Twenty-six delegates from Jesuit schools across the Asia Pacific region converged at St Ignatius’ College Riverview (Riverview) in Sydney, Australia for the annual Ignatian Teachers Program. The Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific organises the programme each year as a way … Continued
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Australia and Jesuit Social Services have joined other Catholic organisations in expressing grave concern for the humanitarian crisis on Manus Island and calling for the Australian Government to resettle in Australia the refugees and asylum seekers … Continued
Jesuit Refugee Service Australia has teamed up with Refugee Council of Australia to create a programme that gives young people the chance to meet a refugee and hear first hand the reasons why people are forced to flee their homes.
“We’re seeing the biggest migration crisis since WWII, and yet, it’s not the voices of those being forced to flee their homes we hear, but the voices of the powerful. At JRS we believe this needs to change,” said JRS Australia in its website.
After more than 100 years of serving in the parish, the Jesuits will be withdrawing from St Ignatius Toowong in Brisbane at the end of this year.
The Parishes Task Force was set up more than 18 months ago to respond to the increasing difficulty of finding Jesuits to serve in all nine parishes across the country. Led by the Province Delegate for Parishes, Sr Libby Rogerson IBVM, the task force was asked to discern and develop criteria for remaining in or withdrawing from a parish, and then to make recommendations for the Provincial and Consult.
The struggles and legacy of the pioneering Jesuits in Australia have been chronicled in a handsome 200-page coffee table book. “The Vine and the Branches: The Fruits of the Sevenhill Mission” tells of the establishment and development of Sevenhill, which is considered the birthplace of the Jesuits in Australia and the start of winemaking in South Australia’s Clare Valley.
The impact of the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe has jolted Australia into realising that it needs to respond more urgently and generously to the humanitarian disaster caused by the Syrian conflict. Jesuit Refugee Service Australia (JRS) welcomed on September 8 the Australian government’s determination to provide further assistance to those fleeing conflict in the Middle East.
JRS urged the government to increase immediately the current annual humanitarian intake from 13,750 to at least double that, given the scale of the current crisis.
The Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum (CAPSA) in Australia was officially launched at the start of World Refugee Week (June 14 to 20) in the country. Backed by leading Catholic peak organisations and convened by Jesuit Social Services, CAPSA aims to change hearts and minds across Australia in support of the abolition of harsh asylum seeker policies.
The initiative wants to build on work being done in Catholic schools, parishes and organisations across Australia.
Two years after Pope Francis went to Lampedusa to demonstrate his solidarity with refugees and immigrants, the compassion he showed is needed. The recent pushback of Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi immigrant workers by Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia has made it a call to the Jesuits of our region. Who can look unmoved into the eyes of the women, children, and men adrift on these boats as they are repelled by nation after nation?
Jesuit Refugee Service Australia has opened a new drop-in centre to address a lack of asylum seeker services in Western Sydney. The project is the result of a needs assessment undertaken by JRS in 2014, which found that the region is home to New South Wales’ second-largest group of asylum seekers arriving by boat and living on bridging visas.