International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda
2021-04-07 00:00 - 23:59 (Australia/Sydney)
Ubumuntu (kindness, humanity, greatness of heart), from the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda Artist: Unknown.

For Reflection

The Rwandan Genocide in 1994 saw over 800,000 Rwandans, mainly from the Tutsi minority, massacred by the Hutu ethnic majority in three months. Over two million Hutu’s later fled the country, fearing revenge attacks. Fr Marcel Uwineza SJ, a survivor of the genocide, calls these horrific events in his home country an “intimate genocide……It was not an invasion by an outside country, but an intensive, systematic killing of Rwandans by Rwandans.”

Dehumanisation of people because of their ethnicity, and imbalances of power that illegitimately privilege one group of people over another, have contributed to atrocities throughout history. As Christians, we are called to break this cycle of violence. We honour the dignity of every human person, no matter their ethnicity, religion, or difference to us. Jesus offers clear teaching in Matthew 22: 34-40 on how to move forward in peace:

“’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
This is the greatest and first commandment.
And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Marcel Uwineza SJ’s journey of healing and forgiveness: “To remember is to act so that those criminal activities never happen again. So, to remember is to do justice.”

Prayer

Pope Francis’ Prayer for Peace

Music

Will You Be My Protector? by The Good Ones

Will You Be My Protector? by The Good Ones

World Health Day
2021-04-07 00:00 - 23:59
Christ the Healer Icon by Christine Hales https://americanassociationoficonographers.com/2017/10/30/feed-my-sheep/christ-the-healer-icon-details-064/

For Reflection

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

Christ came to bring life in body, mind, and spirit to all people in their daily lives. Since 1950, every April 7 the World Health Organisation highlights a specific health area of concern. In 2021, the focus of the WHO is on building a fairer, healthier world: “…we are calling on leaders to ensure that everyone has living and working conditions that are conducive to good health.“

Christ challenges us to offer abundant life through ensuring people can access and experience secure employment, housing, education, gender equality, a safe environment, clean water and air, nourishing food, and quality health services. As Christians, we uphold and actively support the conditions that allow all in our human family to flourish.

Prayer for A Fairer, Healthier World

(adapted from the 2021 Social Justice Statement Prayer)

Jesus, you invite us all into the fullness of life.May we support one another to flourish in body, mind and spirit.Strengthen our commitment to ensure that nobodyfalls through gaps in our systems of care.

Help us to recognise youin those who suffer ill-health today.Show us how to eliminate inequality in our health systems, and in our world.

You drew near to thosewho were suffering in body or mind.May we too feel your nearnesswhen we struggle with health challenges.May we be one as members of Your Body.

You invite us to share in your ministryof love and true compassion.May we be empowered by your Spiritto reach out to all people in need.May we build communities of welcome and inclusion. Amen.

Music

By Our Love by Tom Kendzia

1963: Pacem in Terris published by Pope John XXIII
2021-04-11 00:00 - 23:59
The encyclical Pacem in Terris is known in English as Peace on Earth. It was published in 1963 in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis. You can read an introduction to the encyclical and find a link to the full text here.

Pacem in Terris focuses on issues of peace in a nuclear age. It revisits the application of the just war theory criteria in the light of the development of these new weapons of mass destruction. It examines the relationships among human beings, relationships between citizens and public authorities, relationships between states, and finally, relationships among the people and states in the international community. It sets out rights and duties in all of these areas. While Pope Pius XII was so disappointed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that he passed it over in silence, John XXIII welcomed and affirmed a broad range of human rights in this encyclical. It was seen as a Catholic charter of human rights. Sandie Cornish, Introduction to Pacem in Terris.

Prayer

Jesus, Prince of Peace,
banish from our souls
whatever might endanger peace.

Transform us into witnesses
of truth, justice and love.

Enlighten the minds of rulers
that they may care for their peoples
and guarantee them the gift of peace.

Inflame our desires
to break through the barriers that divide us,
to strengthen the bonds of mutual love,
to learn to understand one another,
to pardon those who have done us wrong.

Jesus, Prince of Peace,
through your power and inspiration,
may all peoples welcome each other to their hearts
as sisters and brothers.
And may the peace they long for
ever flower and ever reign among them.

AMEN

An Advent Prayer for Peace, by Sandie Cornish, adapted from Pacem in Terris n 171

1991: Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Royal Commission Final Report signed
2021-04-15 00:00 - 23:59
13th Station: Jesus’ Body is Taken Down from the Cross by Dr Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann AO

For Reflection

“… and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8: 32

The 1991 Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Royal Commission Final Report was a painful and key step in the process of radical truth telling in regard to the treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia, especially when in police custody. There were over 300 recommendation from this report, and many are still to be implemented. 434 Indigenous people have died in custody since 1991. There is still much listening and work to do to achieve real justice for all Australians.

