Office For Justice, Ecology and Peace

St Francis de Sales
2023-01-24 00:00 - 23:59 (Australia/Sydney)
St Francis de Sales is the patron saint of journalists.

Fake news is not new as Dr Margaret van Heekeren noted at the launch of the Social Justice Statement 2019-20.

‘A week after Easter, 85 years ago in 1934, the then Pope, Pius XI, gave an historic audience to all foreign press correspondents in Rome – about 73 journalists, responsible for providing news from the Vatican to more than 5,000 newspapers around the world. Described as an ‘innovation’ by the London Times, the papal audience can also be regarded as a political move. As historical research reveals, the Vatican had, by this time, long been the subject of fake news, much of it shared on wire services around the globe. Throughout the early 1900s fake stories included a proposal to edit the Bible, the false report of a petition by French priests calling for their vow of celibacy to be dispensed and even an invented interview with Pope Pius X.’ Margaret van Heekeren, Launch of the Social Justice Statement 2019-20.

1959 Pope John XXIII announces intention to convoke the Second Vatican Council
2023-01-25 00:00 - 23:59

World Interfaith Harmony Week
2023-02-01 08:00 - 2023-02-07 17:00

Word of God Sunday
2023-02-05 08:00 - 17:00
The Word of God Sunday is devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the Word of God. We will celebrate it in Australia for the first time on 7 February. So our podcast, The Revolution of Tenderness, will consider the Word of God in Catholic Social Teaching. With help from Scripture scholars, we will explore passages of Scripture that are quoted in Catholic Social Teaching documents.

Episode 1 features Professor Mary Coloe.

St Paul Miki & Companions
2023-02-06 00:00 - 23:59

St Josephine Bakhita
2023-02-08 00:00 - 23:59
St Josephine Bakhita was kidnapped as a child and sold into slavery. Her feast day is now observed as the International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking. The video below outlines her story.

Download Resources

The Diocese of Parramatta, which includes a significant Sudanese community, has prepared a range of resources for the celebration of the feast of St Josephine Bakhita. They include a poster, social media tile, bulletin notice, homily notes and prayers of the faithful. Catholics in the Diocese of Parramatta are encouraged on this day to pray for all those affected by the crimes of modern slavery and human trafficking, and the people that volunteer and work to eradicate this crime. Join them by downloading resources here.

The following prayer was prepared by Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans.

Prayer for All Who are Trafficked

We pray for all who are trafficked. We ask, Lord, that you strengthen the fragile-spiritedand broken-hearted.We pray earnestly that all who suffer the loss of freedomand the indignity of being used to serve the need and greed of otherswill be freed and find freedom in a home where they are respected.Let them experience a love that is tender and good. We pray for all who exploit others,that their evil deeds will be exposedand that their hearts will be changed.We pray for ourselves, who live in safety and peacewith more than we needand for all who work against trafficking in humans:give us the wisdom and courageto stand in solidarity with all who suffer lack of human dignity.Help all who work against human trafficking to find waysto ensure for all the freedom that is your gift to all of us.We make our prayer through Christ Our Lord.Amen. https://acrath.org.au/prayer-for-anti-trafficking-advocates/

World Day of Prayer for the Sick
2023-02-11 00:00 - 23:59
Prayer Card from Catholic Health AustraliaDownload

The World Day of Prayer for the Sick was initiated by St John Paul II in 1992. It coincides with the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Pope Francis’ messages for the World Day of the Sick can be found here.

Catholic trivia: did you know that Pope Benedict XVI announced his decision to resign as Pope on this day in 2013 citing his failing health as the reason?

1979: Redemptor Hominis (Redeemer of Man) encyclical issued by St John Paul II
2023-03-04 00:00 - 23:59

2011: Fukushima Earthquake and Tsunami
2023-03-11 00:00 - 23:59
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

2013: Election of Pope Francis
2023-03-13 08:00 - 17:00

St Patrick
2023-03-17 00:00 - 23:59

2019: Death of Deacon Boniface Perdjert
2023-03-18 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
2023-03-19 00:00 - 23:59

St Oscar Romero
2023-03-24 00:00 - 23:59

1967: Populorum Progressio (On the Progress of Peoples) encyclical issued by St Paul VI
2023-03-26 00:00 - 23:59

St Isidore, patron saint of the internet
2023-04-04 00:00 - 23:59
In 1997 Pope John Paul II declared Isidore of Seville the patron saint of the internet. Isidore was a scholar with encyclopedic knowledge. In his writings he sought to collect, systematize and synthesize all existing knowledge.

