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 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
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
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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.
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
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
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
Bishop Columba Macbeth-Green osppe
In less than seven weeks, Bishop Columba Macbeth-Green osppe will lead a pilgrimage to Poland with forty young adults from his Diocese of Wilcannia-Forbes.
The youth of Wilcannia-Forbes diocese will visit religiously significant sites throughout Poland including the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, looked after by the Order of Saint Paul of the First Hermit.
‘I am really excited about the prospect of leading a World Youth Day Pilgrimage to Poland,’ Bishop Macbeth-Green told the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference recently. ‘I have never been to a World Youth Day and it is something I always wanted to do.’
Bishop Macbeth-Green is one of 19 Australian bishops travelling to World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland from 25 – 31 July 2016.
‘Being a Bishop of an “outback diocese”, I am looking forward to taking my young people to experience the profound faith of the Polish people and to have their own faith strengthened and encouraged by the witness of so many other young people with the same faith in Jesus, lived vibrantly.’ Continue reading
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference congratulates the Archdiocese of Chicago on its announcement on 19 May that it will offer its employees 12 weeks paid parental leave.
Since 23 September 2008, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has been offering its staff 14 weeks of paid parental leave. A key policy of the Church is supporting parents and creating a family friendly workplace.
In addition to any employer funded parental leave, Australia’s government paid parental leave scheme offers up to 18 weeks of parental leave paid at the national minimum wage.
The Archdiocese of Chicago is innovative in its entitlements given the fact that the United States government considers parental leave to be a benefit that an employer may or may not offer to its employees. Continue reading
Fr Shane Mackinlay, Master of CTC and Archbishop Mark Coleridge, Vice-President of ACBC. Photo: Peter Byrne, Archdiocese of Melbourne.
From the time of his election, Pope Francis’ presence has invited the Church to move on in ways we didn’t quite see coming, Archbishop Mark Coleridge said as he delivered the Knox Public Lecture in Melbourne on 16 May 2016.
Hosted by the Catholic Theological College (CTC), a college of the University of Divinity, the Knox Public Lecture is given annually to honour the founder of CTC, James Robert Cardinal Knox, the fifth Archbishop of Melbourne.
‘This became still clearer when not long after his election he decided to convene not one but two Synods of Bishops on the theme of marriage and the family. We’d been having Synods for almost fifty years since the Council, but we’d never had two Synods twelve months apart like this. Continue reading