Lana Turvey-Collins explains the Plenary Council 2020 process to Townsville locals.

The northern Australia tour continued for Plenary Council facilitator Lana Turvey-Collins recently when delivered five sessions over three days in the Townsville Diocese, presenting to more than 130 people.

Geoff Gowdie, Church life and mission services director for the Diocese, saw the opportunity to gather as many people as possible together from a wide range of ministries to gain an understanding of how the Plenary Council will work. Those people can then serve as leaders in their specific ministry or parish.

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Roslyn Rajasingam, national director of the Apostleship of the Sea

Dozens of Catholic chaplains and managers who work in Australian ports – and the tens of thousands of people who support their work financially – are being reminded of the scriptural imperative to “always welcome a stranger” in the lead-up to Sea Sunday next month.

On July 8, the Catholic Church will celebrate the work of those men and women who work on the seas and those Catholics across the country who minister to seafarers by providing spiritual, social and material support. Continue reading →

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 →