Redress for abuse victims will stay in the bottom drawer this election

With less than four weeks until polling day the heavy slumber of the electorate is showing signs of lifting.

Opinion polls continue to signal a close result. Nothing new there really. The polls always tighten as election dates close in.

Hip pocket issues begin to surface and politicians expend enormous emotional energy attempting to convince us that they are engaged, down to earth and responsive. Again, nothing new there.

And that’s the point. Disengagement is the problem. People stop listening because they are not listened to. The current craft of narrative manipulation that besets political strategists has become self-defeating. Continue reading →

Bishops Establish New National Centre for Evangelisation

National Centre for EvangelisationA new National Centre for Evangelisation (NCE) is being established by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.  It will bring together the work of the Catholic Enquiry Centre and the National Office for Evangelisation.

The Bishops Commission for Evangelisation made the announcement on Thursday 2 June 2016.

Launching the new Centre, Archbishop Mark Coleridge, Chair of the Bishops Commission for Evangelisation, said that ‘we’re trying to bring the old and the new together in a fresh configuration’.

The priorities of the new National Centre for Evangelisation (NCE) include further developing the work carried out by the Catholic Enquiry Centre and the National Office for Evangelisation.

The Catholic Enquiry Centre (CEC) was founded in 1959 to offer an invitation to all who are not Catholic to learn about and understand the Catholic faith through the promotion of courses and activities that seek to evangelise unbelievers. It will continue to operate within the new National Centre for Evangelisation. Continue reading →

Liturgy of Lament and Hope

D8E_9384_ThumbOn Friday 3 June, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, a Liturgy of Lament and Hope to acknowledge publicly the pain and suffering of those who have been wounded by abuse in the Catholic Church, was held in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, Waitara.

Bishop Peter Comensoli, Bishop of Broken Bay, called upon his brother priests and the Diocesan faith community to join him for this sacred event, with more than 200 braving the wild Sydney weather to come together in prayer.

Opportunities for expressing lament such as this are important – a time at which people can give voice and shape to shared feelings of sadness, regret, and solidarity for what has occurred in our communities, and a time for the Diocese as a family to pray for those who have been wounded and turn towards the Lord with hope for healing. Continue reading →

Australian Prayer for World Youth Day 2016

wyd logo

Leader:

As Australian pilgrims we travel as one people to celebrate
God’s love and mercy at World Youth Day in Krakow.
We pray for our own personal transformation:

All:

God of mercy, transform me,
that my eyes may be merciful,
that I may marvel at the beauty of my neighbour’s heart.

Transform me, O God,
that my ears may be merciful,
that I may be attentive to those in need.

Transform me, O God,
that my tongue may be merciful,
that all I proclaim is in love and peace. Continue reading →

The Amazing Race, World Youth Day Preparations

The Victorian World Youth Day Pilgrimage gathered together in Melbourne on Saturday, May 23 to prepare for the pilgrimage to World Youth Day (WYD) in Krakow, Poland in July 2016.

Around three hundred pilgrims gathered for a day of getting to know each other, formation and prayer as well as the challenge of an Amazing Race! The day began with a Leaders’ Preparation and Formation session, then at 11am all the pilgrims gathered together for the first time. Continue reading →

Amoris Laetitia – An Invitation to Engage

Fr Sean Hall

Fr Sean Hall

“Pope confuses faithful with mixed messages on family life”.

“Conservatives will tut. Liberals will be equally disappointed. The rest of us will wonder why we are still worrying about such nonsense. “Individual conscience”? Yes, mine is telling right now that we don’t need to be listening to old men in fancy robes pontificating any longer.”

These are two quotes from the “I” newspaper. The first was the title given to a brief description of Amoris laetitia the day after its publication (10th April). The second is the closing section of an op-ed piece on the following Monday (12th April) by Stefano Hatfield who identifies himself as an atheist, having been brought up a catholic. The “I” prides itself on being a quality newspaper which gives brief, balanced accounts of news items. So much for the coverage of a “balanced”, “quality” newspaper! The fact that the papal letter was published in the same week as the “Panama Papers” almost certainly meant that it received less coverage than might have been the case in the secular press, but it is also an indication of the lack of wider interest of a church document in this age. Continue reading →

Revamped website for Migrant & Refugee Office

acmro-website[2]The Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office (ACMRO) launched its revamped website this week. 

The website includes a section on asylum seeker policy, a media section and a resources centre. Interested viewers can sign up to receive the ACMRO eNewsletter through the website at www.acmro.catholic.org.au

The upgraded website features a combination of neutral and bright colours with an uncluttered look and feel. If you would like to send the ACMRO feedback about the revamped website, please email: info@acmro.catholic.org.au

It was upgraded to improve the accessibility and responsiveness of the site for users. The new website is faster and easy to navigate. Staff at the ACMRO will update the site on a regular basis with news regarding issues concerning migrants and refugees.

Resources for schools and parishes are readily available on the ACMRO website.

On 28 August 2016, the Church in Australia will celebrate Migrant and Refugee Sunday. A parish kit including a message from Bishop Vincent Long, Delegate for Migrants and Refugees, will be available to download from the ACMRO website.

Setting the Record Straight on School Funding

A report from the Centre for Policy Development released today contains analysis of the Australian education system. National Catholic Education Commission executive director Ross Fox says the report contains flawed analysis and unsubstantiated claims.

Projections on school funding

The report’s authors claim that by 2020, Catholic schools will be receiving higher levels of funding from government sources than government schools. The methodology used to create those so-called projections is seriously flawed and not credible, Mr Fox said.

“The funding projections have been done using historical funding data, a ruler and a pencil,” Mr Fox said.

“When looking at future trends in school funding, it makes no sense to assume that future trends will be identical to past trends. The ‘projections’ in the report ignore the major changes to Commonwealth funding of schools that arose out of the Gonski Review of Funding for Schooling and began in 2014. These arrangements have bipartisan support until 2017.” Continue reading →

A Prayer for the Election

Hands folded in prayer. Instagram effect. Focus on thumbs.

Holy God, at the dawn of time you fashioned the world and set it on its course. In the fullness of time your Son took flesh and sowed the seeds of a new order, and day by day your Spirit works to bring to birth your realm of mercy, justice and peace.

We give you thanks for Australia, the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. In this Spirit we pray for our land and all its people as the nation prepares to elect a new Federal Parliament.

We pray for the women and men who have offered themselves as candidates for public office. May those who are elected set their hearts always on honourable service and the common good.

We pray for the citizens of this much-blessed country, that they may take up their responsibility to vote with wisdom and freedom, and choose what is best for the whole community. Continue reading →

Church communications in a digital environment

Bishop Comensoli

Bishop Peter Comensoli, Bishops Delegate for Media.

There really is something special about Rome. I was recently there (again!) for the Professional Seminar for Church Communications Offices, offered biennially by the University of Santa Croce, who offers a very substantial communications and media academic program.

Like any trip to Rome for a bishop, such occasions also offer the opportunity to ‘do some business’, which I duly did – catching up with friends, having a few meetings on the side, and especially this year, passing through the Holy Door of Mercy at St Peter’s Basilica. Che bella, Roma!

I was attending the Seminar in my capacity as the episcopal delegate on social communications for the Bishops’ Commission for Evangelisation (having recently succeeded Bishop Peter Ingham in the role – from ‘Pete’ to ‘re-Pete’!) My own Comms Director at Broken Bay, Annie Carrett, encouraged me to attend, having herself attended one of the past seminars and found the networking among fellow professionals particularly good. (I should add that Annie wasn’t so happy that I travelled alone!) Continue reading →