Office For Justice, Ecology and Peace

1997: Bringing Them Home Report published
2020-04-05 00:00 - 23:59 (Australia/Sydney)
The report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families was published on this day in 1997. Read the Bringing Them Home Report here and access information and teaching resources on the Stolen Generations here.

International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action
2020-04-04 00:00 - 23:59
The United Nations established this day in 2005 through this resolution.

The annual message for the day, together with other resources, are available here.

St Isidore, patron saint of the internet
2020-04-04 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

World Autism Awareness Day
2020-04-02 00:00 - 23:59

1897: Death of Jandamarra
2020-04-01 00:00 - 23:59
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
2020-03-29 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
2020-03-28 20:30 - 21:30

1975: Biological Weapons Convention
2020-03-26 00:00 - 23:59

1967: Populorum Progressio (On the Progress of Peoples) encyclical issued by St Paul VI
2020-03-26 00:00 - 23:59

1877: Death of Caroline Chisholm
2020-03-25 00:00 - 23:59

International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing UN Staff Members
2020-03-25 00:00 - 23:59

International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims
2020-03-24 00:00 - 23:59

St Oscar Romero
2020-03-24 00:00 - 23:59

2005: Abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)
2020-03-23 00:00 - 23:59

World Meteorological Day
2020-03-23 00:00 - 23:59

World Water Day
2020-03-22 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
2020-03-21 08:00 - 2020-03-27 17:00

World Poetry Day
2020-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

World Down Syndrome Day
2020-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

International Day of Forests
2020-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
2020-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence
2020-03-20 00:00 - 23:59
This national day is observed in Australia. Find resources to help you to mark this day here.

International Day of Happiness
2020-03-20 00:00 - 23:59

2003: Invasion of Iraq by USA and Allies
2020-03-19 00:00 - 23:59

1866: Beginning of Sisters of St Joseph at Penola, SA
2020-03-19 00:00 - 23:59

2019: Death of Deacon Boniface Perdjert
2020-03-18 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

St Patrick
2020-03-17 00:00 - 23:59

1913: Founding of Canberra as Australia's captial
2020-03-12 00:00 - 23:59

2011: Fukushima Earthquake and Tsunami
2020-03-11 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
2020-03-08 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.
