Australian Catholics Exploring the Diaconate are preparing a retreat from September 1 to 3 focusing on one of the questions in the recently released Instrumentum Laboris for the Synod of Bishops on the call for consideration of women’s inclusion in the diaconate, a part of which will include an online seminar, open to all on September 3. 

A Sister of Mercy is among Oceania’s non-bishop members appointed by Pope Francis for the upcoming Synod of Bishops, while two Religious in Australia are among the five experts and facilitators appointed from the region.

Sr Marian McClelland SSS remembers she was 16 years old when she felt a deep call ‘to be with’ Jesus, specifically, and later with God. It is a call that has remained central over her 50-plus years of being a consecrated sister, first with the Faithful Companions of Jesus and later with the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament sisters, reports Melbourne Catholic. 

“O.C.D” are three letters that, for many people, stand for “obsessive-compulsive disorder” but, for a young Brisbane man, they stand for the way he was called to be, reports The Catholic Leader.

Ahead of the United Nations World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on July 30, the Sisters of Charity Foundation has launched a campaign to “Raise the Roof” for survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking in Australia.