Pope Francis has this month sent a message to Australia’s young people ahead of the Australian Catholic Youth Festival. The Holy Father sent the message assuring youth of his prayers, spiritual closeness and hope that the festival will be an occasion for them to “deepen their relationship with the Lord”. The ACYF is scheduled to commence in Sydney on Thursday 7 November, 2017.

With only a month to go, Sydney is gearing up to play host to more than 18,000 young Catholics from around the nation for the Australian Catholic Youth Festival. If you are over the age of 18, there is still time to register for this amazing event. With Festival numbers nearing capacity, you will need to get online now. Find out more by visiting www.acyf.org.au

St Norbert College students have had their views radically transformed after 12 days in Cambodia as part of an immersion trip.

Students from Ursula Frayne College were last month announced as winners of the Lower Secondary category of the One Minute Film Competition.

Parish Priest Fr Vinh Dong and Deacon Joseph Laundy welcomed more than 350 parishioners for the occasion, which also marked three years since the commencement of the parish, with the proposed new Church building to be named after the former Pontiff and now Saint. By Jamie O’Brien.

The University of Notre Dame Australia has acquired the vacant site next to its Broadway Sydney campus, located in the inner-city suburb of Chippendale, paving the way for strong long-term growth in the national tertiary education sector. Purchased at auction on 2 November, the 520m2 site is located at 142-152 Broadways. Vice Chancellor Professor Celia Hammond, said the acquisition of the site is an exciting step towards expanding UNDA’s presence within Sydney’s premier educational precinct. “The University will develop this site to further its strategic goal of providing students and staff with the highest quality teaching spaces and facilities,” she said.

Directors and representatives from 21 Catholic agencies in the Archdiocese gathered together to build networks, collaborate and find opportunities for partnerships at the Social Outreach Collaborative Meeting which took place on 27 October at the Newman Sienna Centre.
The meeting was a fresh opportunity for the directors to build new networks and opportunities for partnerships.
The event saw CEOs, Directors and representatives from each of the 21 agencies meet and greet each other, whether for the first time or through working together, and present a short video and presentation for six minutes of their story and the good works they do in the Archdiocese. Vicar for Social Outreach, Dr Terry Wilson, said that at the launch of the Archdiocesan Plan in 2015, Archbishop of Perth Timothy Costelloe SDB recognised that many organisations and program existed but stated, ‘I want to strengthen these initiatives, encourage mutual collaboration and support, and also identify areas where the Church could contribute but is not as yet active’. By Natashya Fernandez.

Butchery accompanied by siren-wail screaming, franchise shock value that has long since played out and a rapid descent into self-parody, this is Jigsaw. The eighth, uh, film in the ‘Saw’ series, which is now about seven and a half movies too long – has nothing new to say and far too much about it that’s familiar, most prominently, scenes of intricately choreographed torture and murder. By Kurt Jensen

Pope Francis focused his remarks on the Sunday Gospel reading from St Matthew, in which Jesus tells the Pharisees that the greatest commandments are ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself’. “Jesus lived according to those two commandments. By Catholic News Service

Federal Minister for Social Services, Christian Porter has last week introduced the long-awaited Commonwealth Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual abuse Bill 2017 into the Federal Parliament. Mr Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Catholic Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council, said the Bill is just the start of what is looking to be a long process to get all states, territories and institutions into the scheme.