From the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart:

“Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future. These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness. We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.” From the Uluru Statement from the Heart, 2017

Prayer

Reconciliation Prayer

Holy Father, God of Love,
You are the Creator of all things.
We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history
and the sufferings of Our peoples,
and we ask your forgiveness.
We thank you for the survival of Indigenous cultures.

Our hope is in you because you gave your Son Jesus
to reconcile the world to you.
We pray for your strength and grace to forgive, accept and love one another,
as you love us and forgive and accept us in the sacrifice of your Son.

Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history
so that we may build a better future for our Nation.

Teach us to respect all cultures.
Teach us to care for our land and waters.
Help us to share justly the resources of this land.
Help us to bring about spiritual and social change to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities, especially the disadvantaged.
Help young people to find true dignity and self-esteem by your Spirit.

May your power and love be the foundations on which we build our families,
our communities and our Nation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

From the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council, Wontulp Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group 13 March 1997 Brisbane, Qld.

Music

First Nation (2020) by Midnight Oil from The Makarrata Project

International Mother Earth Day
2021-04-22 00:00 - 23:59
Tree of Life – Mieke Boynton

Mother Earth is a common expression for the planet earth in a number of countries and regions, which reflects the interdependence that exists among human beings, other living species and the planet we all inhabit. Resolution establishing Mother Earth Day adopted by the General Assembly on 22 April 2009

The United Nations designated this day in 2009. It was already celebrated in a number of different countries prior to this. You can find a range of related resources for the celebration of this day here.

Artwork:

Tree of Life – Mieke Boynton

Music:

Tend the Ground – Curtis Stephan

Tend the Ground – Curtis Stephan

World Book and Copyright Day
2021-04-23 00:00 - 23:59
Did you know that this date was chosen by the United Nations because it was on this date in 1616 that Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Inc Garcilaso de la Vega died?

Read the UNESCO resolution proclaiming the day here.

Access resources for celebrating the day here.

1945: First united Nations Conference opens
2021-04-25 00:00 - 23:59

1986: Nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine
2021-04-26 00:00 - 23:59

World Day for Health and Safety at Work
2021-04-28 00:00 - 23:59
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) began to celebrate this day in 2003 however the trade union movement internationally has marked this day as the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers since 1996. This celebration is an integral part of the Global Strategy on Occupational Safety and Health of the ILO.

As part of the 2020 World Day for safety and health at work campaign, the ILO will produce a global report, highlighting how a comprehensive OSH [occupational safety and health] framework at both national and workplace level could address violence and harassment in the world of work. This includes for example incorporating provisions related to violence and harassment into OSH laws, regulations and collective agreements and developing specific standards, code of practices and guidelines to support the implementation of programmes and preventive measures in the workplaces. At the workplace level, sound OSH management systems can include the assessment and control of psychosocial risks including the interplay with violence and harassment. ILO, World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2020 – Violence and Harassment in the World of Work

1841: Death of St Peter Chanel in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
2021-04-28 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.

1998: Death of Shirley 'Mum Shirl' Smith, Aboriginal community leader
2021-04-28 00:00 - 23:59

St Joseph the Worker
2021-05-01 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.

International Workers Day
2021-05-01 00:00 - 23:59

1991: Centesimus Annus (The Hundredth Year) Encyclical issued by Pope John Paul II
2021-05-01 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

World Press Freedom Day
2021-05-03 00:00 - 23:59

1990: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission established
2021-05-03 00:00 - 23:59

2016: Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen appointed Bishop of Parramatta
2021-05-05 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.

1992: Introduction of mandatory detention of asylum seekers in Australia
2021-05-06 00:00 - 23:59

World Password Day
2021-05-06 00:00 - 23:59
In his 2005 book Perfect Passwords, security researcher Mark Burnett encourages people to have a ‘password day’ when thy would update important passwords. Intel Security took up the idea in May 2013 and promoted World Password Day. The day is intended to create awareness of the need for good password security and it is observed on the first Thursday of May.

Here are some activities for marking World Password Day:

change your passwords – tips for creating strong passwords can be found herelayer up and implement multi-factor authentication for your important accounts – learn about layered security herelearn about using password managersmake sure your family and friends understand what makes a strong password.

World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day
2021-05-08 00:00 - 23:59

1970: First anti-Vietnam War Moratorium march in Australia
2021-05-08 00:00 - 23:59

1997: Wik 'Ten Point Plan' to extinguish native title announced
2021-05-08 00:00 - 23:59

World Fair Trade Day
2021-05-08 00:00 - 23:59
World Fair Trade Day is celebrated on the 8th of May, 2021 and the World Fair Trade Organisation is calling on us to ‘Build Back Fairer’. This is a day where we can reflect on our purchasing and procurement policies and see what are the practical ways we can support ethical and fair trade practices. Catholic organisations such as Ethica and ACRATH provide practical means for us to make trade fair. For more information on the day and the Build Back Fairer statement click here.

