Embedded Files
International Debt
International Debt
“Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or in other words, of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.”
Justice in the World, Second General Assembly of Bishops, 1971.
“When you saw me hungry….
Did you think to ask why I was hungry?
Corporate Responsibility, Economic Justice, Economic Growth/Finite Resources:
Expression of interest from Phil pfjones@tpg.com.au
International Debt
The Parish Social Justice Group looks beyond the fact that many people and nations are not able to provide the basic needs to live with the dignity God has given us. It currently supports Jubilee Australia and the international Jubilee movement in its various campaigns:
Financial Transparency and Good Governance
Financial Transparency and Good Governance
The Parish Social Justice Group promotes the Publish What You Pay movement and the implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. This worldwide movement aims to improve financial transparency in the mining, oil and gas industries.
Today more than 60% of the world's poorest people live in countries rich in natural resources but they rarely share in the wealth. Transparency will enable citizens to hold companies and governments to account.www.publishwhatyoupay.org/where/coalitions/australia
Economic Self Sufficiency
Economic Self Sufficiency
The Parish Social Justice Group has drawn attention to the fact that money lost to the developing world in unpaid taxes would be enough to reach the United Nations Millennium Development Goals several times over. These goals aim to halve world poverty by 2015, a target which could be easily achieved if tax systems favoured the poor instead of the rich. As much as US$255 billion is lost every year to governments around the world because of the no or low taxation of funds in offshore centres.
The Tax Justice Network Australia is asking the Australian Government to:
Stop Tax Dodging by introducing laws that would:
Provide automatic exchange of information between tax authorities about money flowing across borders;
Greater disclosure by companies of how much profit they make and how much tax they pay in each country they operate in; and
Tougher rules on disclosing the ultimate owners of companies and trusts so banks know who they are dealing with and can ensure that the money has not been illegally sourced. http://taxjustice.org.au/
Infinite Economic Growth on a Finite Planet
Infinite Economic Growth on a Finite Planet
There is a growing recognition that infinite economic growth is not possible on a finite planet and that the human race (largely the rich) is presently living beyond the means of the Earth to sustain our present life style. While some concerned individuals have given up hope that community leaders will address this problem and suggest we will have to wait until a catastrophic collapse before it is addressed, others see this as inhumane and Non-Christian.
It is generally acknowledged that it is the poor, living in cities that will suffer most once these limits begin to exert themselves more seriously. For this reason, the issue of limits to growth is set to emerge as a very significant social justice issue for the Christian community. Planning a transition to the Steady State Economy is a more constructive approach to “the great disruption” scenario.
This social justice group takes an interest in the NSW Chapter of the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy and the work of the Institute of Environmental Studies, UNSW.
www.http://www.ies.unsw.edu.au/our-research/steady-state-economy
http://steadystatensw.wordpress.com/
Contact: Phil Jones, email: pfjones@tpg.com.au
The Fair Trade Movement
The Fair Trade Movement
At Easter Time, when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Parish Social Justice Group draws attention to the need for justice in international trade by promoting the purchasing of Fair Trade Easter eggs and other products labelled Fair Trade. These include Fair Trade chocolate, tea, coffee, cotton and many other items exported from developing countries. http://fairtrade.com.au/
Slave Labour
Slave Labour
Child and virtual slave labourers produce a range of products that are sold in Australia. The Parish Social Justice Group has circulated postcards inviting parishioners to lobby the Federal Government to pass legislation to ensure that companies that import products into Australian take all reasonable steps to ensure that the goods they import and sell are free of slavery and human trafficking.
The brands Ferrero Rocher and Toblerone have been challenged by parishioners to ensure that the cocoa they rely on is independently certified not to have involved trafficked or slave labour, particularly that of children.
Indigenous Issues:
Indigenous Issues:
Expressions of interest contact: Guringai Festival,- Anne Lanyon, (annelanyon.cmi@columban.org.au) and Brian Norman (brian_b_norman@yahoo.com.au )
Sharing the Story—Sharing the Land
Sharing the Story—Sharing the Land
“Waramai Wellamabaoi” - “It is Good to See You”.
