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ACSJC Briefing No. 4 - July 2000
ACSJC BRIEFING
No. 4 - July 2000
From the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, the national social
justice and human rights agency of the Catholic Church in Australia -
www.acsjc.org.au
DOWNLOAD a printer-friendly PDF version of this newsletter from www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au/pdf/briefing.pdf
*****
IN THIS ISSUE
From the Secretariat -- Drop the Debt Vigil -- June News Monitor -- July
Social Justice Calendar
*****
FROM THE SECRETARIAT
As we begin the new financial year a number of people are seeking information
about GST and our publications. Sadly we have been advised that we will
have to charge GST on our publications. The current subscription fee of
$25 includes GST for the post 30 June portion of the subscription. If
you are ordering publications separately from your regular subscription,
an extra 10% GST will be added to the previously advertised prices. Tax
invoices will be provided on request for orders totaling $50 or more.
Maureen, our wonderful Administrative Assistant, is able to answer all
your questions on these matters.
We have two new titles in the Catholic Social Justice Series: Our
Quest for Ecological Integrity and Rebuilding Community.
ECOLOGY PAPER RELEASED
In this new paper in the Catholic Social Justice Series, Michael Gormly
explores and reinforces the important place the environment has in our
lives and in creating a better future for all. The aim of the paper, Our
Quest for Ecological Integrity, is to provide some answers to the basic
question: what has the Catholic Church to say on the environment?
Fr Gormly presents a comprehensive overview of Church teaching
on the environment, and illustrates the theme with an analysis of ecological
issues in various countries. He fills out the picture with a review of
the insights of various Church and environmental commentators, including
Denis Edwards, Paul Collins and Veronica Brady.
Our Quest for Ecological Integrity (Catholic Social Justice Series
No 38) by Michael Gormly is available from the ACSJC for $4.40 (incl.
GST, plus $1 post)
NEW PAPER ON REBUILDING COMMUNITY
The human race has had the ability over the last century, as never before,
to break up or build up community on a global scale. We have undoubtedly
achieved some of both, but much more of the former than the latter.
That’s the premise on which author Michael Yore builds a case
for restoring community values in his paper, Rebuilding Community: A Jubilee
Response, Catholic Social Justice Series paper No 37.
Rebuilding Community is available from the ACSJC for $4.40 (incl.
GST, plus $1 post).
SUPPORT FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS
While on the topic of community, it has been good to see in the last couple
of weeks a bit of community support for asylum seekers. The letters pages
of the papers are showing that there are an increasing number of people
who appreciate that the so-called ‘illegal immigrants’ in detention
are asylum seekers and may well be found to be genuine refugees according
to Australian as well as international law. Nobody should be punished
for entering a country without authority in order to seek asylum and genuine
refugees are entitled to a much better treatment than they are currently
receiving from the Australian Government.
For the latest pastoral letter on asylum seekers from the Bishops’
Committee for Migrants, see the Bishops’ Conference’s website
(www.catholic.org.au) or that of the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee
Office (www.acmro.catholic.org.au).
Our position papers on these issues can be accessed at our website
(www.acsjc.org.au) or you can order paper copies by contacting our office.
While the Government is aware that community opinion and the media
are not entirely behind them on this issue, it would be a good time to
speak with your local member of Parliament about your concern for Australia’s
disgraceful treatment of asylum seekers and those found to be genuine
refugees.
If you still haven’t registered for the Building Bridges Conference
that ACMRO and ourselves are co-sponsoring, but would like to attend,
please contact Maureen as soon as possible.
INTERNATIONAL YEAR FOR BUILDING THE CULTURE OF PEACE
We will shortly be sending our Diocesan Contacts copies of the Manifesto
2000 pledge that we are encouraging people to sign committing themselves
to: respect all life; reject violence; share with others; listen to understand;
preserve the planet; and rediscover solidarity.
NAIDOC WEEK
As you receive this bulletin, NAIDOC Week will be getting under way. Please
support the activities organized by your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander organizations, and don’t forget to encourage your parish
to commemorate Aboriginal Sunday on 2 July. If they missed out this year,
it’s not too early to start thinking and consulting about appropriate
activities for next year!
Our reconciliation prayer cards are back in circulation and still
in demand. They are a simple tool that can be used in many situations
to mark NAIDOC Week and Aboriginal Sunday.
Visit our website for further prayers and statements on reconciliation.
OUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER
You're reading the fourth issue of ACSJC Briefing. We hope you like it
(comments and contributions welcome at briefing@acsjc.org.au, or by fax
or mail to the Office). It is now possible to subscribe by sending an
empty email to ACSJCbriefing-subscribe@acsjc.org.au (an email to ACSJCbriefing-remove@acsjc.org.au
will remove you from the mailing list).
