Office For Justice, Ecology and Peace

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

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

Earth Hour
2022-03-26 20:30 - 21:30

1975: Biological Weapons Convention
2022-03-26 00:00 - 23:59

1967: Populorum Progressio (On the Progress of Peoples) encyclical issued by St Paul VI
2022-03-26 00:00 - 23:59

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

International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing UN Staff Members
2022-03-25 00:00 - 23:59

International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims
2022-03-24 00:00 - 23:59

St Oscar Romero
2022-03-24 00:00 - 23:59

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

World Meteorological Day
2022-03-23 00:00 - 23:59

World Water Day
2022-03-22 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?

Week of Solidarity with the Peoples Struggling against Racism and Racial Discrimination
2022-03-21 08:00 - 2022-03-27 17:00

World Poetry Day
2022-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

World Down Syndrome Day
2022-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

International Day of Forests
2022-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
2022-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

International Day of Happiness
2022-03-20 00:00 - 23:59

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

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

National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence
2022-03-18 00:00 - 23:59
This national day is observed in Australia. Find resources to help you to mark this day here.

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

National Close the Gap Day
2022-03-17 08:00 - 17:00

St Patrick
2022-03-17 00:00 - 23:59

Harmony Week
2022-03-15 08:00 - 2022-03-21 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.

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

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

2011: Fukushima Earthquake and Tsunami
2022-03-11 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

International Women's Day
2022-03-08 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.

1990: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission established
2022-03-05 00:00 - 23:59
