Work Archives - Australian Cardijn Institute

September 15, 2022September 15, 2022

Reaching the peripheries: France’s Worker Mission

Next week we are holding another special event to look at the work of the French Catholic Church’s Mission Ouvrière, the worker mission established 80 years ago to reach out to working people.

Many of us will remember Pope Pius XI’s famous lament to Cardijn that “the greatest tragedy of the 19th century was the loss of the working class to the Church.”

Others will recall the famous book, France, Pays de mission – France a mission country -, written by YCW chaplains, Henri Godin and Yvan Daniel, which showed the extent to which the Church had lost touch with the masses.

Since then, Pope Francis has reframed that mission as a mission to the “periphery,” meaning reaching those people beyond the reach of the Church’s traditional structures.

And this is the work of the French Mission Ouvrière, which continues to provide a framework for the YCW, the Christian Workers Movement, a children’s movement, workers priests and a whole range of apostolic groups.

Could it offer a model for Australia today as the Church seeks to implement the decisions of the recent Plenary Council?

To discuss this and other issues, we’ve invited Jackie Hocquet and Bernard Schricke, both former YCW leaders, now working with Caritas France, to explain the Worker Mission model.

Read more

The French Worker Mission (translated document)

Mission Ouvrière Nationale (French)

DATE AND TIME

Thursday 22 September 2022, 7pm AEST

REGISTER

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItfu6spzgoH9eXJMEXmQh_3qNKrMmFN8NS

April 27, 2022April 27, 2022

Workers need secure jobs, fair pay: Bishop Vincent

In a message for the Feast of St Joseph the Worker, Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv has highlighted the challenges many people face in working more than one job to make ends meet – and the flow-on effects of that decision.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference publishes a message each year for the May 1 feast, with this year’s message focusing on low-paid workers who can’t cover the cost of living through a single job.

Bishop Long, chair of the Bishops Commission for Social Justice, Mission and Service, acknowledged in the message that working more than one job is a positive choice for some people.

“But for others it is a matter of economic necessity,” he said.

“They are cobbling together multiple part-time or casual jobs to try to make ends meet.

“This work is usually poorly paid and insecure. There is little career progression. Casual and seasonal workers are not entitled to paid leave even when they are sick or must care for others. It is a stressful and uncertain way to live.

“Much of this work is undertaken by women. This type of work is hard on family life. It makes it difficult for young people to get a start in life.”

Bishop Long noted that the need to work more than one job is common for workers who have played critical roles during the COVID-19 pandemic: cleaners, health and aged care workers, childcare staff and social assistance workers.

“These and other workers in the care economy have been such heroes during this pandemic,” he explained.

“Yet they are often underpaid or placed in intolerable working conditions. It is scandalous that people who do such essential work are left in situations of scarcity and insecurity. Surely the pandemic has taught us to value this work and those who do it more highly?”

With May 1 this year falling in the middle of the federal election campaign, Bishop Long urged whoever forms the next government to have a policy focus on “decent work – work that is safe, secure, and fairly paid”.

“Stable, secure jobs are needed to power a recovery that actually works for working people and their families,” Bishop Long said.

SOURCE

Bishop Vincent: Workers need secure jobs, fair pay (Catholic Outlook)

Feast of St Joseph the Worker 2022 (Justice, Ecology and Peace)

October 13, 2021October 18, 2021

The worker mission

Fr Jim Monaghan, parish priest of Port Augusta parish and vicar-general of Port Pirie Diocese as well as a longtime YCW and YCS chaplain, has kindly shared his intervention at the Australian Plenary Council with us.

Through working life, human beings cooperate with their Creator. Yet the reality for so many workers is a total contradiction of this sacred relationship.

Work should give life, friendship, skills, and spiritual fulfilment, and put food on the family table. But the workplace is becoming the province of idols. Money, competition, exploitation, and shameful indignities. The lowest paid workers saved us during C-19, but their conditions remain shabby and inadequate. The wealth of the few contradicts the common good. Some union leaders have been seduced by greed and ambition.

The organisation of work has become an obstacle to the life of faith. 12 hour shifts, 7 day rosters, FIFO jobs have eliminated weekends and affected the cohesion of families. How many fathers are now visitors among their own children? Where does the Lord’s Day fit? The loneliness and stress of work – a breeding ground for addictions.

Working people need missionary leaders from among themselves, to redeem the world of work. What do priests and bishops know of the workings of work? The answer is – nothing. We need men and women inspired by Mary the young worker and Joseph, who know the smell of the sheep. Workers can rediscover their eternal dignity as the daughters and sons of God.

The Review of Life Method of See, Judge and Act, originally formulated by Cardinal Joseph Cardijn and refined through the lives of countless worker leaders, forms leaders for the mission among the workers and their families.

Archbishop Fisher challenged us to Wake Up! Our Church has been asleep, in regard to the world of work. The devil has crept in under the cover of darkness. We need to form leaders with the heart and mind of Jesus so workers can be the Light of the

World.

PHOTOS

Richard Nyberg, USAID / Pixnio

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