news: AND IN BRIEF ...

 

A self-described "Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly Protestant divinity school in the buckle of the Bible belt", Amy-Jill Levine, will deliver a public lecture: Why Christians should care that Jesus was a Jew, at the Gleeson Auditorium, ACU National, Melbourne, on Wednesday, June 13.

 

The lecture's publicity says that the Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University, USA, combines historical-critical rigor, literacy-critical sensitivity and a frequent dash of humour with a commitment to eliminating anti-Jewish, sexist and homophobic theologies.

The lecture will be hosted by the Asia-Pacific Centre for Inter-religious Dialogue. Refreshments will be served from 6pm with the lecture beginning at 6.30pm.

 

 

The Refugee Council of Australia has produced an action kit for Refugee Week (June 17-23), which this year carries the theme: The Voices of Young Refugees.

 

The kit explores the circumstances of asylum seekers travelling to Australia and includes a guide to working ethically and responsibly with refugees and asylum seekers. There are suggested activities for the school room, workplace and for public debate. World Refugee Day will be celebrated on June 20.

 

(events in your area)

 

 

Australian Catholic University (ACU National) Chancellor Brother Julian McDonald CFC has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Divine Word University (DWU) in Papua New Guinea.

 

The honour, conferred at DWU's Open Day in Madang on Sunday, May 6, was in recognition of Br McDonald's long years of advocacy for the rights of children in Australia and his contribution to higher education. DWU President Fr Jan Czuba said Br McDonald had also been instrumental in forming strong links between ACU National and DWU, helping the latter to develop its academic credentials, infrastructure and information services in its early years.

 

Br McDonald is only the second person to receive an Honorary Doctorate from DWU. The first was former head of the European Union Mission in Papua New Guinea, Anthony Craesner, in 2005 for his contribution to the educational development of disadvantaged people in remote and rural areas of the country. (ACU media release)

 

 

Fr Maurizio Pettena CS, a member of the Missionary Society of St Charles (Scalabrinian Fathers) has been appointed National Planning Assistant for the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office (ACMRO).

 

The part-time appointment was made by the Bishops' Commission for Pastoral Life, and began on May 1. Fr Pettena speaks five languages (Italian, English, Tagalog, Spanish and French) and has been Chaplain to Italian and Spanish communities in Brisbane and Sydney. In 2004-2005 he was Coordinator of Multicultural Pastoral Formation with the Centre for Multicultural Pastoral Care, Archdiocese of Brisbane.

 

 

At St Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday, March 11, more than 1500 people gathered to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first Sisters of Mercy in Melbourne. Gathered in the cathedral were Sisters of Mercy from Ireland, Newfoundland, New York and New Zealand, and from all parts of Australia. (details)

 

 

The late Br Walter Simmonds CFC has been honoured by The Manly Daily as having been one of the 10 most influential residents of the northern beaches in the field of education in the past 100 years. Br Simmons, who was born in Manly in 1924, died in January 2000. He was a Fellow of the Australian College of Education and was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for leadership in the development of Catholic education. (further details)

 

 

ROME, Italy: A new web portal is online for the information and communications agency that represents the Salesians, offering updated news on an almost-daily basis. The Salesian Info Agency has also been given juridical recognition that enables it to interact with other news services.

 

A statement posted on the site explained: "The site has been planned from the point of view of a new approach to news, derived from the rapid development of the world of communication and from the new forms of journalism and broadcasting." The new site offers articles, photos, audio, and video in six languages: Italian, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Polish. (Zenit.org)

 

 

ASSISI, Italy: Fr Marco Tasca OFM Conv, of the Italian Province of St. Anthony of Padua, has been elected the 119th Minister General of the Order of the Friars Minor Conventual. The 49-year-old Conventual Franciscan was elected at the 199th general chapter at the Sacred Convent in Assisi. He succeeds Fr Joachim Giermek, OFM Conv, an American who held the post for six years. Fr Tasca is vice president of the Italian Conference of Religious Superiors. There were 97 conventual Franciscans meeting in Assisi. They represented 4528 professed religious in 63 nations. (Zenit.org)

 

Fr Michael Higgins, TOR, of the Province of Sacred Heart of Jesus, U.S., was elected Minister General of the Third Order Regular at the General Chapter in Assisi on May 28. He succeeds Fr Ilija Zivkovic, TOR.

 

Both friars will take up their tasks immediately.

 

 

The Rev. David Kirk, an Eastern Orthodox priest who spent most of his adult life working with New York City's disenfranchised, died on May 23 at Emmaus House, the communal residence for the homeless that he founded in Harlem more than 40 years ago. He was 72.

 

At Fr Kirk's request, he was buried near his long time mentor, the Catholic social reformer Dorothy Day, at Resurrection Cemetery in Staten Island. Fr Kirk, for decades a presence in the civil rights and antiwar movements, established Emmaus House in the mid-1960s on East 116th Street. It was conceived not as a shelter but as a community for the city's homeless men and women and was modelled on the Emmaus movement, begun in France after World War II to aid the poor. (full report by Margalit Fox for the New York Times)