Organised by the Fair Trade Advocacy Office and World Fair Trade Organisation, World Fair Trade Day invites us to “Build Back Fairer”

“We’ve known for a long time that something is wrong with how trade works. Our trade structures and practices are designed in a way that benefits the most powerful…who hold the power in supply chains and set the terms of international trade. Meanwhile small farmers, artisans and workers have been left vulnerable to exploitation and struggle to earn living incomes and wages.”

COVID-19 exasperated these differences, and the World Fair Trade Organisation is calling for the world to transform and ‘Build Back Fairer’ to deal with the underlying exploitation of people and climate at the heart of destruction of nature, deforestation, climate and health crises.

‘Build Back Fairer’ is the theme of World Trade Fair Day and is taken from the Build Back Fairer Statement released in Sept 2020. This a day where we can reflect on our purchasing and procurement power and plan ways we can support ethical and fair trade practices.

On World Trade Fair Day, be sure to buy fair trade products available at supermarkets, looking for the fair trade logo or online for example, at Ethica, the Fair Trade social enterprise of Mary MacKillop Today.

For more information on World Trade Fair Day and the Build Back Fairer Statement go here.

1971: Paul VI's Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens (A Call to Action)
2021-05-14 00:00 - 23:59

International Day of Families
2021-05-15 00:00 - 23:59
The following reflection is from Andy Hamilton SJ. Andy is an Australian Jesuit, Consulting Editor of Eureka Street, Editorial Consultant to Australian Catholics, and a member of the communications team at Jesuit Social Services.

The coronavirus has put enormous pressures on all of us as persons, and on the groups and institutions to which we belong. It has been an affliction. The response to the measures taken to address it has been mixed. Sometimes it has been narrow and divisive, but more generally it has been extraordinarily good-willed, generous and patient. It has opened out to a far broader and balanced conversation about other areas of life that have been affected by the virus. One of these is the family. World Family Day invites us to reflect inclusively and with broad sympathy on the family.

Reflection on the family is often conducted along narrow lines in which we are tempted to focus on one set of relationships and so neglect other relationships that are equally important for healthy family life. The family, for example, may be seen as a stable relationship, recognised as a marriage by state and church, between mother and father and the children they have borne together. Many people will rightly celebrate this as the Catholic ideal of a good marriage.

Others will appeal to dysfunctional families in dismissing this as a primitive and coercive form of association that inhibits individual growth. They might emphasise the freedom of the individuals involved as central to the family. Discussions about the family will then turn to which forms of relationship justify the name of family, and which are better. These are important questions, but they are not the questions asked first by people living with the daily challenges and opportunities of family life.

The consequences of coronavirus have made us attentive to the complexity and breadth of the relationships involved in families which struggle under its burdens. The economic and social changes brought by the virus have shown, for example, the consequences for the family of relationships involved in losing casual work, in working from home, in the expectation that all adult members of a family will work, in schooling, in recreation, staying in touch with extended family and friends, and educational institutions, of relationships with sport, television and social media, and in a house design that offers both common and personal space.

After coronavirus the way in which these relationships have been shaped can no longer be taken for granted. We shall have experience of the disadvantages and advantages of other shapes we may not have considered. The merits of working from home and of home schooling will be considered as real possibilities of which we have experience and not simply as abstract ideas.

We shall see more clearly, too, how tightly the internal relationships within our families are connected to broader relationships with society. We shall have noticed how pressures of living together in a narrow space can be reflected in family violence and in mental illness. We shall find it difficult to reflect on the inner life of families without setting them against the social conditions in which they live. We shall know that if we wish to address antisocial behaviour we shall have to take account of the social problems that give birth to it.

At Jesuit Social Services we work with young people from families which have been disadvantaged. This has often reflected lacks in the way our society cares for families.

World family day is a time to celebrate the generosity and goodness displayed in families, and the resilience that finds life in the most unfavourable circumstances. It is also a day to ask how as a society we can best to accompany families as they prepare children for a full and generous life.

1891: Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of the Working Classes)
2021-05-15 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)
2021-05-15 00:00 - 23:59

1961: John XXIII's encyclical Mater et Magistra (Christianity and Social Progress)
2021-05-15 00:00 - 23:59

International Day of Living Together in Peace
2021-05-16 00:00 - 23:59

World telecommunications and Information Society Day
2021-05-17 00:00 - 23:59
