Those who attended a Christmas Mass service in Australia last month have been encouraged to make a submission to the Plenary Council 2020. Photo: Ron Tan. From Australian Catholic Bishops Conference The Christmas season was targeted as an opportune time to increase participation in Plenary Council 2020 in parishes nationwide. Within the first six months of the Council’s Listening a...

Trained midwife Monika cradles Lima’s healthy baby, Jyoti. Photo: Supplied. A baby’s first breath, the softness of their skin, the first time they open their eyes – these moments are precious and for a mother they bring a new purpose: to protect the child that rests in her arms. But childbirth does not always end in joy. According to the latest UN estimates, more than 300,000 women ea...

Catholic Religious Australia President Sr Monica Cavanagh RSJ pictured with Australian Catholic Bishops Conference President Archbishop Mark Coleridge. Photo: Supplied. The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia have submitted a joint report to the National Office for Child Safety (NOCS) on the Catholic Church’s implementation of the recommendations of the R...

Archbishop Peter Comensoli believes there is a misrepresentation of the position of Catholic and other faith-based schools. Photo: Supplied. Archbishop Peter Comensoli, the Bishop delegate for religious freedom, has backed the Senate’s decision to allow more time to debate complex amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act. The Archbishop of Melbourne released a statement on 3 December thro...

Former Adelaide Archbishop Philip Edward Wilson is a free man after winning an appeal against his conviction for covering up child sexual abuse. Photo: Supplied. Former Adelaide Archbishop Philip Edward Wilson is a free man after winning an appeal against his conviction for covering up child sexual abuse. But amid fury from abuse victims and their families, the NSW Government this week or...

CSSA Executive Officer Fr Brank Brennan SJ. Photo: Supplied. Intergenerational welfare dependency cannot be addressed without first fixing factors affecting entrenched disadvantage, according to the Church’s peak national bodies for social services. Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA) and Jesuit Social Services, along with Catholic Care Wilcannia-Forbes, are set to appear before...

Dr Maeve Heaney, Director of the Xavier Centre for Theological Formation. Photo: Supplied. The Xavier Centre for Theological Formation will host a panel forum on “Women and Leadership in the Church”, celebrating the launch of the second book of Catholic Women Speak titled Visions and Vocations. The forum will be held at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) Leadership Centre in Brisban...

Retiring Melbourne Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott says he kept Mother Teresa’s exhortation to new bishops in his heart during his 11 years of episcopal ministry. Photo: Supplied. Bishop Peter Elliott says he kept Mother Teresa’s exhortation to new bishops – that they be “happy bishops” – front of mind and in his heart during his 11 years of episcopal ministry in Melbourne Archdiocese. Pop...

Pope Francis gives his blessing to a young man during Prison Sunday celebrations. Photo: ACBC Inspired by the Catholic Church’s Year of Youth in Australia, the focus of Prison Sunday on November 11 will be youth justice and juvenile detention. Prison Sunday commenced in 2016, during the Year of Mercy, as an initiative of Pope Francis to observe the Jubilee for Prisoners. “We need to no...

A job well done for Peter Gates and Andrea Dean at the symposium in Rome. Photo: Supplied. The training and formation of lay missionaries of the Church at all levels was high on the list of priorities for a recent international symposium in Rome. Australian representatives attended the symposium on behalf of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. The symposium, themed “Promotion a...