The presidents of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia say their annual report to the National Office for Child Safety outlines comprehensive and sustained work across Church settings.

The provision of an annual report on progress in child protection and safeguarding was one of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The Bishops Conference and CRA adopted that recommendation. They have published the Church’s third such report today.

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A review of governance will help shape the way the Catholic Church in Australia understands co-responsibility in its life and mission and puts it into practice, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has said.

The Australia bishops reviewed and discussed the final version of the governance review report The Light from the Southern Cross: Co-Responsible Governance in the Catholic Church in Australia during their recent plenary meeting.

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The Catholic Church has established a new company to oversee all safeguarding, child protection and professional standards in Australia, creating a more focused and streamlined model.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Catholic Religious Australia (CRA) and the Association of Ministerial PJPs (AMPJP) have today launched Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited.

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The first assembly of the Plenary Council will take place with a combination of online and face-to-face participation as uncertainty remains over restrictions on travel and gatherings.

The decision to hold the October 2021 assembly in a “multi-modal” format was reached last week based on feedback from a number of groups, including the steering committee for the Council assemblies, the Plenary Council’s facilitation team and risk assessors.

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Pope Francis has appointed Broome vicar general Msgr Paul Boyers the apostolic administrator of the northern Western Australian diocese, the Holy See announced on Saturday evening.

Msgr Boyers has been overseeing administrative matters in the Diocese of Broome since March, when Bishop Christopher Saunders voluntarily stood aside. Bishop Peter Ingham, the former Bishop of Wollongong, carried out an apostolic visitation of the diocese in the subsequent months.

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(Image/Pexels)

The Church in Australia will celebrate the Sunday of the Word of God on the first Sunday in February each year, starting with February 7 in 2021.

Pope Francis last year instituted the celebration when issuing the apostolic letter Aperuit Illis. The letter encouraged the celebration, study and dissemination of the Word of God.

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Australia’s Catholic bishops will tomorrow open their second plenary meeting of the year under COVID-19 restrictions, with almost 40 bishops and other senior Church figures to gather online.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference holds biannual plenary meetings each May and November. The May meeting this year was moved online – the first time such a gathering had not been held in person in the Conference’s 54-year history.

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Fr Maurizio Pettena giving evidence to the Senate Select Committee on Temporary Migration

An obsession with profits that ignores the rights of workers must be scrutinised and eliminated to protect vulnerable people, a Catholic expert in migration has told the Australian Parliament.

Fr Maurizio Pettenà CS, the director of the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office, appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Temporary Migration this week. His evidence followed an Australian Catholic Bishops Conference submission to that group earlier this year.

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The Archdioceses of Adelaide and Perth and the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle were among Catholic winners of major prizes in the 2020 Australasian Religious Press Association awards.

Perth’s eRecord picked up two of the most prestigious online awards, winning gold medals in the best website and best e-newsletter categories.

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Members of the Plenary Council executive committee during a 2018 meeting in Melbourne with members of the Facilitation Team and Archbishops Mark Coleridge and Timothy Costelloe SDB

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB says the executive committee that has helped guide the Plenary Council journey to this point has set the Council up to be a source of renewal for the Church.

Writing to the members of the executive committee earlier this week in his capacity as Plenary Council president, Archbishop Costelloe thanked the group for their time, their energy and their belief in the Council process.

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