Christmas greetings to members and friends of Catholic Social Services Victoria!

 

Thanks to Fr Andy Hamilton sj of Eurkea Street / Jesuit Social Services for his recent Christmas reflection on the challenges faced by people around the world: “We may give up our hopes for a just and peaceful world, retire from it as gracefully as we can, accept the victory of power, wealth and brutality, and allow hope to die within us. Or we can return to the Christmas story and to the hope that is central to it, and work and pray for the death of the new political order. This is the path of constancy, of faithfulness to little people in small things, of being a midwife in the hard labours of a Birth like Death.”

Pope Francis marked Sunday 6 November as a Jubilee for Prisoners. He celebrated Mass for the Jubilee in Saint Peter's Basilica, during which he reminded the 1000+ attending prison detainees to never lose hope, or fall into the temptation that they can never be forgiven. 

 

The Catholic Church in Australia also celebrated the Jubilee for Prisoners across the weekend as part of the Year of Mercy. On behalf of the Australian Catholic Prisoners Pastoral Care Council, Bishop Terry Brady prepared a special video message for prisoners. And there's also an informative article by David Halliday on the Jubilee for Prisoners and the important work of prison chaplains in the current (November) issue of Melbourne Catholic magazine, available in parishes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reimagine, Renew: Mission making a difference in a changing world re-presents many of the papers from Catholic Social Services Victoria's conference (of the same name) held earlier this year.  It includes a number of papers that grapple with the challenge of extending our reaching out to those on the margins in an environment that is challenging and changing rapidly.  The papers in this book illuminate the challenges and shed light on the way forward.