading towards the gathering in Rome in October 2023.

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