Brisbane’s Catholic Justice and Peace Commission will seek to help parishes to respond to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s 2010 Social Justice Sunday Statement, Violence in Australia: A Message of Peace.
The Commission’s Executive Officer, Peter Arndt, said that the violence which is becoming so common in communities across the country needs to be challenged with Christ’s radical message of peace.
“The Bishops’ Statement encourages us as Christians to focus on the many forms of violence in contemporary Australia, to understand the causes and to take action in the spirit of Jesus’ teaching,” Mr Arndt said.
“The Bishops’ Statement presents us with a whole series of questions to help us to consider how we might become messengers of peace in our families, our communities, our nation and our world,” he said.
Mr Arndt is currently holding meetings in the deaneries of the Archdiocese to help Catholics to explore the issues and insights contained in the Statement and to provide information on what resources are available to promote and use the Statement.
The Justice and Peace Commission is also currently discussing possible collaboration with the Franciscan organisation, Pace e Bene, in order to offer Catholics concrete opportunities to develop skills for living nonviolently.
“We are aware of the many faces of violence in Australia from bullying in schools, violent video games, domestic violence and road rage to the so-called structural violence of poverty and racism,” Mr Arndt said.
“The Bishops ask us to do more than shake our heads at the growing presence of violence in our country and to take up the challenge to be active in making peace in our hearts, our homes, our communities and our nation,” he said.
For further information, please contact Peter Arndt on (07) 3336 9173 or 0409 265 476.
NB This release is issued with the approval of the Commission or its Executive under the provision of its Mandate which enables it to speak in its own right when required. The views expressed in it do not necessarily represent the views of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.
2010 Social Justice Statement: Sample Editorial for Parish Use
2010 Social Justice Statement Summary
Catholic Justice and Peace Commission of Brisbane 
I would like to let you know that it could be very worthwhile to contact
the Christian association against death penalty and torture based in the UK, This association started in France and I am a French member.
Their website is http://www.fiacat.org.
they are very powerful with writing letters and also prayers.
They need to know a lot of details in order to prepare a ‘case’ to ask members to write or fax or email.
I had contacted them in the past and didn’t know anything about it.
We are praying for Scott and for the Indonesian authorities.
Best wishes and God’s blessings
Veronique Fomiatti