This year, for the first time ever, Catholic Mission’s hallmark celebration will have a special joint focus on two mission areas when it launches on 1 September.

World Mission Month, celebrated annually in October by millions of Catholics, will this year profile the work of dedicated missionaries in Madagascar as well as remote Indigenous Australia.

The month-long celebration traditionally profiles just one country—in 2014 the campaign highlighted the mission to build a Catholic community and overcome endemic violence and crime in Jamaica.

Catholic Mission National Director Martin Teulan says the new approach will better enable Australians to witness the incredible work of mission happening in places all around the world. ‘It is expected that around 1,100 appeals will take place in parishes around Australia during World Mission Month this year,’ he said. Continue reading →

This week the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office (ACMRO) will celebrate 20 years of work caring for migrants and refugees, with a colloquium on Thursday 27 August at 7pm.

The fifth annual Bishop Joe Grech Memorial Colloquium will be held at the Philippa Brazil Lecture Theatre, Daniel Mannix Building, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne.

The Colloquium is titled, ‘20 Years of Migration Policy in Australia, the Church’s Pastoral Response’. It will be chaired by Sandie Cornish, an expert in Catholic Social Teaching and Province Director of Mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart in Australia and New Zealand. A questions and answers session will follow the keynote addresses. Continue reading →

Bursting onto the Catholic scene in parishes this Christmas, FRANKLY is a fresh new publication that will be a power house in evangelisation and a counter-balance to secular negativity about the Church.

Visually rich in photography and design, and modelled on the warm and conversational style of Pope Francis, FRANKLY is designed to be given as a gift to people on the margins of Catholic faith and practice. Continue reading →

‘Migrants and refugees need our special attention and care, as they are our brothers and sisters’, Bishop Vincent Long said today as he released a parish kit celebrating the 101st World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM CONV is the Bishop Delegate for Migrants and Refugees.

The Catholic Church in Australia has dedicated the month of August to creating awareness of migration, which will culminate with the celebration of the 101st World Day of Migrants and Refugees on Sunday 30 August 2015. The Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office has made a pastoral resource kit available to assist parishes in celebrating the Day. Continue reading →

Climate change is very real in Kirbati. It’s about survival. It’s about saving our islands. It’s about saving our homes, Kiribati native Maria Tiimon-Chi Fang told politicians and church leaders this week.

Environmental NGO’s, politicians and stakeholders gathered at Parliament House on Monday 17 August 2015 to discuss Pope Francis’s environment encyclical, Laudato Si’, focusing on the need for action on climate change.

Maria spoke of the firsthand experiences of those dealing with the reality of climate change. Living in Kiribati, Maria works with the Edmund Rice Centre’s Pacific Calling Partnership. Continue reading →

Helping young Catholics to find and give the love that they were created for, that is the goal for Jason Evert, founder of Chastity Project, when he visits Australia later this year.

Jason will deliver a keynote address at the upcoming Australian Catholic Youth Festival, which takes place in Adelaide from 3-5 December 2015.

‘Pope John Paul II once said that chastity can only be thought of in association with the virtue of love. My hope is that through the presentations I offer, the youth will see how chastity frees them to love and frees them to know if they are being loved,’ Jason told the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Office for Youth. Continue reading →

The Board of Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) has appointed Mr Rob Scenna to take over the position of Chief Executive Officer from Peter Rush who is retiring.

Chairman of the board, Paul Gallagher, made the announcement yesterday evening, 17 August 2015, following a CCI board meeting.

Rob will take up his appointment on 21 September 2015.

From 2001 until 2014, Rob worked in management roles with the ANZ Banking Group, most recently as Managing Director of ANZ Trustees until that business was sold in 2014. Since then, he has been in a private consulting practice. Continue reading →

Pope Francis has a message of challenge and hope for both the Church and the world whether it be addressing pilgrims in St Peter’s Square, meeting presidents and prime ministers when visiting their nation, or washing the feet of prisoners or the disabled on Holy Thursday.

A number of events in Melbourne in September will help people understand this message more deeply and discern what action it calls forth from people of goodwill.

Sponsored by Australian Catholic University, the events will include a Youth Forum (Wednesday 16^th September), a Conference (Thursday 17^th and Friday 18^th) and an evening public forum (Thursday 17^th). People of all faith traditions (and none) are invited to attend. Continue reading →

The thirteenth annual meeting of the Catholic Diocesan Archivists of Australia (CDAA) was recently held in Sydney, hosted by the Archdiocese of Sydney.

The theme for this year’s meeting was ‘Canon Law and Archives’ and the group participated in workshops focusing on Canon Law requirements. They also visited the recently opened Sydney Archdiocesan Archives as part of their two day meeting.

Bishop Terry Brady, Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney, attended this year’s conference.   Continue reading →

Identifying ways that Indigenous spirituality and the Catholic faith compliment each other became the central theme at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC) National Assembly last month.

‘Liturgical inculturation’ was the topic of conversation amongst the 300 delegates from urban and rural Aboriginal communities across Australia.

Centring on the theme, ‘The heart of Jesus beats within us all’, the assembly took place from 2–6 July 2015 at Kormilda College in Darwin.

Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann (AM), Charlie King (OAM), Thelma Parker and Vicki Clark were among the keynote speakers. Miriam has dedicated her life to developing Aboriginal education and art.

Continue reading →