pathways DECEMBER 07

Fr Mark Raper SJ appeals to Australia's new Prime Minister to speak to what is good and just in people's hearts, inviting them to become better as a people and as a nation.

 

"We (the 8000 Religious in Australia) want you to address questions that stir uncomfortably beneath the preoccupation with economic prosperity and wealth creation," he wrote.  "These questions touch the respect due to the human dignity of all Australians, and particularly of the most marginalised ..."

 

The Melbourne Assembly will look at the reality of the growing multicultural Church in Australia as it presents as gift and challenge.

 

Two Sisters of the Good Samaritan are in Bali to participate in the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) from December 3-14.

 

Congregational Leader Clare Condon SGS writes:  "We in Australia need to take responsibility for our contribution to climate change and recognise our ecological debt to our low-lying Pacific neighbours.  A recent United Nations report puts Australia third in per capita emission of greenhouse gases."

Spirituality awakens us, according to Fr David Ranson. "It is the dimension of our lives that works to awaken us and to keep us awake to the deepest currents and springs of life," he told audiences in Launceston and Hobart while visiting Tasmania last month at the invitation of the Emmanuel Centre Pastoral and Spirituality Centre.

 

Columban priest, Charles Rue, argues that specific GM legislation must put the onus of responsibility back on to the biotech companies that promote GM rather than the farmers and that the Labor Federal Government must be lobbied to forge a new direction.  He believes that such environmental issues are integral to the common good and to the Catholic faith.

 

Catholic Religious Australia has joined with the Catholic Bishops of Australia in urging the new Federal Government to commit itself to addressing the fundamental causes of entrenched disadvantage in Indigenous communities.

 

SIGNIS gives a Catholic comment.

 

Seven Australian Sisters of Mercy were among 32 from around the world who gathered in California in November for the Mercy International Research Conference.

 

International speakers head retreat programmes ... Christian Brothers reaffirm social justice direction ... Advent prayers ... and more ...

 

The Golden Compass - well made, has class
Bee Movie -  highly recommended for all the family
Hitman - hit it for six
1408 - very scary

 

Confronting the Death Penalty, Mary MacKillop East Timor 1994—2006, Yearning to Breathe Free: Seeking Asylum in Australia, Life to the Full: Rights and Social Justice in Australia, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church, Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus, Nuclear Power: Cure or Curse? On the Line and the 2008 Social Justice Diary

 

Executive Director for Catholic Religious Australia; archivist; pastoral care coordinator

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