Faith and Mission
From the Mission and Identity Team
World Refugee Week
World Refugee Week celebrates the contributions of refugees and promotes understanding of their experiences. Guided by the Catholic Social Justice teaching principle of Solidarity, the week emphasises standing with refugees, recognising our shared humanity, and advocating for their rights. This aligns with the call to support and uphold the dignity of every person.
The theme for Refugee Week in Australia is Finding Freedom: Family. This focus on family highlights the transformative power of family and the role that families play in providing support to each other. Sometimes that family support comes in one person or in many.
The Loreto network highlights the plight of refuges and asylum seekers, and in fact it is one of the 5 Justice Priorities of the Loreto Province of Australia and Southeast Asia. To learn more about the work of the Loreto Sisters and the Loreto Justice network; follow these links:
Girls Conversation Circle for the 69th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69)
In the lead up to International Day of the Girl (IDG) and the 69th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69), the Working Group on Girls (WGG) is inviting girls to host local girl-led conversation circles and submit a summary of their discussion to WGG. The summaries will be compiled and submitted to UN Women to inform the discussion and advocacy efforts at IDG and CSW69.
The conversation circles will be a space for girls to lead productive dialogue around the 30-year anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and come up with ways for collaborative advocacy within their communities and globally, aiming to increase the visibility and amplify the voices of girls to encourage their participation and leadership in the political process in the local, national, and global arena.
The girls have already chosen the questions and topics that they will discuss on the morning.
- Should girls of minimum working age be entitled to the same wage as adults if they have the same responsibilities?
- What worries young women and girls have about the environment and what solutions do you think the government need to implement?
- What barriers prevent girls from entering education or continuing education?
World Environment Day – Beanies and Blankets Day
Thank you to all students and staff who contributed to the Beanies and Blankets Day. Your generosity was felt across our city with donations being sent to many needy people. At this time of year as we begin to feel the cold, vulnerable people will feel this even more. Your donations are really appreciated.
Our Liturgical Life
The students and staff in the Junior School and Senior School celebrated a special liturgy for Refugee Week. Liturgies are an essential part of our spiritual life and allow our students to reflect on the word of God through the scriptures. Our Junior and Senior Students listened to the scripture readings that were shared and spent time reflecting on the messages that are presented. The students were asked to reflect on how they welcome the people in their lives and those that they don’t know, contemplating on the words of Matthew’s Gospel “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” – Matthew 25:35-40.
Junior School - Vinnies Winter Appeal
The Junior School Social Justice Leaders proudly launched the Vinnies Winter Appeal a couple of weeks ago. This initiative encourages our community to support those in need during the colder months.
In the Junior School we are looking for items such as:
- Tinned meals and Tinned soups
- Small cans of Tuna
- Up and Go
- Pots of noodles
- Packets of biscuits
Any of these items can be brought to the Junior School classrooms to be collected.
Ms Martina O'Connell
Assistant Principal: Mission and Identity