2011: Fukushima Earthquake and Tsunami
2022-03-11 00:00 - 23:59 (Australia/Sydney)
On this day an earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima Prefecture in Japan killed 18,500 people. Damage to a nuclear power plant in this event caused widespread contamination and the displacement of thousands of people. Reflecting on these events, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan called for the abolition on nuclear power:

We, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan, appeal to all people who share our common home called Earth that we join hands, rise together and act in solidarity to end nuclear power generation. For that purpose, we turn first to the Catholic Church throughout the world, seeking cooperation and solidarity. Then, building on that, we hope to develop a global solidarity that transcends religions, races and nations. Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan

1913: Founding of Canberra as Australia's captial
2022-03-12 00:00 - 23:59

2013: Election of Pope Francis
2022-03-13 08:00 - 17:00

2019: Death of Deacon Boniface Perdjert
2022-03-18 00:00 - 23:59
Deacn Boniface, a respected Elder and the first Aboriginal permanent deacon, passed away in 2019. As the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council’s tribute page for Deacon Boniface says:

His words and actions spoke loudly to the members of the Wadeye Community – of which he was a deeply loved and respected Elder – but also to the Catholic Hierarchy with whom he shared his wisdom on many official occasions. http://www.natsicc.org.au/a-tribute-to-deacon-boniface.html

On the first anniversary of Deacon Boniface’s death we share for your reflection these words that he wrote in the later 1970s:

God did not begin to take an interest in people with the incarnation of his Son, nor with Abraham. My people existed here in Australia thousands of years before Abraham. In all that time God was with my people. He worked through their culture. He was saving us despite human weakness. He was preparing us for the day when he would see the features of Aboriginals in the image of his Son. So i must recognize, I must use the things of God that are in my culture. I mus use them in his service. If I do not do this, my faith and my service are shallow. They are pretending. They belong to someone else, not me. God has asked us t love him with wjhole mind, heart and soul. So i must give myself to God as an Aboriginal. This is what God wants or he would not have made me what I am. http://www.natsicc.org.au/a-tribute-to-deacon-boniface.html

1866: Beginning of Sisters of St Joseph at Penola, SA
2022-03-19 00:00 - 23:59

2003: Invasion of Iraq by USA and Allies
2022-03-19 00:00 - 23:59

2005: Abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)
2022-03-24 00:00 - 23:59

1877: Death of Caroline Chisholm
2022-03-25 00:00 - 23:59

1941: Death of William Cooper
2022-03-29 00:00 - 23:59
William Cooper was an inspirational Aboriginal leader in New South Wales and Victoria in the early part of the 20th century and a founding secretary of the Australian Aborigines’ League. The league was created to lobby state and federal governments on behalf of Aboriginal people. The powerful symbolic gesture of a Day of Mourning on 26 January, along with a petition to the British monarch calling for Aboriginal representation in federal parliament, inspired generations of activists working for justice for Indigenous Australians. National Museum of Australia

1897: Death of Jandamarra
2022-04-01 00:00 - 23:59
Jandamarra was an Aboriginal resistance leader of the Bunuba people in Western Australia. Find our more about his story here.

1997: Bringing Them Home Report published
2022-04-05 00:00 - 23:59
The report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families was published on this day in 1997. Read the Bringing Them Home Report here and access information and teaching resources on the Stolen Generations here.

1963: Pacem in Terris published by Pope John XXIII
2022-04-11 00:00 - 23:59
The encyclical Pacem in Terris is known in English as Peace on Earth. You can read an introduction to the encyclical and find a link to the full text here.

1991: Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Royal Commission Final Report signed
2022-04-15 00:00 - 23:59

1945: First united Nations Conference opens
2022-04-25 00:00 - 23:59

1986: Nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine
2022-04-26 00:00 - 23:59

1998: Death of Shirley 'Mum Shirl' Smith, Aboriginal community leader
2022-04-28 00:00 - 23:59

2016: Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen appointed Bishop of Parramatta
2022-05-05 00:00 - 23:59
Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv is the first Vietnamese born bishop to lead a diocese outside of Vietnam and the first Vietnamese born bishop in Australia. He was born in 1961 in Dong Nai in Vietnam. Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, his family has been dispersed.

In 1984, Vincent Long became a professed Conventual Franciscan friar (OFM Conv) and studied for the priesthood in Melbourne. After his priestly ordination on 30 December in 1989, he was sent to Rome for further studies and was awarded a licentiate in Christology and Spirituality from the Pontifical Faculty of St Bonaventure.

He served as an assistant and then parish priest for seven years in Kellyville within the Diocese of Parramatta and for seven years in Springvale in Victoria before being elected Superior of the Order of Friars Minor Conventuals in Australia in 2005. He served as Assistant General in Rome from 2008 until 2011, responsible for the Asia-Oceania section of his Order.

In 2011, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne in which role he served for nearly five years. On 16 June 2016, Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv was installed as the fourth Bishop of Parramatta at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta.

Find out more about Bishop Vincent here.

1970: First anti-Vietnam War Moratorium march in Australia
2022-05-08 00:00 - 23:59

1997: Wik 'Ten Point Plan' to extinguish native title announced
2022-05-08 00:00 - 23:59

1891: Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of the Working Classes)
2022-05-15 00:00 - 23:59
The Red Vineyard – Vincent Van Gogh

Rerum Novarum was a groundbreaking encyclical from Pope Leo Xlll in 1891 that laid the foundation for modern Catholic Social Teaching. It directly took up the issue of the dignity and rights of workers in a rapidly changing world where industrialisation had created an ever widening gap between the materially rich and the working poor. Rerum Novarum offered a just way forward for employers and workers, naming human rights in every workplace as foundational for a just society. The encyclical emphatically stated that moral virtue was central to authentic Christian life. This includes just work policies and practices:

“…..it is more easy to understand that the true worth and nobility of man lie in his moral qualities, that is, in virtue; that virtue is, moreover, the common inheritance of men, equally within the reach of high and low, rich and poor; and that virtue, and virtue alone, wherever found, will be followed by the rewards of everlasting happiness.” Rerum Novarum #24

To view the Encyclical:

http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html

To find out more about Catholic Social Teaching:

Catholic Social Teaching an Introduction

Prayer for Workers:

Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

Lord God, Master of the Vineyard,How wonderful that you have invited uswho labor by the sweat of our browto be workers in the vineyardand assist your workto shape the world around us.

