Pope Francis has sent his support and blessings to the Catholic Church in Australia as it commences a three-year process to consider its future through the Plenary Council 2020.

The Church in Australia, on the feast of Pentecost, yesterday marked the official launch of the Plenary Council, which will culminate in gatherings in 2020 and 2021 to consider the Church’s governance, laws and practice. Continue reading →

Images by Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2016

The Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations has told the Fair Work Commission that the minimum wage is “manifestly inadequate” and hundreds of thousands of families are living in or threatened by poverty.

The ACCER, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference agency focused on employment matters, has told the Fair Work Commission that its view on wage levels is based on Catholic social teaching, which holds that workers “have the right to wages that will support themselves and their families at a decent standard of living”. Continue reading →

Earlier this month, Archbishop Mark Coleridge was elected president of the

ACBC president Archbishop Mark Coleridge. Images by Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2016

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. Currently the Archbishop of Brisbane, he previously served as an Auxiliary Bishop in Melbourne and as Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn.

In this conversation with the ACBC Communications Office, he speaks about his appointment at a critical time for the Catholic Church in Australia. Continue reading →

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia have established a new advisory group that will play a crucial role in influencing and monitoring the Catholic Church’s ongoing response to the child sexual abuse scandal.

Archbishop Denis Hart, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, explained that the new Implementation Advisory Group will monitor the response to the findings and recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse and the recommendations of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, which led the Church’s engagement with the Royal Commission. Continue reading →

Fr Nicola Mapelli of the Vatican’s Anima Mundi Museum and Manal Ataya of the Sharjah Museums Authority at the launch of “So That You Might Know Each Other”.

Dozens of items from the Vatican’s Anima Mundi Museum are part of a new exhibition at the National Museum of Australia that seeks to explore Islamic faith and culture.

Almost 70 of the 120 objects in the “So That You Might Know Each Other” exhibition came from the Vatican’s vast collection of pieces from around the world. Continue reading →

The four-yearly Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania has commenced today in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The Assembly’s theme is ‘Care of our Common Home of Oceania: A sea of possibilities’.

Human rights and environmental care and protection will underlie the Assembly’s discussions, with particular focus on displacement, social unrest, climate change and looking at harmful environmental practices such as deep-sea bed mining and overfishing. Continue reading →

Thirteen young women from across Australia gathered in Sydney recently as part of the inaugural intake for an inspiring new education and formation program called Leadership for Mission.

Leadership for Mission, which was launched at a special event at Mount St Benedict, Pennant Hills on April 5, is an initiative of the Council for Australian Catholic Women (CACW) with the support of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC), Catholic Mission, Australian Catholic University (ACU), and Catholic Church Insurance. Continue reading →

The Australian Catholic Disability Council has launched a new website to help ensure people with disability can prepare for and participate fully in the sacramental life of the Church.

Bishop Terry Brady, Bishops’ Delegate for Disability Issues, said the website is an extension of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s foundational document Celebrating the Sacramental Life from Birth to Death: Guidelines for the celebration of the Sacraments with People with Disability. The website will help the Church better understand how it can support people with disability, he said. Continue reading →

More than 200 people from remote and rural parts of the Diocese of Port Pirie in South Australia have gathered together under the theme ‘Looking forward in hope towards 2020’.  This was the first major gathering in Australia since the announcement earlier this week of the 2020 Plenary Council.

The two-day assembly was attended by parishioners and clergy from all parishes across the vast geography of Port Pirie Diocese as well as the diocesan and state leaders of Centacare, Catholic Education, St Vincent de Paul, Catholic Women’s League and other diocesan ministries. Continue reading →