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Afternoon tea celebrates volunteers’ time, effort and energy
We celebrated the generous support of volunteers during National Volunteer Week, which ran from 9–13 May 2016. National Volunteer Week is an opportunity recognise the collective effort of our volunteers, who help us deliver a range of services across communities. During 2014-15, more than 200 volunteers gave a combined estimated 10,436 hours of time and…
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Cheque book solution on asylum is unconstitutional
Jesuit Social Services’ National Director of Human Rights and Social Justice, Frank Brennan SJ, has written a powerful comment piece that explores the legalities of Australia’s offshore processing system of people seeking asylum. The piece follows yesterday’s ruling by Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court that Australia’s use of Manus Island to indefinitely detain people seeking…
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Refusing to make vulnerable people into problems
Pope Francis recently visited a detention camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. Andy Hamilton SJ reflects on his refusal to make vulnerable people into problems. There is so much to like about Pope Francis’ journey to Lesbos. There also so much for Australians to be humbled by. He undertook his travel at a time…
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Jesuit Social Services' Annual Dinner
On Saturday March 19, we hosted our annual fundraising dinner at the MCG Members’ Dining Room. The largest event on our annual fundraising calendar was a big success. The night featured an engaging Frank Costigan QC Address delivered by Michael Coutts-Trotter, Secretary of the New South Wales Department of Family and Community Services, who spoke…
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Good Friday and Easter Sunday invite us to respond with good spirit
Easter is traditionally a time for renewing our hope. It is consequently a time for taking stock of the things that sap our hope. How, for example, can we keep pressing for better times when, having rejoiced that the Berlin Wall has been excised, we now see it metastasise in the walls of Israel, Europe…
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World Social Justice Day (February 20)
World Social Justice Day invites us to look at our own society and how we treat people. It also allows us to honour people who keep hanging in as they try to build a more just society. A commitment to justice in any area of life will always lead us through harsh country along a…
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Ash Wednesday introduces Lent, a time for fasting and for prayer. It has rhythms of fasting and feasting: Shrove Tuesday is followed by Ash Wednesday, and Lenten fasting ends in Easter feast. In a Jewish tradition inherited by Christians fasting was associated with putting on ashes from the bonfire of vanity. Hence the ashes and…
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Australia Day takes us back to our beginnings, beyond the arrival of the First Fleet, to the arrival of Captain Cook at Botany Bay. It also invites us to reflect on what happened later when the European settlers cultivated and developed this new land and encountered both Indigenous Australians and others different from themselves. We…
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International Migrants Day (December 18)
International Migrants Day usually comes as a placid reminder of the contributions that immigrants make to our national life. It merges easily into the Christmas celebrations with their emphasis on universal good will and peace. This year, however, the celebration of migrants has a touch of defiance. In Europe political parties that oppose immigration have…