The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference says a 1.75 per cent increase in the national minimum wage falls well short of the boost needed, leaving many families vulnerable during a pandemic.
The Conference, which has made submissions to the annual review of the minimum wage for decades, argued for a 4 per cent increase – before COVID-19 led to additional financial uncertainty for many low-paid workers and their families.
The two assemblies for the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia will be held in Adelaide from October 3-10, 2021, and in Sydney from July 4-9, 2022.
The new dates mean that the celebration of the Plenary Council has effectively moved 12 months from the original plan of a first assembly in October 2020 and a second assembly in June/July 2021.
Counselling to support children traumatised by the bushfires is among the projects funding by Catholic Emergency Relief Australia
Fifteen organisations have received funding from Catholic Emergency Relief Australia to support communities recovering from bushfires that devastated large parts of the country last summer.
Catholic Emergency Relief Australia (CERA) was officially launched in February and brings together a number of key national organisations.
The final version of a report into diocesan and parish governance will be published after a series of amendments and clarifications have been made, likely by mid-August, it has been announced.
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Archbishop Mark Coleridge on June 12 announced a timeline for the report’s release after a draft version was leaked to international Catholic media earlier this month.
Australia has a new bishop, following the ordination of Bishop Mykola Bychok CSsR as the third Eparch of Sts Peter and Paul in Melbourne for Ukrainian Catholics in Australia and New Zealand.
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, ordained Bishop Bychok on Pentecost Sunday, 7 June, at St George’s Cathedral in Lviv, Ukraine.
The Catholic Church has denounced a number of malicious emails being sent to random recipients claiming to be from Catholic parishes, dioceses and other organisations.
In recent weeks, emails have been sent that mention one or more of the following: Cardinal George Pell, the complainant in his criminal trial, COVID-19 and – most recently – the upcoming Eden-Monaro byelection.
Profiles of almost 1300 Catholic parishes across Australia have just been published, offering insights that those parishes have been encouraged to use in their pastoral planning processes.
The parish “social profiles” draw on data captured in the 2016 Australian Census and examine the Catholic population within parish boundaries.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB says the six discernment papers for the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia signify the latest milestone as the Church considers its present circumstances and discerns its future.
Six Discernment and Writing Groups, one each for the six national themes for discernment that emerged from the Council’s Listening and Dialogue phase, were tasked with writing papers to bring some major themes and issues into focus.
Expert groups will carry forward the work of creating a national system for handling complaints of sexual abuse and the establishment of a national office to oversee safeguarding within the Church.
At their plenary meeting this month, and in conversation with the leaders of religious institutes and other canonical stewards of Church ministries, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference reviewed progress on developing the National Response Protocol.
Bishop Columba Macbeth-Green OSPPE, chair of the Bishops Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
The Bishops Commission for Relations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples has expressed its solidarity with Australia’s Indigenous communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Commission met as part of the recent biannual plenary meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, held using video technology.