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Planning for 2017 and beyond

Some documents from the 9 December 2016 planning day for members of the Council and committees at Catholic Social Services Victoria might be of more general interest:

About 20 participants attended a Train the Trainer workshop on Thursday 10 November, which marked a further step in deepening the engagement of Catholic social services with Catholic Social Teaching.

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.

About 50 colleagues and friends of Catholic Social Services Victoria gathered in the Cardinal Knox Centre in East Melbourne last night for the launch of Review, Reimagine, Renew: Mission making a difference in a changing world.

In the book, officially launched by Archbishop Denis Hart, leaders from Catholic social services and the broader church explore what it means to be a Catholic ministry, and what difference that makes to the communities being served.

On Sunday, 27 November 2016, the Catholic Church in Australia will commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the visit of Saint John Paul II to Australia in 1986. The Bishops Commission for Relations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (BCRATSIP) is calling on parishes, schools and communities to mark the anniversary of Saint John Paul's address to the Aboriginal community in Blatherskite Park, Alice Springs on 29 November 1986.

President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Denis Hart, has released a statement deploring the detention of our brothers and sisters on Nauru and Manus Island, stating it is time to bring offshore detainees here to Australia.

The peak body for Catholic Social Services in Victoria is calling for Manus Island and Nauru detention centres to be closed, and for those sent to these centres to be brought to Australia.

We know that this detention harms people, and uses them as means to another end. The game changer is an emerging consensus that this detention is not needed to meet our immigration goals, and that Catholic and other communities are ready to assist more people to settle in Australia.

Review, Reimagine, Renew: Mission making a difference in a changing world, will be launched on Tuesday 25 October by Archbishop Hart.

The challenge to make a real difference to those on the margins of Australian society are immense - intergenerational disadvantage, drug and alcohol challenges, increased inequality all cry out for renewed commitment to building a more just and compassionate country. At the same time, rapid changes in Australian society, in the Church, and in the way Governments work all challenge faith-based organisations in their mission-inspired work. This book illuminates the challenges and sheds light on the way forward.

The ACRATH calendar, first published in 2015, creates awareness of human trafficking globally and here in Australia. Copies of the 2017 calendar can now be ordered.