"Trained in civil and canon law in Pavia, Charles Borromeo was called to Rome as a young man by his uncle, Pope Pius IV, to be secretary of state at the Vatican. “Always clear and precise in his views, firm in his demeanor, and constant in the execution of his projects,” as one biographer has… Read More »Saint Charles Borromeo
In 2002 the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches in Australia agreed to set aside 4th November as a day of prayer for reconciliation and greater understanding between the two communities. On 4th November, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are encouraged to pray either individually, as communities or small groups, for greater mutual understanding and reconciliation. Find… Read More »Day of Prayer for Anglican-Roman Catholic Reconciliation
In the past 100 years, 58 tsnamis have claimed more than 260,000 lives, or an average of 4,600 per disaster. The Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 lone caused an estimated 227,000 fatalities in 14 countries, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand hardest-hit. "In December 2015, the UN General Assembly designated 5 November as World Tsunami… Read More »World Tsunami Awareness Day
"... the environment has often remained the unpublicized victim of war. Water wells have been polluted, crops torched, forests cut down, soils poisoned, and animals killed to gain military advantage. Furthermore, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has found that over the last 60 years, at least 40 percent of all internal conflicts have been linked to… Read More »International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict
"In 1907 Justice Henry Bourne Higgins, President of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Court, set the first federally arbitrated wages standard in Australia. Higgins’s ruling became the basis for setting Australia’s minimum wage standard for the next 70 years.Using the Sunshine Harvester Factory as a test case, Justice Higgins took the pioneering approach of hearing… Read More »1907: Harvester minimum wage judgement by Justice Higgins
"On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders. East and West Berliners flocked to… Read More »1989: Opening of the Berlin Wall
"At a time when there is widespread criticism of Church structures, we also hear criticism that bishops and priests—indeed, all of us—are too preoccupied with administration of temporal matters. Pope Leo is an example of a great administrator who used his talents in areas where spirit and structure are inseparably combined: doctrine, peace, and pastoral… Read More »Saint Leo the Great
By linking science more closely with society, World Science Day for Peace and Development aims to ensure that citizens are kept informed of developments in science. It also underscores the role scientists play in broadening our understanding of the remarkable, fragile planet we call home and in making our societies more sustainable. This year's theme… Read More »World Science Day for Peace and Development
On this day in 1995, writer and human rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed in Nigeria despite worldwide pleas for clemency. The country's military rulers ordered the execution of Mr Saro-Wiwa and eight other dissidents. BBC On This Day
"At 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns on the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare... The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month attained a special significance in the post-war years. The moment when hostilities ceased on the Western Front became universally associated with the… Read More »Remembrance (Armistice) Day, commemorating the end of World War I in 1918