Speaking at a General Audience on 18 June 2008, Pope Benedict XVI, highlighted how Isidore combined contemplation and action. He went on to quote Isidore:

Therefore let the servant of God, imitating Christ, dedicate himself to contemplation without denying himself active life. Behaving otherwise would not be right. Indeed, just as we must love God in contemplation, so we must love our neighbour with action. It is therefore impossible to live without the presence of both the one and the other form of life, nor can we live without experiencing both the one and the other. http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080618.html

Prayer Seeking the Intercession of St Isidore

Almighty and eternal Godwho has created us in thine imageand bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful,especially in the divine person of Thy only-begotten Son,Our Lord Jesus Christ,grant we beseech Thee that through the intercession of St Isidore, bishop and doctor,during our journeys through the internetwe will direct our hand and eyesonly to that which is pleasing to Theeand treat with charity and patience all those soulswhom we encounter.Father, we ask you this, through Christ Our Lord.Amen

1963: Pacem in Terris published by Pope John XXIII
2023-04-11 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.

1841: Death of St Peter Chanel in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
2023-04-28 00:00 - 23:59
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 love,even laying down your life.Grant that, like you,we may live our daily life in peace, in joy,and in fraternal love.May your prayer and examplecall forth from our midstmany workers for the Gospelso that God’s Kingdom may reachto the ends of the earth.Amen.

St Joseph the Worker
2023-05-01 00:00 - 23:59
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 place Catholic Social Teaching in dialogue with current work issues in Australia, making a uniquely Australian contribution to the Church’s teachings on work. Initiated and created by laity and bishops together – they come from and belong to the whole church. Bishop Terry Brady, Pastoral Letter for the Feast of St Joseph the Worker, 2019.

On 1 May the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St Joseph the Worker. The pastoral letters of the Australian Catholic Bishops for this occasion have addressed unemployment, underemployment, insecure and casualised work, the meaning of work, the quest for decent work and much more. Find out more here.

1991: Centesimus Annus (The Hundredth Year) Encyclical issued by Pope John Paul II
2023-05-01 00:00 - 23:59
The Red Vineyard – Vincent Van Gogh

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:

“Work thus belongs to the vocation of every person; indeed, man expresses and fulfils himself by working. At the same time, work has a “social” dimension through its intimate relationship not only to the family, but also to the common good, since “it may truly be said that it is only by the labour of working-men that States grow rich.” Centesimus Annus, #6

Employers were also challenged again to provide a living wage and humane conditions for their workers as foundational conditions of just employment:

“A workman’s wages should be sufficient to enable him to support himself, his wife and his children. “If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accepts harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice.” (CA, #8).

Both Rerum Novarum and Centesimo Annos continue to speak powerfully today in regard to human dignity, especially for workers and their families. Just work policies and practices are part of God’s work in and for our world.

To read more about Centesimus Annos: http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_01051991_centesimus-annus.html

2016: Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen appointed Bishop of Parramatta
2023-05-05 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.

1971: Paul VI's Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens (A Call to Action)
2023-05-14 00:00 - 23:59

1891: Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of the Working Classes)
2023-05-15 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)
2023-05-15 00:00 - 23:59

1961: John XXIII's encyclical Mater et Magistra (Christianity and Social Progress)
2023-05-15 00:00 - 23:59

2015: Pope Francis' Encyclical Laudato Si' (On Care for our Common Home)
2023-05-24 00:00 - 23:59

Mary Help of Christians, Patron of Australia
2023-05-24 00:00 - 23:59

National Sorry Day
2023-05-26 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

2005: Death of Fr Ted Kennedy
2023-05-27 00:00 - 23:59

World Youth Day
2023-08-01 00:00 - 2023-08-06 23:59
World Youth Day is celebrated every year in local churches and every two or three years at the international level. It is now celebrated at a Diocese level on Christ the King. Lisbon, Portugal will host the next international gathering for World Youth Day in 2023.
