The issue of Conversion in the Agenda of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia invites Members to think about how we might better accompany one another on the journey of personal and communal conversion which mission in Australia requires.

The 2021 World Mission Month was launched with a digital campaign, connecting mission partners from around the world. The campaign sheds light on the dedication of missionaries to serving people in places where poverty and disadvantage compound the devastating impact of COVID-19.

In this special report, Paul Cleary writes about Mercy Sisters Bernadette Kennedy and Bernadine Daly, who answered a call to work with Aboriginal people in the late 70’s in the mid-west WA town of Roebourne.

The United States House of Representatives have last week passed what opponents consider one of the most extreme abortion bills ever seen in the nation – the Women’s Health Protection Act. The measures of the Bill establish the legal right to abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy in all 50 states under federal law.

What does formation mean? What is it and how do we get it?
Is it merely through catechesis? Is it by committing the principles of the faith to memory by rote?
According to Centre of Faith Enrichment lecturer Natalie Thomas, formation is about much more. It is about learning to understand the God in whom we trust and what it means to be a follower of Christ. Nathan Hondros reports for The Record ahead of the First Assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia.

The Catholic Church has welcomed Australian Government support for international efforts to amend intellectual property rights to ensure more people can access life-saving COVID-19 vaccines.

After a mysterious intruder murders her abusive husband (Jake Abel) and attacks her, causing the latest in a series of miscarriages she has suffered, a troubled woman (Annabelle Wallis) inexplicably begins to witness other slayings by the same killer, being somehow transported, by means she can’t figure out, in a paralyzed trance state to the scene of each crime.

The upcoming Syod of Bishops, opened by Pope Francis at the Vatican 9 to 10, and the bishop of every diocese should open the process in his diocese 17 October – will focus on listening to and consulting the people of God. Pope Francis said that as the bishop, it was important he explain how the synodal process should work and why.

Some of the country’s leading Catholic thinkers have been engaged to support the members of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia when they gather for the First General Assembly early next month.

Fr Gordon, who will participate in the upcoming First Assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia in his capacity as Vicar General for the Cairns Diocese, was five years old at the time of the last Plenary Council.