SPC selected video.
Watch now, as former Australian fire chiefs unite to demand the government act now against the ‘urgent threat’ of climate change.
Category: Recent articles by SPC members
SPC News December 2019. It’s time.
Follow the links to read these articles in full.Download a printable version of SPC News. It’s time Peter Whiting Many readers will remember the catchy 1972 theme It’s time, which thrust Gough Whitlam into government. It focused on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative government, and was underpinned by a raft […]
SPC 14th Annual General Meeting 11 December 2019 7pm.
Wednesday 11 December 2019 7pm34 Bedford Street Box Hill The AGM will be followed at 7:30 by an address by Bruce Duncan CSsR Pope Francis’s advocacy on inequality & the climate emergency. Is it proper? Is it enough?
The Amazon crises & the Amazon Synod (October 6-27 2019).
Rowan Ireland. Posted 28 November 2019. This year, several international crises in the Amazon have come to the boil, just as planning and preliminary jousting led up to the Amazon Synod of Catholic Bishops, which concluded in Rome on 27 October. The three Amazon crises: the ecological, the human, and the political. The ecological crisis, […]
Home ownership, social housing, & progressive housing policy for changing times.
Lionel Orchard. Posted 28 November 2019. The foundations of a balanced and equitable housing system in Australia have been corroding for some time to a point at which ways forward are becoming increasingly vexed. Questions about how to respond are difficult, because of the legacy of neglect over recent times, and changing economic and social […]
Subsidiarity – empowering people to take responsibility.
Peter Whiting. Not even sure what ‘subsidiarity’ is, let alone whether it is relevant to today’s problems? No need to feel inadequate. It is an awkward word, and its meaning can be elusive. It emerged in Catholic Social Teaching in 1931 in Pius XI’s social encyclical, Quadragesimo Anno. It was asserted as a fundamental principle […]
Mr Morrison, please do not abandon innocent Aussie children in Syria.
Bruce Duncan. How will the Morrison government respond to the desperate plight of some 65 women and children detained in a camp in Syria? Relatives are pleading with our government to bring their family members safely home, but it appears immobilised by fear of a political reaction. How good is that? Some 65 Australian women […]
Arrest the decline of aid, & reset its paradigm.
Marc Purcell. Waiting for the Government to invest in our international development footprint and to drive Australia’s international development program strategically, is like waiting for a bus which never comes. This year sees the sixth successive Australian aid cut. The long-term decline of aid adds up to a Government bereft of vision for development assistance, failing to meet […]
Climate change: not just about economics, but also about ecology & ethics.
Peter Whiting. In an article discussing Australia’s inadequate response to the challenges of climate change, it might seem strange to start by citing the argument in John D’Arcy May’s address, World religions: a force for war or global peace? May’s paper refers to the Greek word oikos (house) as an essential element in an interreligious […]
Bala ga Lili. How a remote Arnhem Land school’s approach could hold a key to reimagining the world together.
Dan Yore. I am sitting next to Nuŋki, a Gumatj elder, as he looks through a telescope for the first time. We are sitting by the beach near his homeland of Dhaniya in North-East Arnhem Land. He is in awe. The rings of Saturn are exquisite tonight. We have just finished presenting a ‘both-ways’ astronomy […]