Peter Arndt, director of the ACBC Office for Justice, Ecology and Peace reflects on the experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and Pacific Islanders who have gone to global summits like COP27. He writes that they are often left feeling frustrated and angry at being forced to the peripheries of power. We must be together with them at the peripheries and follow their lead. It is there we will meet Jesus and make progress, together.
Join us on November 25 at 3pm AEDT for an online event for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, highlighting the Bishops 2022-2023 Social Justice Statement, Respect: Confronting Violence and Abuse. Speakers include Bishop Vincent Long, Miichael Jeh, an Ambassador for Small Steps 4 Hannah organisation, Sr Christian Carlan from ACRATH and Shatha Jago from JRS. Registrations now open.
The Laudato Si’ Action Platform is celebrating its first anniversary this week. The platform is a brilliant opportunity for families, parishes, schools, businesses, hospitals and organisations to work towards total sustainability and collate this information across the world. It is easy to pledge and receive the information needed and get to work in whatever your context. The first anniversary was celebrated with an online event available to watch anytime.
This week COP27 continues. It is the first of two crucial global meetings where world leaders will discuss and make agreements to combat climate change and rapid loss of biodiversity. The office has created this fact sheet to provide information, prayer and action ideas for those following these events closely. Feel free to share with friends, groups, schools and parishes.
Peter Arndt, Director of the Office for Justice, Ecology and Peace speaks about what is important to him in the role and thanks Dr. Sandie Cornish for her work and dedication in the role over the past two years. Peter speaks about the importance of a Culture of Encounter, “For me, social and environmental action needs to be situated where those struggling to overcome injustice and oppression are. I’ll be trying to encourage that approach through the work of the Office.”
Anti-Poverty week (16-22 October) is being observed this week, and we are being called on to raise awareness and taken action against poverty and organisations such as Vinnies Australia are calling on all parliamentarians to halving child poverty by 2030. Recent reports show 761,000 children live below the poverty line. Pope Francis’ message for World Day of the Poor (Nov 13) states, “This is the moment for us not to lose heart but to renew.”
Australia’s bishops have used their annual social justice statement to condemn the scourge of domestic and family violence, saying relationships must be “marked by respect and freedom rather than coercion and control”. This year’s statement is titled Respect: Confronting Violence and Abuse. “The teaching of Christ urges us to promote relationships marked by respect and freedom rather than coercion and control.”
Migrant and Refugee Sunday is on
25 September. The Australian Catholic Migrants and Refugee Office will release the resource kit for this year’s celebrations on 15 August. The resources centre on this year’s theme, “Building the future with migrants and refugees”. It will include stories from local communities, reflection, primary and secondary schools’ prayer rituals and prayers of the faithful to be used for the 108th World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
Respect: Confronting Violence and Abuse points out that the roots of domestic and family violence “lie in the abuse of power to control and dominate others” and that “this stands in contrast to the relationships to which God calls us”. Our relationships should be “marked by equality and reciprocity rather than domination and violence, respect and freedom rather than coercion and control”. We reject the manipulation of religious teachings to justify violence and abuse. We support women in calling for respect in relationships; their lives and those of their children are sacred.
Sandie Cornish, Director of the ACBC Office for Justice, Ecology and Peace reflects on Laudato Si’ Week, the Laudato Si’ Goals and the interconnected issues that an integral ecology must address. She highlights our feature article from Lismore diocese on Laudato Si’ and the effects and response of the floods, Reconciliation Week (27 May-3 June), Refugee Week (19-25 June) and talanoa sharing stories around the mat present in the Pacific Council of Churches.