Our website has now been linked to our Internet domain. Therefore
you can access it through www.acsjc.org.au (our longer address www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au
remains active for the time being).
- Sandie Cornish (Chief Executive Officer)
*****
DROP THE DEBT VIGIL
This event will be held on Sunday 23 July (1:00-3:00 pm), at the Archibald
Fountain in Sydney's Hyde Park. Lee Rhiannon is the speaker, and Trish
Watts and Colla Voce a cappella group, street theatre, dance, are among
the attractions. The vigil coincides with the G8 summit in Okinawa. Despite
all the promises, precious little debt relief has come through - $13 billion
out of the $100 billion pledged. Ethiopia continues to pay Australia $2
million p.a. in spite of the famine. The vigil is an opportunity to express
your concern at the lack of progress, and to support for decisions at
Okinawa that will benefit the poor.
*****
JUNE NEWS MONITOR
POPE SAYS NO KILLING IN THE NAME OF RELIGION - John Paul II appealed
for an immediate halt to the confrontations taking place against Christians
in Indonesia and India.
COMMISSION ADVISES VIGILANCE ON GST: But Australians should remain calm,
urges the Australian Catholic Social Welfare Commission.
PATRIARCH CALLS IRAQI EMBARGO GENOCIDE: 10 years of blockage have destroyed
Iraq, causing 1.5 million dead, half of whom were children, said His Beatitude
Raphael Bidawid, Patriarch of the Chaldeans of Babylon.
GOVT TO BLAME FOR NEGLECT OF MENTALLY ILL: Nearly half those suffering
from mental illness have no access to health care because governments
repeatedly fail to provide services, says Catholic Health Australia.
BROOME DIOCESE WELCOMES DETAINEES' RELEASE: The Broome Diocesan Office
of Justice, Ecology & Peace tentatively welcomes the announcement
from Minister Ruddock of the release from detention of some 1700 detainees.
CHURCHES ACT TO CHANGE ANTI-IMMIGRATION ATTITUDES: Adelaide's churches
launch a public education campaign to counter "alarmist attitudes"
and negative stereotypes of asylum seekers.
GAMBLING CONTRIBUTES TO HOMELESSNESS - SVDP: Men addicted to gambling
are contributing to a dramatic rise in homelessness, according to welfare
staff at Sydney's Matthew Talbot Hostel.
PLEA TO 'GO EASY' ON SANCTIONS AFFECTING FIJIAN POOR: Fiji's Conference
of Superiors of Religious Congregations calls upon governments and trade
union councils contemplating sanctions to “go easy on bans that will
affect the poor and the innocent”.
GAMBLING FUND MUST NOW REBUILD BROKEN COMMUNITIES: Jesuit Social Services
welcomes the Victorian State Government's $100 million gambling distribution
will directly help those communities most disadvantaged by gambling.
ORDERS URGE GOVT NOT TO IMPOSE PACIFIC SANCTIONS LIGHTLY: The new head
of the Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes
has urged the Federal Government to think carefully about the adverse
effects sanctious could have on the poor in both Fiji and the Solomon
Islands.
POPE CALLS FOR "APPROPRIATE LAWS" FOR REFUGEES: John Paul II
calls for countries to make laws more accommodating for refugees.
ARCHBISHOP WARNS AGAINST WOOMERA 'PRISON CAMP': Adelaide’s Archbishop
Leonard Faulkner urges the Federal Government not to create a "prisoner
of war camp" with new security measures at the Woomera detention
centre.
EDUCATION KEY TO IMPROVING HUMAN RIGHTS: According to the Vatican Secretary
of State
ADELAIDE VICAR GENERAL WARNS ON CULT OF STOCK MARKET: Society is being
seduced by an economic mantra which regards the stock market as the central
in people’s lives, according to former Australian Catholic Social
Welfare Commission head Fr David Cappo.
IMPOSSIBLE TO AFFORD HOMES - SVDP: Soaring private rents are causing
homelessness, according to a St Vincent de Paul Society report on the
crisis in accommodation.
POPE DENOUNCES XENOPHOBIA: In his homily at the Mass for the Jubilee
for Migrants, Pope John Paul II denounces discrimination and 'closed-minded
attitudes' towards foreigners.
DO SOMETHING FOR PRISONERS, VATICAN PLEADS: The Vatican is asking governments
to make a special gesture towards prisoners during the Jubilee Year.
CHURCH LEADERS MAKE RECONCILIATION PILGRIMAGE: Catholic Bishops Conference
President Archbishop Francis Carroll led the Catholic contingent on a
week-long "reconciliation journey" to Uluru.
BID TO RELEASE FINE DEFAULTERS: Two Catholic agencies in Brisbane are
campaigniing against the high number of fine defaulters in Queensland
jails.
