St Peter Chanel was a Marist priest and the first martyr of the South Pacific. Read more about his life here. Prayer to St Peter Chanel You left your homelandto proclaim Jesus, Saviour of the world,to the peoples of Oceania. Guided by the Spirit of God,who is the strength of the gentle,you bore witness to… Read More »1841: Death of St Peter Chanel in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
Resources including a video, the full text of Bishop Long's Pastoral Message for the Feast of St Joseph the Worker 2020, and graphics are available here. Did you know that for over twenty years now the Catholic Church in Australia has marked the Feast of St Joseph the Worker with a pastoral letter? These letters… Read More »St Joseph the Worker
In the 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus (The Hundredth Year), Pope John Paul II affirmed the groundbreaking encyclical Rerum Novarum from Pope Leo Xlll in 1891 where the fundamental rights and dignity of workers and work were clearly stated. It addressed any ongoing perceived conflict between the provision of capital and labour, acknowledging work as central to vocation, with a key social dimension that relates directly to the common good
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… Read More »2016: Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen appointed Bishop of Parramatta
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.
Mary Help of Christians is the Patroness of Australia.The feast focusses on Mary’s help to those in need through her intercession to confront sin and to stand against anti-Christian forces.
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… Read More »National Sorry Day