Caritas Australia, the Catholic Church’s international aid and development agency, has thanked thousands of generous supporters, including schools and parishes across Australia. Together they helped to raise a record-breaking $11.57 million nationally during Project Compassion 2015, joining in solidarity with the world’s poor.

Caritas Australia’s major fundraiser is held annually for six weeks during Lent. Money raised will help thousands of vulnerable communities in more than 30 countries globally in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Pacific and Australia.

This year’s theme for Project Compassion was Food for Life and focused on Caritas Australia’s support for the world’s poorest people to establish sustainable food sources for life. Caritas walks with them as they free themselves from the burden of food insecurity and develop new, improved income streams for a better future. Continue reading →

Photo credit: Gerard Williams, Notre Dame University.

Euthanasia is not an incremental change to current end-of-life practices, but a radical and massive shift in our society’s and civilisation’s foundational values, says internationally renowned Australian ethicist, Margaret Somerville.

Dr Somerville, who is a Professor of Law, Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, and Founding Director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, was speaking at the University of Notre Dame (Sydney), as part of a series of public lectures on ethical issues surrounding euthanasia and assisted suicide during her recent visit to Australia.

Her presentation focused on lessons to be learnt from the debate in Canada, where the Supreme Court earlier this year struck down a ban on doctor-assisted suicide for mentally competent Canadian patients with terminal illnesses. Continue reading →

Group registrations are now open for the Australian Catholic Youth Festival being held in Adelaide in December.

With more than 1000 hotel beds already secured in Adelaide for the festival, registrations are expected to run hot over the coming weeks.

The theme of the festival is ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.’ Matthew 5:8. A video promoting the Adelaide festival can be viewed on YouTube.

As well as group registrations opening, organisations can now submit applications to have a stall in the “INcounter” section of the festival. Workshop presenters and performers can also make submissions. Continue reading →

The extraordinary thing about many of the critical reactions to Pope Francis’s environment encyclical is they assert there is an economic and cultural reality we must accept — not one we can ­improve on.

In contrast, the Pope says ­market economics is not the only reality — we can do better.

The Pope supports free enterprise, but not at any cost. A market that is solely profit-driven is one that leaves no room for moral consideration on how we can achieve the common good. There is a sense in which many regard the economy as an ethics-free zone, where self-interest rules and ­market power wins. Continue reading →

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday statement 2015

Governments at the State and Federal levels must become serious about the immense shortage of housing stocks in townships, instead of contemplating how they can make it worse by forcing more people from remote areas into town-zones already suffering from serious deprivations, according to the Bishop of Broome, Christopher Saunders.

In his statement to Catholic parishes across Australia as the Church prepares to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People on Sunday 5 July 2015, Bishop Saunders said, ‘The crime rate in townships is far greater than in remote areas, as is serious drug abuse. Needles are not found lying around in bunches in remote villages as they are in regional townships. Continue reading →

Artist impression of the new purpose-built parish centre and worship space to be built on the site adjacent to St Justin’s Catholic Primary School

Bishop Peter Ingham announced today that the Catholic Diocese of Wollongong has established Australia’s newest Catholic parish in Oran Park. The parish is also the first new territorial parish in the Diocese in over 21 years. The parish will be known as St Mary MacKillop Catholic Parish, named after Australia’s first canonised Saint.

Bishop Peter said: “It is indeed a joyful time for those living in this beautiful part of South West Sydney, one of the fastest growing regions in Australia. Many families are blessed to have lived in this area for years, and now we welcome another pioneering generation as new suburbs are opening all around. The establishment of St Mary MacKillop Catholic Parish reflects the vibrancy of the Diocese and its more than 190,000 Catholics.” Continue reading →

Brianna Sanderson, Year 6 student from Marian Catholic School is interviewed by WIN TV News about the encyclical Laudato Si’.

North Queensland Conservation Council (NQCC) today joins with the Townsville Catholic Diocese and conservationists around the world in celebrating the timely contribution of His Holiness Pope Francis to the crucial debate on our natural environment.

‘Pope Francis, with his innate love for the ‘person in the street’ and apparent sense of humour might well enjoy the spontaneous reaction of one NQCC member to the Pope’s words said NQCC Coordinator Wendy Tubman. ‘The member simply exclaimed ‘The Pope rocks!’

‘The Papal Encyclical released today shows how deeply the Pope has contemplated the crucial issue of climate change and its implications for the environment and all species within it’ Ms Tubman said. Continue reading →

On Thursday 18 June 2015, Pope Francis released an encyclical letter, Laudato Si‘ – Praise be on care for our common home.

Archbishop Denis Hart, President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, provided a response from the Church in Australia at a press conference in the offices of the Archdiocese of Melbourne this morning.

Below you can view the address deliver by Archbishop Hart at the press conference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LdbrMAWE2I&feature=youtu.be

Continue reading →

Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory.
Photo credit: Jim River

His Holiness Pope Francis has challenged ‘every person living on this planet’ to enter into a new dialogue toward building a better future in his encyclical letter Laudato Si’ – ‘Praise be to you’, released today in Rome.

In dialogue with all people about our common home, the encyclical challenges us to ask ‘how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded’ (13).

Pope Francis also drew attention to pressing environmental concerns such as pollution and climate change, and the use of fossil fuels. “Climate change is a global problem with serious implications, environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods; it represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day” (25). The Australian Catholic Bishops have strongly supported this statement. Continue reading →

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference communications office has developed a series of podcasts looking at each chapter of the book Tweet others as you would wish to be tweeted that can be downloaded free from the ACBC website or from iTunes.

The podcasts give an overview of each chapter of the book, discussing its contents with journalists, religious and church workers.

Tweet others as you would wish to be tweeted is a scripture-based guide to social media for the Church, and in a short 80-page paperback gives a rationale for why we should use social media for the greater glory of God. Continue reading →