Webinar: Laudato Deum: Pope Francis’ new apostolic exhortation

Our next ACI webinar on Tuesday 10 October 2023 will focus on Pope Francis’ newly announced apostolic exhortation, Laudato Deum, which is due to be published on 4 October.

Special guest for our webinar will be Jacqui Remond, former director of Catholic Earthcare, currently a lecturer at Australian Catholic University and a member of the Vatican Ecology Taskforce.

Joining her will be Tony Smith, a former YCW leader from South Africa, now animating parish groups in northern Tasmania.

Also joining the panel will be Sherie Chant, a teacher at Kolbe College, Rockingham, WA, Irene Baik from the Parramatta YCS and other community leaders.

WEBINAR DETAILS

7.30pm, Tuesday 10 October 2023

ZOOM REGISTRATION LINK

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vdeqprj8tEtfRN-slNjD3nx7Ol7HQaweu

Webinar: Catholic social justice and the Labor Party 1900-1940

Emeritus Professor James Franklin will address the subject “Catholic social justice and the Labor Party 1900-1940” at our next ACI webinar on Tuesday 13 June.

In Europe in the early twentieth century, Catholics like Marc Sangnier and Joseph Cardijn were concerned about justice for the workers and had a plan on what to do about it.

At the same time in Australia, Catholics were also concerned about justice for the workers and acted to bring it about. But the political context of the two continents was completely different, and so were the plans. Or perhaps the plans were not so different as might appear at first.

The Australian plan had much less explicit theory and much more pragmatism and politics, and much more success in implementation. The moderate wing of the Australian Labor Party developed a politically feasible plan that has made a major contribution to the system of “regulated capitalism” or “market socialism” that we live in today.

Prof. James Franklin

James Franklin

James Franklin is the editor of the Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society and an honorary professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

His books include Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia, Catholic Values and Australian Realities, The Real Archbishop Mannix and The Worth of Persons: The Foundation of Ethics. and most recently, Catholic Thought and Catholic Action, Scenes from Australian Catholic Life.

Webinar details

Tuesday 13 June 2023, 7.30pm AEST

Register here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sdu2vqDIjGdZMVjtYnKDDXp0uxBH_R1DL

Video: Australia’s Indigenous Science Network

Mark Linkson was the presenter for our August ACI webinar on “Australia’s Indigenous Science Network.”

A former YCW leader from Adelaide, Mark has taught in Indigenous communities in northern Australia and the Torres Strait islands for more than 30 years. He also taught for two years in Ethiopia.

With this wealth of experience, he has become the Australian coordinator for the Indigenous Science Network (ISN), a global initiative based in Australia that promotes the use of Indigenous science in education and highlights the work of Indigenous scientists.

WATCH THE VIDEO

VIEW THE PRESENTATION

Mark Linkson, Indigenous Science Network (ACI)

Signs of the Times: From Alphonse Gratry to Vatican II

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the death of French priest, Alphonse Gratry (1805-1872), philosopher and theologian, whose work inspired Cardijn and many other social activists of the late 19th century.

In our next ACI webinar at 11.30am AEDT on Friday 18 March 2022 (Thursday evening 17 March US time 5.30pm West, 8.30pm East), American philosopher, Madonna Clare Adams, and ACI secretary, Stefan Gigacz, reflect on Gratry’s life and work.

As principal of Stanislas College in Paris, in 1840, he hired the young Frédéric Ozanam, founder of the Society of St Vincent de Paul. During the Revolutions of 1848, he wrote a pioneering manual of social action.

From the 1850s, he began publishing his major works in the fields of philosophy and theology. His theory of induction helped provide the foundation for Cardijn’s see-judge-act method.

During the First Vatican Council in 1870, he led the battle against the very broad definition of papal infallibility that many Council Fathers had sought.

He died of cancer on 7 February 1872, aged only 66.

OUR SPEAKERS

MADONNA CLARE ADAMS

Madonna Clare Adams holds an STM from Yale Divinity School and a doctorate in Philosophy from Catholic University of America in Ancient and History of Philosophy. She directed a NY State Liberty Partnership Program for at-risk high school students, and was Director for the Center for Applied Ethics at Pace University, NY.

She has articles in the Dictionary on Catholic Spirituality, and has written on Plato’s political thought and modern democratic theory; the philosophy of Dr. Maria Montessori in relation to Plato’s education for citizenship, Aristotle’s philosophy of nature, and Marx’s concept of work; and Medieval Philosophers and the Environment.

A student of Dr. Mary L. O’Hara, CSJ, she assisted in the publication of her translation of Gratry’s Philosophy: A Translation of Julián Marías’ La Filosofia del Padre Gratry (Adelaide: ATF Press Publishing, 2020) the first major work on Gratry in English. Retired from Caldwell University and living in Whittier, CA.

STEFAN GIGACZ

Originally from Melbourne, Stefan Gigacz worked for a short time as a personal injuries lawyer. While at university, he became involved in a local parish YCW group. In 1978, he became a fulltime worker for the movement, working in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney and later for the International YCW.

Later, he completed master’s degrees in canon law and legal theory. From 1997-2000, he coordinated an international project to document the history of the YCW before taking up a position as a project officer with the French Catholic development agency, CCFD-Terre Solidaire. From 2006-2008, he worked as a pastoral worker in a Melbourne Catholic parish. Since then, he has worked as an editor and journalist for a series of Catholic online publications.

From 2012-2018, he worked on a PhD thesis on the role of Joseph Cardijn at the Second Vatican Council, now published under the title “The Leaven in the Council: Joseph Cardijn and the Jocist Network at Vatican II.” He now resides in Perth, Western Australia, where he devotes his time to the development of the Australian Cardijn Institute.

READ MORE

Alphonse Gratry (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)

REGISTER

Signs of the Times: From Alphonse Gratry to Vatican II, Friday 18 March 2022, 11.30am AEDT

AUSTRALIAN TIME FLYER

US TIMES FLYER

Campion Society webinar: Video

Thanks to Colin Jory and Richard Doig for an excellent webinar on “The Campion Society and the development of the lay apostolate in Australia” on Tuesday 15 February 2022.

Also taking part were eight direct descendants of the original Campions, Karl Schmude, son of Alf, Anne Kelly and Barbara Kelly Cooper, daughters of Kevin T. Kelly, Jacinta Heffey and Marilyn Puglisi, daughters of Gerard Heffey, Tom Knowles son of Bill Knowles, as well as Paul Santamaria and Anne McIlroy, son and daugther of BA Santamaria. Also present was David Moloney, nephew of Des O’Connell.

We thank them all for joining us.

WATCH THE VIDEO

READ MORE

Colin Jory, The Campion Society and the development of the lay apostolate in Australia (Text of talk)

Richard Doig, The National Catholic Rural Movement and a ‘New Deal’ for Australia: the rise and fall of an agrarian movement 1931-1958 (Charles Sturt University)

Campion Society website (Australian Cardijn Institute)