As we seek to respond to this call,make us attentive to those who seek workbut cannot find it.

Help us listen to the struggles of thosewho work hard to provide for their familiesbut still have trouble making ends meet.

Open our eyes to the struggles of those exploitedand help us speak for just wages and safe conditions,the freedom to organize, and time for renewal.For work was made for humankindand not humankind for work.Let it not be a vehicle for exploitationbut a radiant expression of our human dignity.

Give all who labor listening heartsthat we may pause from our workto receive your gift of rest.

Fill us with your Holy Spiritthat you might work through us to let your justice reign.

Amen.

Copyright © 2019, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. All rights reserved. This text may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration for nonprofit educational use, provided such reprints are not sold and include this notice.

https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/prayers-and-devotions/prayers/dignity-of-work-and-the-rights-of-workers-prayer

Artwork:

The Red Vineyard by Vincent Van Gogh

Music:

God of Day and God of Darkness – Marty Haugen

1931: Pius XI's encyclical Quadragesimo Anno (Reconstruction and the Social Order)
2022-05-15 00:00 - 23:59

1961: John XXIII's encyclical Mater et Magistra (Christianity and Social Progress)
2022-05-15 00:00 - 23:59

2002: Timor-Leste Constitution enters into force
2022-05-20 00:00 - 23:59

National Sorry Day
2022-05-26 00:00 - 23:59
Our Home (2019) – Patrice Muthaymiles-Mahoney OAM (1975 – )

Sorry Day has been observed since 1998, one year after the Bringing Them Home report was presented in the Australian Federal Parliament. This report detailed the impact of the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. Sorry Day offers an opportunity to reflect on the hardship faced when children were taken into institutional and foster care by governments and church agencies and placed with non-Indigenous families. These Stolen Generations suffered greatly from being removed from their loved ones at such an early age, and for many the scars were life-long. However, Sorry Day is also an opportunity to “acknowledge the strength of Stolen Generations Survivors and reflect on how we can all play a part in the healing process for our people and nation.”

Going Deeper

https://www.reconciliation.org.au

Prayer

Almighty and loving God, you who created ALL people in your image.

Lead us to seek your compassion as we listen to the stories of our past. You gave your only Son, Jesus, who died and rose again so that sins will be forgiven.

We place before you the pain and anguish of dispossession of land, language, lore, culture, and family kinship that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have experienced. We live in faith that all people will rise from the depths of despair and hopelessness. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families have endured the pain and loss of loved ones, through the separation of children from their families.

We are sorry and ask God’s forgiveness.

Touch the hearts of the broken, homeless, and inflicted and heal their spirits.

In your mercy and compassion walk with us as we continue our journey of healing to create a future that is just and equitable.

Lord, you are our hope. Amen.

Aboriginal and Islander Commission of the National Council of Churches in Australia, (NATSIEC) 2003.

Artwork

Our Home (2019) by Patrice Muthaymiles-Mahoney OAM (1975 – )

Music

Took the Children Away by Archie Roach.

Took The Children Away – Archie Roach

1997: Bringing Them Home Report tabled in Parliament
2022-05-26 00:00 - 23:59

2017: Uluru Statement from the Heart made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders
2022-05-26 00:00 - 23:59
People talking to Jesus in the Bough Shed (1995) – Queenie McKenzie

For Reflection

The Uluru Statement was issued in May 2017 on the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Australian referendum. In 1967, Australians voted to amend the Australian Constitution, allowing the Commonwealth to make laws for Aboriginal people and to include them in the census. 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders have endorsed the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart after an exhaustive and comprehensive two-year consultation process around Australia that was designed and led by Aboriginal people. Targeted structural change is called for through the Statement by establishing an ongoing First Nations Voice to Parliament, and a Makarrata Commission ‘to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history’. In 1967, Aboriginal people were counted as citizens of their own nation. Today, they seek to be fully heard, to walk with others, and to build a better future for all Australians.

Read the Statement here.

Prayer for Reconciliation

God of all creation,as we journey together in this Great Southern Land,we pray for healing, forgiveness and unity,creating a path of good will, with justice and compassion.

Jesus, through the power of your love,you have given us the courage, wisdom and strengthto share our gifts and talents in humility.

In peace and understanding we reconcile with each other.

Creator Spirit, we come together in prayer and thanksgivingfor the many blessings we have received.Allow your Spirit to wash over us and give us strength to walk together as one.

Amen

Aboriginal Elder women and Reconciliation Church staff members, 2014.

Music

Voice, Treaty, Truth, Now by Felix Riebl and Ollie McGillsung by Spinifex Gum and Marliya Choirs

2005: Death of Fr Ted Kennedy
2022-05-27 00:00 - 23:59

1967: Referendum allows the Commonwealth to make laws for Aboriginal people and count them in the census
2022-05-27 00:00 - 23:59

2000: 250,000 people walk for reconciliation in Sydney
2022-05-28 00:00 - 23:59

1992: Launch of the Torres Strait Islander Flag
2022-05-29 00:00 - 23:59
