Office For Justice, Ecology and Peace

1970: International Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
2021-03-05 00:00 - 23:59 (Australia/Sydney)

International Day of Unplugging
2021-03-05 00:00 - 23:59
In the USA, the Reboot Network initiated the National Day of Unplugging to encourage people to unplug, unwind, relax and do things other than using digital technology, electronics and social media for twenty four hours beginning at sundown on the first Friday in March. It builds on the Sabbath Manifesto which draws on and adapts the Jewish tradition of the Sabbath.

As Christians in Australia, we can also reflect on the meaning for today’s world of the commandment to keep the Lord’s day holy. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

God’s action is the model for human action. If God ‘rested and was refreshed’ on the seventh day, we too ought to ‘rest’ and should let others, especially the poor, ‘be refreshed’. The sabbath brings everyday work to a halt ad provides a respite. It is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n 2172.

Do we need rest and respite from digital technologies? Might we at times fall into servitude or even worship of social media?

Find out more about the Sabbath Manifesto and the National Day of Unplugging here.

International Women's Day
2021-03-08 00:00 - 23:59
Pope Francis is making small but significant steps towards greater inclusion of women in decision making and leadership roles in the Church. He has amended Canon Law so that women may be officially recognized as exercising the ministries of Lector and Acolyte. And he has appointed a woman as Under-Secretary to the Synod of Bishops – with the right to vote. This is a good day to pay attention to women’s contributions in our local Church too. Here is a list women theologians in Australia and New Zealand 160+ Australian and New Zealander Women in Theology You Should Know About

In 2020 we marked the twentieth anniversary of the Australian Bishops’ response to research on the participation of women in the Catholic Church in Australia. The research results were published as Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus (Harper Collins, 1999) and the Bishops’ Social Justice Sunday Statement for 2000 was titled Woman and Man: the Bishops Respond. In 2019 the Office for Social Justice published a collection of essays marking these anniversaries. Titled Still Listening to the Spirit: Woman and Man Twenty Years Later, the book was a collaboration with the Office for the Participation of Women.

In their foreword to the collection, Archbishop Christopher Prowse and Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen acknowledge:

… twenty years down the track, women are still listening to the Spirit and seeking to engage the whole Church in a conversation about a more fulsome development of the participation of women in the Church, for the sake of us all, and for the sake of the Reign of God. There is unfinished business from the action commitments made by the bishops in 2000. There is also an opportunity to contribute to the communal discernment process of the Plenary Council 2020. This collection of essays enrages creatively with both of these elements of the present moment. Archbishop Christopher Prowse and Bishop Vincent Long, Foreword, Still Listening to the Spirit

Buy Still Listening to the Spirit: Woman and Man Twenty Years Later here. Download the discussion guide for the book here.

2011: Fukushima Earthquake and Tsunami
2021-03-11 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

1913: Founding of Canberra as Australia's captial
2021-03-12 00:00 - 23:59

2013: Election of Pope Francis
2021-03-13 08:00 - 17:00

Harmony Week
2021-03-15 08:00 - 2021-03-21 17:00
Australia celebrates Harmony Week in the days leading up to the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It is a time to celebrate cultural diversity and share the message that everyone belongs.

Find out about Harmony Week events near you here. It is a great time to reflect on chapters 6 and 7 of Fratelli Tutti (On Fraternity and Social Friendship).

“The image of a polyhedron can represent a society where differences coexist, complementing, enriching and reciprocally illuminating one another, even amid disagreements and reservations. Each of us can learn something from others.” Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, n 215.

St Patrick
2021-03-17 00:00 - 23:59

2019: Death of Deacon Boniface Perdjert
2021-03-18 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

National Close the Gap Day
2021-03-18 08:00 - 17:00

1866: Beginning of Sisters of St Joseph at Penola, SA
2021-03-19 00:00 - 23:59

2003: Invasion of Iraq by USA and Allies
2021-03-19 00:00 - 23:59

International Day of Happiness
2021-03-20 00:00 - 23:59

National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence
2021-03-20 00:00 - 23:59
This national day is observed in Australia. Find resources to help you to mark this day here.

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
2021-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

International Day of Forests
2021-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

World Down Syndrome Day
2021-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

World Poetry Day
2021-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

Week of Solidarity with the Peoples Struggling against Racism and Racial Discrimination
2021-03-21 08:00 - 2021-03-22 17:00

World Water Day
2021-03-22 00:00 - 23:59
“The earth’s biodiversity, the functioning of the various biomes and of the atmosphere, the cycles of water and climate remind us of how versatile and fundamental this precious creature of God is.” Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, Acqua Fons Vitae, p 13.

World Water Day has been celebrated since 1993. Now a core focus of the day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030. The theme of World Water Day in 2021 is valuing water.

In Aqua Fons Vitae, the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development point out that as well as an economic value, water has a religious value, socio-cultural and aesthetic value, and even an institutional value and a value for peace. You can access a collection of Church statements, tools and initiatives related Aqua fons vitae here.

For Reflection

How do you value water?

Which of the proposals in Aqua Fons Vitae are the most important for your community?

World Meteorological Day
2021-03-23 00:00 - 23:59

2005: Abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)
2021-03-23 00:00 - 23:59

St Oscar Romero
2021-03-24 00:00 - 23:59

International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims
2021-03-24 00:00 - 23:59

International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing UN Staff Members
2021-03-25 00:00 - 23:59

1877: Death of Caroline Chisholm
2021-03-25 00:00 - 23:59

1967: Populorum Progressio (On the Progress of Peoples) encyclical issued by St Paul VI
2021-03-26 00:00 - 23:59

1975: Biological Weapons Convention
2021-03-26 00:00 - 23:59

Earth Hour
2021-03-28 20:30 - 21:30

1941: Death of William Cooper
2021-03-29 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