The Catholic Parish of Frenchs Forest participates in the Guringai Festival. Involvement began with the “Sharing the Story – Sharing the Land” project at St Anthony’s Terrey Hills when in March 2008 the plaque formally acknowledging that the church was on the traditional land of the Guringai people was placed in the church garden.
Regular involvement in the Festival followed with annual dinners during which parishioners and friends heard from a range of Aboriginal community leaders.
Homelessness and Affordable Housing:
Homelessness and Affordable Housing:
Expression of Interest from Margaret Gallagher, mgall@aapt.net.au
Somali Friendship.
Somali Friendship.
Expressions of interest contact: Anne Lanyon, (annelanyon.cmi@columban.org.au)
A friendship link has now been established between the parish and the Somali community in the region of Auburn through the initiative of the Parish Social Justice Group. Games, conversations and the sharing of food have helped develop friendships and mutual understanding between different nationalities, different faiths and vastly contrasting life experiences.
Justice for Palestinians.
Justice for Palestinians.
Expressions of interest contact: Leo Ward leoant(at)yahoo.com.au
In 2010 the Parish Social Justice Group invited Vivienne Porzsolt, a representative from Jews Against the Occupation to speak to parishioners. She had recently been to Gaza and the West Bank and was able to describe the hardships experience by those under the siege as well as the oppression and dispossession occurring in the occupied West Bank.
In 2012 a showing of the video “Life in Occupied Palestine” featuring Anna Baltzer, the grand-daughter of holocaust victims, was also organised for parishioners. Copies of the Kairos Document in which the Christian leaders of Palestine pleaded for people of good will to join the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign were also distributed.
Caring for Creation
Caring for Creation
Expressions of interest contact: Guringai Festival,
Anne Lanyon, annelanyon.cmi@columban.org.au and
Ben Pace jumpingmidget@hotmail.com
In his New Year message of 2001 on the environment Pope John Paul II claimed that “we must therefore encourage and support the “ecological conversion” which in recent decades has made humanity more sensitive to the catastrophe to which it has been heading”.
Accordingly, the Parish Social Justice Group invited Dr Miriam Pepper from Maroubra Uniting Church, a leader in “Project Green Church” initiative, to speak to the St Anthony’s community one Sunday morning after mass. She spoke of the many ways in which the Church can demonstrate its commitment to ecological conversion.
More recently, Sr Margaret Hinchey from the Catholic Coalition for Justice and Peace conducted an afternoon of spiritual reflection on the theme of “Caring for Creation”.
Each year the Social Justice Group encourages parishioners to take part in Earth Hour.
Kierans Creek Landcare Group
Kierans Creek Landcare Group
" A great cultural, spiritual & educational challenge stands before us." Laudato Si' #202
THE SACRED FOREST SPIRITUALITY & ECOLOGY PLACE
at St Anthony in the Fields Terrey Hills is a place of Reflection, Spirituality & Learning
Kierans Creek, which rises from a nearby spring and cuts across the site, hosts wildlife endangered by unsympathetic development and habitat loss. Its winding route to the Hawkesbury River and Broken Bay connects St Anthony in the Fields community to the many ecological communities along its way to the ocean. There is a strong, historical Aboriginal significance in the area and the community has been involved in "Sharing the Story, Sharing the Land" for many years.
Our work for God is collaboration with all for a flourishing Earth community.
Our communities accept the imperative to preserve biodiversity and to bear this witness in the Church and the wider community.
Volunteers have been revegetating the church grounds as a wildlife corridor and refuge since 2013.
In 2016, following Pope Francis' Laudato Si', the Kierans Creek Landcare Group was formed. Volunteers are very welcome.
Alas—Timor Leste
Alas—Timor Leste
Expressions of interest contact: Leo Ward leoant(at)yahoo.com.au
The Parish Social Justice Group offers what support it can to the committee raising funds for the people of the village of Alas—Timor Leste. The committee has raised many thousands of dollars to enable the building of a water pipeline and to facilitate the education of the younger people through scholarships.
The Social Justice Group supports the Timor Sea Justice Campaign and the efforts being made to draw the boundary between Timor Leste and Australia.
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