pathways, DECEMBER 2008
Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP in Australia
Josephites ask for Australia to ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Sr Theresa Schumacher to visit
Mercy Works' Community Links Project closes
Columban calendars in custody
Recognition
Historic inter-faith meeting for America's religious leaders
New websites: ACRATH and Negros Nine
Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP in Australia
The former world leader of the Dominicans and popular author Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP will be one of the special guests when the Archdiocese of Brisbane celebrates its 150th anniversary throughout 2009.
On November 30, the First Sunday of Advent, the Archbishop of Brisbane, the Most Rev. John Bathesby, announced year-long celebrations which will also coincide with the state of Queensland celebrating its 150th birthday as well.
Fr Radcliffe will be in Brisbane from June 25 - July 2. A public lecture will be held on Friday, June 26, while Saturday, June 27, has been set aside as a day for Religious.
Further details will be available from the Vicar for Religious, Sr Patricia Scully, RSC, in the new year.
Josephites ask for Australia to ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The Leaders of the Australian Congregations of the Sisters of St Joseph have written to the Prime Minister asking him to use the occasion of this week's 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights to announce that Australia will ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Sr Anne Derwin spoke on behalf of the Congregational and Provincial Leaders of 1200 Sisters of St Joseph across Australia.
"Sixty years ago the nations of the world joined together in recognising that all people, in all nations, are free and equal regardless of race, religion, economic status, age or gender, and they brought into being the first international document recognising that human rights are the foundation of peace, justice and freedom in the world," she said.
"It is important to remember that Australia was very involved in developing the concept of the Declaration, and was one of the eight nations involved in its drafting. We have remained a key supporter of human rights in subsequent international treaty negotiations and have ratified almost all the major international human rights instruments. The one significant exception has been our refusal in the General Assembly last year to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People,"Sr Anne said.
pathways articles on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Sr Theresa Schumacher to visit
Benedictine educator and liturgist, Sr Theresa Schumacher will soon make the long trek Down Under to lead a summer renewal program on the Liturgy of the Hours -
Dawn, Day, Dusk, Dark: Keeping our Appointments with Mystery - for the Sisters of the Good Samaritan.
A native of America's Midwestern state of Minnesota, Sr Theresa will help the sisters reflect on the Liturgy of the Hours as their prayer and the prayer of the Church. She will conduct workshops and retreats for Good Samaritan Sisters, oblates and associates in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne early in 2009.
Sr Theresa said: "To study, reflect and exchange with you about the Liturgy of the Hours, a prayer so close to all of our hearts, makes me very happy! I hope that we can find the days of renewal of the Liturgy of the Hours to be a point of revisiting our baptismal and profession claims, privileges and responsibilities that we made to ourselves, our community and to the church and world."
Mercy Works' Community Links Project closes
After nearly 10 years of providing vital support for newly arrived refugees in Australia, Mercy Works' Community Links Project has closed.
The Board of Mercy Works made the decision in June after receiving notice from the Federal Government's Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) that funding for the project had been significantly reduced.
"It was with great regret that the Board took the decision to decline the grant offered by DIAC for the Community Links Project," says Sr Mary Duffy RSM, Chair of the Board.
The Community Links Project was established in Sydney in 1999 with funding from DIAC. Since then, the project has recruited, trained and supported 371 volunteers who have provided 458 newly arrived refugees with much-needed practical assistance and enabled them to operate more confidently and independently in their new community. So highly regarded was the project, that in 2006, the Federal Government invited Mercy Works to extend Community Links to Wollongong.
Work with refugees and their families will continue through the Classroom Connect Project, and the Sisters are seeking to develop other avenues or ministry.
pictured: Sudanese refugees Aisha, Mahir, Moataz, Mohamed, Montasir, Mayadar with Community Links Project volunteer, Helen O'Brien.
Columban calendars in custody
Columban calendars are donated each year to prisons in Victoria. Below is an excerpt from a letter sent by Sr Mary O'Shannassy SGS, director of Catholic Prison Ministry Victoria, writes that a simple item such as a calendar means so much to people in custody:
"... the beautiful coloured art work is so uplifting. In places such as prison there is very little colour. To have a beautiful calendar with so much colour for each month offers to the women and men the opportunity to gaze upon quality art work that can lift their spirits ... and it does."
full article, in the e-journal of the Columban Missions Society
Recognition
Sr Mary Denise Coghlan AM, the long-standing director of Jesuit Service and JRS in Cambodia, was officially presented with the Order of Australia at the Australian Ambassador's residence in Phnom Penh early in December.
A life more just in
Province Express, the fortnightly e-journal of the Australian Jesuits.
Historic inter-faith meeting for America's religious leaders
Sr Joan Chittister OSB wrote in her
National Catholic Reporter column: "They were Buddhist monks, Jewish rabbis, Hindu swamis, Christian monks, Muslim imams, Indian Sun Dancers and lay practitioners of all the world's great contemplative traditions. This zikr, this particular sufi devotion of praise, was suddenly a universal one, truly a prayer of all these peoples from all these separate traditions praying one same prayer - but differently.
"It was a moment in the spiritual life not to be forgotten too quickly. It was, a Christian mystic might have said in earlier centuries, "a foretaste of heaven." It was, at very least, a glimpse into what real religion could be - should be. It was a moment of real contemplative oneness ...
"This new world of religion showed itself in Aspen at a conference sponsored by the Global Peace Initiative of Women titled Gathering the Spiritual Voices of American: To Deepen Our Knowing of Oneness and Our Compassion as a Nation. The purpose of the conference was, the program said clearly, to be 'A National Reflection with America's Religious and Spiritual Leaders'. The group had been called together the day after the national election to consider what it means to move from 'Contemplative Wisdom to Compassionate Action'.
Over 100 recognized voices of religion's great contemplative traditions came together at a time of great change to ask themselves what change would be demanded of them, as well, as a result of the social changes going on around them. As one of the questions to the group put it, "What is the call of our time and how must we (as contemplatives) respond?"
new websites: ACRATH and Negros Nine
"Human trafficking is a terrible scourge," he said. "It degrades its victims and hold that a person's worth in not measured by dignity but by the money that can be made from explopitation ... I wish you well ... and encourage everyone present to speak ... about this site, encouraging them to visit it and engage in the fight to stop human trafficking."
With red, black and white the predominat colours, it is a dramatic site with a contemporary presentation in keeping with the nature and urgency of its subject matter. Its clean, uncluttered design belies the depth and breadth of information contained on the site.
Columban Fr Brian Gore is behind
the Negros Nine wesbite which aims to keep alive the memory of those who suffered and died, and to give an insight into the continuing struggle of the poor of Negros (Philippines) for a decent human life in a healthy and sustainable environment.
The website says that many who dedicated their lives to this struggle did not survive. Thousands were imprisioned, tortured, murdered and others just disappeared never to be seen again. The
Negros Nine did survive and lived to tell their story. However, as of now two of the priests and one layworker have died, another is disabled and two are no longer active. Three are members of the Negros Nine Human Development Foundation Board as is the wife of the deceased layman. The individual members of the Negros Nine are not important as such, what is important is, that what they and thousands of others had started during Martial Law, will continue in many new and inovative ways.
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