Ursula Stephens CEO Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited.

06/07/2025

Today is National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday

.

03/07/2025

Each day in the leadup to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday, NATSICC will reveal the winners of each category of the 2025 Service to Community Awards.

Today we are proud to announce that Sarina Cannon is the winner of the 2025 Adult Service to Community Award!

A proud and faith-filled member of the St Michael’s Catholic School community on Palm Island, Sarina Cannon has served with love, consistency, and deep care as a Support Officer across many year levels. Currently supporting Year 2 students, Sarina brings to her role a lived Catholic faith—expressed daily through gentle encouragement, practical support, and relationships built on trust and compassion.

Sarina is a steady presence: dependable, intuitive, and deeply respected within the school community. Her ability to read the classroom, offer help before it’s asked for, and form nurturing bonds with every student makes her a quiet but powerful force of good. Children know they can rely on her, and colleagues often look to her as the heart of the classroom.

Beyond her professional strengths, Sarina brings cultural knowledge, humour, and joy into the school each day—strengthening the connection between students’ home lives and their learning environment. Through her humility and grace, she models the Gospel in action and has become a pillar of faith and warmth for her school community.

Congratulations, Sarina, and thank you for all that you do.

National Catholic Education Commission
Catholic Diocese of Townsville
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference
St Anne's Parish - Palm Island

03/07/2025

congratulations to three inspiring Elders!

Today we are proud to announce the three recipients of the 2025 Elders Service to Community Award!

We give thanks for these extraordinary Elders, whose lives are a blessing to the Church and the wider community.

Aunty Mary Atkinson
A proud Wiradjuri Ngunnawal woman and devoted member of the Catholic community, Aunty Mary has dedicated more than 40 years to education, cultural leadership, and spiritual support. Deeply embedded in Catholic schools, parishes, and parent groups across the Riverina and Canberra, she has walked gently alongside countless people—sharing wisdom, guiding the next generation, and planting seeds of faith. Through her advocacy for Aboriginal voices in Catholic spaces, she has helped bring cultural understanding and Gospel values into beautiful harmony.
Catholic Education, Diocese of Wagga Wagga
Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga
Archdiocese Canberra-Goulburn
National Catholic Education Commission

Aunty Lorraine Tomlins
For over two decades, Aunty Lorraine has served as Chair of the St Martin de Porres Catholic Aboriginal Community in Darwin. She is a woman of quiet strength and deep faith, ministering through times of grief, walking with families through funerals, and supporting Aboriginal youth and elders across the Northern Territory. Her leadership on Church councils and boards, and her willingness to advise religious orders, reflect her lifelong mission—to help all people grow in faith and experience the healing love of Jesus.
Catholic Diocese of Darwin

Uncle Eric Law AM
A Wakka Wakka Elder, Vietnam veteran, and passionate educator, Uncle Eric is a leading voice for truth-telling and reconciliation. Shaped by his Catholic upbringing in Cherbourg under the harsh restrictions of the Protection Act, Uncle Eric brings humility, humour, and hope to his storytelling. As Chair of the Elders Advisory Group and a leader at the Ration Shed Museum, he mentors emerging Elders and advocates for Indigenous veterans. His conversations with Catholic leaders, including Archbishop Mark Coleridge, highlight his belief that reconciliation is a journey we must walk together—with faith, honesty, and determination to shape a better future.
Supporting Murri Ministry
Catholic Voice
Archdiocese of Brisbane
Catholic Social Services Australia

21/06/2025

What a privilege to be in Rome for this important conference .

We are all working for a safer and welcoming church

02/04/2025

30/03/2025

WEBINAR SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT:

Anne Hollonds is Australia’s National Children’s Commissioner, a role based at the Australian Human Rights Commission. The National Children’s Commissioner monitors policy and legislation to ensure that the human rights of children are protected and promoted, and provides advice to government.

Formerly Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, for 23 years Anne was Chief Executive of government and non-government organisations focused on research, policy and practice in child and family wellbeing. As a psychologist Anne has worked extensively in frontline practice, including in child protection; domestic, family and sexual violence; mental health; child and family counselling; parenting education; and family law counselling.

Anne currently contributes to numerous expert advisory groups and boards. Her report ‘Help Way Earlier!’ How Australia can transform child justice to improve safety and wellbeing’ was tabled in the Australian Parliament in August 2024.

Don’t miss hearing from the National Children’s Commissioner on addressing child exploitation in Australia.

💻 Register now: https://utsmeet.zoom.us/webinar/register/3917391418731/WN_fyr9o2UlRrG1Y9upvdgc9w?fbclid=IwY2xjawJRmBpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHSBbSCt4v4GGpZmVcCpOY3PtrUHG0tXVoHtPoF9dgbOB0qp5otdSR3OQEg_aem_djyzxeARiwV8tDairdNguA #/registration

07/03/2025

On this International Women's Day, we draw inspiration from St Mary MacKillop, a woman of courage and faith who paved the way for education and social justice in Australia. Her words remind us that even in times of challenge, hope lights the way:

"We must let no obstacles deter us from proceeding with courage in the path marked out for us. It may sometimes be dark and full of many windings, but a beautiful, bright light shines at the end of the path, and a few more windings will bring us to it." – Mary MacKillop, 10 March 1907.

As we approach the CSSA National Conference (19-20 March), held on the Feast of St Joseph, we reflect on the power of "Hope in Action" — championing justice, dignity, and solidarity.

💜To all the women working for a better world — thank you. Your courage and dedication inspire change.

💜 Take action today. Book your place for the CSSA National Conference: https://bit.ly/40UxPIk

08/02/2025

What a fantastic experience Kyiv Social - an excellent meal prepared and served by Ukrainians here escaping the conflict in Ukraine .

With Bishop Mikola Cardinal Bychok and many friends supporting his appeal for Ukraine we heard from Fr Hans Zollner SJ about the heightened vulnerability to abuse for children and women dislocated by war .

Thanks to Shaun Christie -David and the team for a great event !

11/11/2024

Gospel of the Day (Luke 17,1-6)

Jesus said to his disciples, "Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,' you should forgive him."

And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to (this) mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/word-of-the-day/2024/11/11.html