Bishops publish response to Church governance review report

A review of governance will help shape the way the Catholic Church in Australia understands co-responsibility in its life and mission and puts it into practice, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has said.

The Australia bishops reviewed and discussed the final version of the governance review report The Light from the Southern Cross: Co-Responsible Governance in the Catholic Church in Australia during their recent plenary meeting.

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New national Catholic safeguarding agency established

The Catholic Church has established a new company to oversee all safeguarding, child protection and professional standards in Australia, creating a more focused and streamlined model.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Catholic Religious Australia (CRA) and the Association of Ministerial PJPs (AMPJP) have today launched Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited.

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Plenary Council assembly mixes in-person, online format

The first assembly of the Plenary Council will take place with a combination of online and face-to-face participation as uncertainty remains over restrictions on travel and gatherings.

The decision to hold the October 2021 assembly in a “multi-modal” format was reached last week based on feedback from a number of groups, including the steering committee for the Council assemblies, the Plenary Council’s facilitation team and risk assessors.

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Pope appoints apostolic administrator for Broome

Pope Francis has appointed Broome vicar general Msgr Paul Boyers the apostolic administrator of the northern Western Australian diocese, the Holy See announced on Saturday evening.

Msgr Boyers has been overseeing administrative matters in the Diocese of Broome since March, when Bishop Christopher Saunders voluntarily stood aside. Bishop Peter Ingham, the former Bishop of Wollongong, carried out an apostolic visitation of the diocese in the subsequent months.

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Bishops set for second virtual plenary meeting

Australia’s Catholic bishops will tomorrow open their second plenary meeting of the year under COVID-19 restrictions, with almost 40 bishops and other senior Church figures to gather online.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference holds biannual plenary meetings each May and November. The May meeting this year was moved online – the first time such a gathering had not been held in person in the Conference’s 54-year history.

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Church: Profit-driven culture leads to exploitation

Fr Maurizio Pettena giving evidence to the Senate Select Committee on Temporary Migration

An obsession with profits that ignores the rights of workers must be scrutinised and eliminated to protect vulnerable people, a Catholic expert in migration has told the Australian Parliament.

Fr Maurizio Pettenà CS, the director of the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office, appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Temporary Migration this week. His evidence followed an Australian Catholic Bishops Conference submission to that group earlier this year.

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Archbishop: Advisers helped shape Plenary Council journey

Members of the Plenary Council executive committee during a 2018 meeting in Melbourne with members of the Facilitation Team and Archbishops Mark Coleridge and Timothy Costelloe SDB

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB says the executive committee that has helped guide the Plenary Council journey to this point has set the Council up to be a source of renewal for the Church.

Writing to the members of the executive committee earlier this week in his capacity as Plenary Council president, Archbishop Costelloe thanked the group for their time, their energy and their belief in the Council process.

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Carers should be celebrated as ‘our unsung heroes’

As the country marks National Carers Week, parishes and other Catholic communities are being encouraged to acknowledge and celebrate the role of those who provide unpaid support to people in need.

According to data from 2015, 2.7 million Australians were unpaid carers, offering support to family members and friends who have a disability, mental illness, chronic condition, terminal illness, an alcohol or other drug issue or who are frail aged.

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