Social Justice Focus Group

This group meets several times a year and the meetings, which are advertised in the parish Bulletin, are open to all. The group works to promote the words of the Hebrew Scripture,

"this is what Yahweh asks of you; only this,
to act justly,
to love tenderly
and to walk humbly with your God."

Micah 6:8

At the beginning of a year group members decide on one major issue which they will:

• become informed about
• disseminate information about
• promote some action in response to the above

In 2002 the focus issue will again be "Refugees" and "Asylum Seekers".

Here are some LINKS which assist in approaching social justice issues:

• Aboriginal Australia – culture etc.
• Amnesty International
• Asylum Seekers Centre
• Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office
• Australian Catholic Social Justice Council
• Australian Coalition for Economic Justice
• Australians for Just Refugee Programs
• Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation
• Caritas Australia
• Centre for Justice and Spirituality
• East Timor Action Group
• Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education
• Force Ten
• Justice Education in Catholic Schools
• Mercy Refugee Service Email
• Pontifical Mission society
• Refugee Council of Australia
• Uniya Jesuit Social Justice Centre
• United Nation High Commission for Refugees
• World Council of Churches – Refugees and Displacement

"The joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the women and men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way oppressed, these are the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the followers of Christ."

Vatican Council II

"Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully 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."

Synod of Bishops, Rome, 1972.