Ministers to seafarers celebrate their pastoral efforts

Stella Maris delegates from Australia and New Zealand at the recent regional conference in Sydney.

Dozens of people who minister to seafarers on behalf of the Catholic and Anglican churches gathered in Sydney recently for the Oceania regional conference of Stella Maris and Mission to Seafarers.

More than 60 people were at Mary MacKillop Place for the event, which allowed managers, chaplains and ship visitors from Australia and New Zealand to meet in person for the first time since the pandemic began.

Continue reading →

Australian bishops back local Advent appeal for Ukrainian people

The country’s bishops are encouraging Catholics to respond to the call from the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Australia to provide financial support to people in the war-torn nation as winter arrives.

Bishop Mykola Bychok CSsR gave an update on the situation in Ukraine during the plenary meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference earlier this month. He thanked the bishops for praying – and inviting their communities to pray – for Ukraine, and asked them to renew those prayers.

Continue reading →

Church renews focus on domestic and family violence

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s statement on domestic and family violence will be a focus for an online event next week to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The bishops’ annual social justice statement for 2022-23, titled Respect: Confronting Violence and Abuse, was published in August.

Continue reading →

Bishops formally approve Plenary Council acts, decrees

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe presents the acts and decrees of the Plenary Council to Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Charles Balvo.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has formally approved the acts and decrees of the Fifth Plenary Council, which will now be sent to the Apostolic See for review.

The documents, which comprise five volumes across hundreds of pages, were received at the Bishops Conference’s plenary meeting last week.

Continue reading →

Bishops Conference publishes its 2021 annual report

Former president Archbishop Mark Coleridge says the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s second annual report is “much more than a company report or a bureaucratic manifesto”.

The report, which has now been published online, covers the 2021 calendar year. It outlines some of the key works of the Bishops Conference, its commissions, agencies and offices during the year.

Continue reading →

Prison chaplains are ‘eyes, ears and hands of Christ’

Bishop Tim Norton SVD has described prison chaplains as “the eyes, ears and hands of Christ in a contained world that has very limited signs of love and care”.

Bishop Norton, the Bishop Delegate for Prisoners’ Pastoral Care, addressed an online gathering of Catholic prison chaplains from across Australia this week in anticipation of Prison Sunday, which will be marked on November 6 this year.

Continue reading →

Groups invited to prepare for next Synod of Bishops phase

The National Centre for Pastoral Research is inviting groups of seven to 10 people to express their interest in participating in the next round of consultation for the global Synod of Bishops on Synodality.

The Document for the Continental Stage, which is drawing content provided in national syntheses from around the world, as well as contributions from Eastern Churches, religious institutes, lay movements and other groups, is due to be published soon.

Continue reading →