02 March 2021
 Twenty-two-year-old Oliva lives in Tanzania with her farmer husband, two young sons and an adopted niece and nephew. She didn’t have the opportunity to go to school growing up - and was embarrassed that she couldn’t read, write or count. Around 25 percent of Tanzanian girls and women over 15 years cannot read or write, with many families unable to afford school fees or uniforms. |
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27 February 2021
 An amazing documentary that envisions how our world could be in 2040 if we took the environment seriously. Don't do this for yourself. Do this for our children and grandchildren. |
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17 February 2021
 Missionary priest in Africa nominated for Nobel Peace Prize. |
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17 February 2021
 Marists from all over the world and representing all branches of the Marist Family connected on Feb 11 with Fr Joshtrom Kureethadam for a webinar on Laudato Si's 7-year planning. Fr Joshtorm is Coordinator of the Sector of “Ecology and Creation” at the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. |
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13 February 2021
 An inspiration speech concerning Laudatio Si, the current environmental crises and the actions which need to be taken. This was delivered to the Marist Family of Brothers, Fathers, Sisters and Laity using Zoom in February 2021. This journey is be taken together. We as people are integrally connected to the world who is suffering. We need leaders to emerge. Together we must become more aware so that we might respond as a community both locally in connection to our brothers and sisters across the world. |
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12 February 2021
 Bill Gates is focusing on Climate Change. We need to go green. Gates with the overwhelming number of scientists who are warning of a climate disaster. The good news is that Gates believes it is possible to avoid a catastrophic rise in temperatures. The bad news...he says in the next 30 years we need scientific breakthroughs, technical innovations and global cooperation on a scale the world has never seen. |
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08 February 2021
 Pope Francis has declared the feast of St Josephine Bakhita on February 8 the International Day of Prayer, Reflection and Action against Human Trafficking. Join ACRATH and mark this day by sharing information, joining the world community in prayer and committing to do something in your own life to end slavery. |
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28 January 2021
 We do not break generations apart. That is what we learn in scripture. We carry the best of every generation with us. That is the difference between tradition and traditionalism. There was a liturgist at St John’s in Minnesota, Godfrey Dateman said one day “I don’t have a lot to teach you. But I will teach you the difference between tradition and traditionalism. Traditionalism is the stuff we pass on. Tradition is the passing on of the stuff”. |
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25 January 2021
 1989. Two lines of Kurdish refugees, children in the foreground and adults behind. Eyes forward or staring down the barrel of the camera, they stand squashed together, chests pressed into the backs of their line neighbour as though queueing for some inane activity. Only one young boy in a small blue parker breaks the continuity by looking directly into the camera and smiling. His smile is broad and genuine, as though he recognises the photographer – as one would smile at a friend or a beloved relative. He is calm. He shows no fear. He looks happy. |
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13 January 2021
 Pope Francis in the face of a grave crisis says we lack the culture to address the global environmental crisis. We need an new ecological conversion. But, solutions will not be emerged from just one way of transforming the reality. Christians are faced with a crisis both socially and ecologically. Christians need to reconsider the architecture of our lives. Christians need to redefine our notions of happiness to get beyond our notion of happiness. Art, writing and music are ways of building up a new culture of care for each other and the environment. |
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11 January 2021
 As part of a series highlighting the work of young people in addressing the climate crisis, writer Patricia Lane interviews Matt Humphrey, an Anglican priest, writer and educator who mixes faith with environmental stewardship |
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11 January 2021
 Since the 1950's, orangutan numbers have halved. Young orangutans are being snatched from the wild for the illegal pet trade, and their mothers often killed to fuel the illegal wildlife trade. |
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05 January 2021
 Strangers organise funeral for Arpad Kiss, 82, who died alone on the streets of DarwinThe 82-year-old man's funeral service was small and simple, attended by about a dozen people who were both strangers and the last people he encountered.Those who went said it was a strange but deeply moving experience: gathering to farewell someone they had never really met. |
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29 December 2020
 Belay Banaag is a centre for girls at risk in the south of the Philippines. Balay Banaag – “House of Hope” is a ‘safe place’ for girls at risk. This Marist Sisters Centre provides shelter, support, education and an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty for ‘at risk behaviours and abuse of girls’. These young girls come from families at risk and are very vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Often these girls cannot return home because they are at risk. Balay Banaag offers these girls a future with dignity, hope and independence. |
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29 December 2020
 This grandmother tree connects me to Country. I cried when I saw her burned. I remember brushing my teeth over the green enamel sink. I would gaze out the window at a prominent grandmother and ponder her age. This grandmother had soft pink skin, smooth and dimpled, and incredible curves that burled in places. She stood at least 25 metres tall. |
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26 December 2020
 I was exiled to that prison in August 2013. The comments underneath were full of hate towards refugees. Do the people writing this know that this place was a torture camp? Have those people ever asked themselves why refugees leave their families and flee their homelands? |
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24 December 2020
 On Wednesday, my own home church contacted me and, asked “Can you give up coming to church on Christmas day this year because the government had just halved the numbers of people who can attend church?” When I told my mum of eighty, she was quiet upset. All her life she has gone to church on Christmas day. |
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22 December 2020
 Up to 93,000 others were affected by the cyclone, the Disaster Office said — adding that those numbers may rise as communications are restored with affected areas. |
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22 December 2020
 Yesterday, 12 December, on the 5th Anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement, Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, called on the leaders of the world's nations to declare states of 'climate emergency' in their countries to spur action to avoid 'catastrophic' global warming. |
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10 December 2020
 On 26 July 2013, I was with my classmates on my way home from my English language class. Suddenly, two bomb explosions occurred, one in the market and the other in the neighboring bazaar. I was just walking around the market (which was just 20 meters away from me) and going back to my village to the main town to catch a bus. The second blast almost hit me. Fortunately, I was behind a bus that saved me with just minor injuries, but I lost one of my most cherished classmates. |
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