Australian Catholic Social Justice Council June Briefing

The Australian Catholic Social Justice Council’s (ACSJC) Briefing for June is now up on the website. The Briefing covers issues of Catholic social teaching in June 2018, highlighting resources, media items and diary events. It can be read here (ACSJC_Monthly Briefing_No 201)

Featuring:

Reconciliation needs informed dialogue and cultural respect

Joint Catholic statement on income cuts for asylum seekers

Pastoral Letter for the Feast of St Joseph the Worker

Vinnies chief slams bridging visa cancellations

Social Justice Events

Edmund Rice Centre Justice Literary Writing Competition

11 June 1975 – Australia’s ratification of international Racial Discrimination Convention

From the Secretariat, John Ferguson:

This week we have been celebrating National Reconciliation Week, which runs from 27 May through to 3 June.

Reconciliation Australia is the national expert body on reconciliation in Australia and it hosts and promotes Reconciliation Week each year. This year, they have chosen the theme ‘Don’t Keep History A Mystery: Learn. Share. Grow’. The campaign highlights some of the lesser known aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, histories, cultures, and achievements, and prompts all Australians to ask ‘What are some of the things I don’t know about our shared history?’

The webpage for Reconciliation Week has many helpful resources, covering issues as diverse as Indigenous history, activism, land rights, heroes, the Stolen Generations, sport and more.

Informed dialogue and cultural respect essential for true reconciliation
Education and awareness are vital for the progress of reconciliation. This is especially important when the ‘Australian Reconciliation Barometer

’ survey reveals significant misperceptions and biases in the broader Australian community. Almost one in three do not accept that policies allowed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to be taken from their families as recently as the 1970s. More than one in three do not accept that Indigenous peoples were subject to mass killings, incarceration, forced removal from their land and restricted movement throughout the 1800s.