A dedicated group of prison chaplains and volunteers carry out vital work inside the walls and fences of Australia’s prisons, as well as helping inmates after they serve their sentences.

Their selfless efforts are often unrecognised. This paper goes behind the prison walls to redress this shortfall in understanding, with a comprehensive review of prison ministry based on interviews with chaplains and volunteers, prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families. Catholic Prison Ministry gives prisoners back some of the dignity they lose when they enter prison and offers them hope and an opportunity for personal reflection accompanied by emotional, spiritual and Sacramental support. Continue reading →

Sr Jane Keogh

It’s an unusual religious community.

Slightly north of Canberra city is the house. It’s not a convent nor is it an apartment block. To most it would look like an ordinary home.

Yet, it’s an interreligious community, and much has happened within its walls.

Asylum seekers have heard the outcome of their cases there. They have learned of their imminent deportation to danger. Others have suffered mental illness as a result of traumatic journeys by sea and having fled persecution.

Hazaras from Afghanistan, Iranians and Sri Lankans have sat around the table, brought together by the well-spoken, passionate, feisty and welcoming Sister Jane Keogh.

Sister Jane will be one of the keynote speakers at the Australian Catholic Communications Congress beginning 4 May 2015 at the Rydges Hotel in North Sydney. She will open up the Congress with a presentation on the theme: “What is our voice?” Continue reading →

Published in The Canberra Times

27 March 2015 

The Treasurer, Joe Hockey, will release a discussion paper on Monday on our future tax system, starting a national conversation on how the government can best collect revenue.

Tax reform has an impact on the daily life of all Australians, which is why it is so important for governments to get it right. Deciding what is right is a moral issue. It involves identifying the relevant values, and finding technical solutions to achieve those values. The social teaching of the Catholic Church does not propose technical solutions to taxation regimes but it does have something worthwhile to say about values.

Continue reading →

“I am disappointed to have been notified by the NSW Police that it has decided to file a charge in respect of this matter.

The suggestion appears to be that I failed to bring to the attention of police a conversation I am alleged to have had in 1976, when I was a junior priest, that a now deceased priest had abused a child.

From the time this was first brought to my attention last year, I have completely denied the allegation. I intend to vigorously defend my innocence through the judicial system and I have retained Senior Counsel, Mr Ian Temby AO, who will represent me in respect of it. Continue reading →

Archbishop Philip Wilson 

Archbishop Philip Wilson is the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Adelaide, a position which he has held since 2001. He is also the Vice President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, a position which he has held since 2012.

Prior to his appointment as Archbishop of Adelaide, Archbishop Wilson was the Bishop of Wollongong from 1996 to 2000 and prior to that was the Vicar General of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. Continue reading →

Chairman of the Bishops Commission for Relations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Bishop Christopher Saunders, has posed the question ‘what choice?’ to Prime Minister Tony Abbott after his comment that Aboriginal peoples are living in remote communities as a ‘lifestyle choice’.

“Where is the lifestyle choice?” Bishop Saunders asked. “Communities are under serviced and patently there is insufficient listening to the voices of people in Aboriginal communities. We are forcing Aboriginal people out of their ancestral lands to live in regional towns. The reality is that when a community is closed down people and their families have nowhere to go, so they end up on the streets, separated from their land, heritage, family, culture and spirituality. Continue reading →

On the eve of the fourth anniversary of the conflict in Syria on March 15, there is a desperate need for the international community to help the almost 12 million people in the country now in need of emergency aid.

President of Caritas Syria, Bishop Antoine Audo, said half of Syria’s inhabitants are now either internally displaced or are refugees.

Continue reading →

New participants in the Fellowship

The Young Catholic Women’s Interfaith Fellowship is the essence of community, 24 year-old Fellowship participant Sally McEniry told the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

‘It’s inspiring in how it brings people together from across Australia into the Church and into a community,’ Sally explained.

Continue reading →

When Karen learnt the skills to manage her money and choose healthy, nutritious food, she paved the way for a better future for her family.

Australia is known as a land of plenty. There is no realistic danger of food shortage, supermarkets compete fiercely for our consumer dollar, and we have access to a mind-boggling array of healthy produce at affordable prices.

But the story is starkly different for First Australians living in rural communities, where low incomes, limited access to nutritious, affordable food, and poor food choices (due to lack of education) are severely compromising the health and well-being of families. Continue reading →

The talents and skills of women have not yet been harnessed, more than 15 years after a ground-breaking report was released on women’s participation in the Church.

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2015, the Office for the Participation of Women has launched an e-book of the ‘Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus’ report, a research project on the participation of Women in the Catholic Church in Australia. Continue reading →