CARDINAL ARNS SAYS LIBERATION THEOLOGY GROWING: The veteran Brazilian
social justice campaigner says liberation theology is "alive and
growing in strength" in parts of the Latin American church.
- courtesy Catholic Telecommunications, stories in detail at www.cathtelecom.com/news/006
*****
JULY SOCIAL JUSTICE CALENDAR
Sat 1: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF COOPERATIVES
The UN has declared the first Saturday in July to be International Day
of Cooperatives. One of the most striking examples of a successfully
functioning cooperative community is in the town of Mondragon, in Spain.
From humble beginnings in 1956, when five young engineers got together
with the encouragement of their parish priest to form a cooperative making
paraffin stoves, the Mondragon experiment has expanded to comprise 160
employee-owned cooperatives, involving 23,000 owner-members with sales
grossing US$3 billion in 1991. The Mondragon Cooperatives include
community based based programs in areas such as health care, housing,
social security and primary and secondary education.
Sun 2: ABORIGINAL SUNDAY - BEGINNING OF NAIDOC WEEK
National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) week
traces its history back to 1924 when the Australian Aborigines Progressive
Association was formed to take up the long struggle for indigenous rights
in Australian society. In 1938 a special day for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people was first observed. From there, NAIDOC
evolved into its current week-long celebrations. In 1997
the Catholic Church officially designated the first Sunday in July as
Aboriginal Sunday, thus encouraging Catholics locally to focus their
worship on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their culture
and the issues of social justice they represent.
ACTION: Contact your local Aboriginal Catholic Ministry or
NATSICC to find out about activities in your area. Encourage those
responsible for planning liturgy in your parish to celebrate Aboriginal
Sunday.
Fri-Sun 7-9: REFUGEE AND MIGRATION CONFERENCE
The ACSJC and ACMRO are cosponsoring a conference in Sydney on refugee
and migrant issues. It is hoped that representatives from all parishes
will attend. For more information contact the ACSJC.
ACTION: Ask your parish council to consider sponsoring someone to attend
the conference.
Sun 9: JUBILEE DAY FOR PRISONERS
Amnesty International is an organisation which works to free "prisoners
of conscience", and to ensure that these people imprisoned or detained
for reasons of conscience are treated properly. Amnesty International
Day is celebrated on October 20.
ACTION: Find out more about Amnesty International by contacting your state
branch, or the National Office, Phone 02 9211 3566.
Mon 10: SINKING OF GREENPEACE SHIP RAINBOW WARRIOR IN AUCKLAND 1985
Sun 16: ANNEXATION OF EAST TIMOR BY INDONESIA, 1976; FIRST ATOMIC BOMB
DETONATED IN NEW MEXICO, 1945
Wed 19: AUNG SAN SUU KYI
REFLECTION: Today, on the anniversary of her father's death, we can reflect
on the integrity, single-mindedness and clarity of purpose of Aung San
Suu Kyi. Her love for the people of her country has inspired her advocacy
for democracy in Burma. Often, this means personal suffering.
Dr Michael Aris, her husband, was dying. The Burmese military junta refused
him permission to visit Burma to say goodbye to his wife. They hoped to
force her to go to England instead, but would never have allowed her to
return. The authorities even cut short telephone conversations between
the two in the days before his death. Despite her anguish and grief, Suu
Kyi refused to abandon her country and its people, for whom she is a sign
of hope.
Thu 20: NEIL ARMSTRONG - FIRST PERSON ON THE MOON, 1969
Sat 22: MARY AIKENHEAD
Mary Aikenhead was born in Cork, Ireland on January 19, 1787. As she saw
the poverty of so many around her, she realised the need for a group of
religious women who would visit them in their homes, working with them
to improve their living conditions. In 1815, she founded the Sisters of
Charity who, as well as the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, would
take a fourth vow of service of the poor. On December 31, 1838 five Sisters
of Charity arrived in Australia, the first religious to come here. They
soon commenced their work, visiting the Female Factory (Female Prison)
at Parramatta and offering whatever services they could to the poor in
their homes. Mary Aikenhead died on this day in 1858.
Wed 26: ARBOR DAY
Sat 29: BIRTH OF DAG HAMMERSKJOLD, 1905
Mon 31: IGNATIUS LOYOLA
Ignatius was born into a noble family in 1491. Seriously wounded in battle,
he determined to redirect his life in the service of Christ. He established
the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits, an order which has
made an extraordinary contribution to scholarship, spirituality and service
of the poor. Ignatius died on July 31 1556.
*****
Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, Leo XIII House, 19 MacKenzie
Street, North Sydney NSW 2060. Tel: (02) 9956 5811, Fax: (02) 9956 5782,
Email: admin@acsjc.org.au Website: http://www.acsjc.org.au
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