Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Richmond (Agenzia Fides) - It is sought and read with interest and enthusiasm in communities, parishes, schools, serving also for youth pastoral and formation for students: “Australian Catholics- Faith and living for contemporary Catholics” Jesuit magazine is the most popular Catholic publication in Australia today. The bi-monthly magazine was launched in 1993 in Richmond, Victoria by the local Jesuit community with the help of a group of lay professionals. The magazine shares the stories and life experiences of Australia’s Catholics known and not so well known from a viewpoint of sharing and hope to tell the world “God speaks, acts and is present amidst his people”, and that in this third millennium authentic and genuine witnesses to the Gospel still exist.
The issue to be released in February, the first of this year, contains stories of people who have “experienced darkness”, lived difficult moments of desperation and anguish but then found light for their life.
The publication’s mission “is about encouraging Catholics from all walks of life to engage more deeply with life. The magazine aims to open up conversations about our world, our society, our families, our values and our faith. We follow people’s struggles as they wrestle with questions about life and meaning, and share stories that open up new possibilities and ideas. The Catholic Church, and Australian culture in general, has changed drastically over the last few decades. Australian Catholics seeks to promote a viable and vibrant Catholic identity for today, and show that there is still a place for life-affirming values such as love, peace and justice ”.
The Editor, Michael McVeigh a layman, says “culture in Australia in recent years has changed profoundly and so has the Church. Our magazine aims to promote a vibrant Christian identity today and to affirm that in today’s world there is still place for the values of love, peace and justice”.
In his editorial in Australian Catholics Summer Issue February 2007 Mr McVeigh writes “Faith can help people who’ve lost their home in a fire or natural disaster, people engulfed in an atmosphere of violence and hate, or people battling a life-threatening illness. Faith shows them a world beyond these things; a power that overcomes pain and death; the possibility of a deeper, more real, existence than the one we know.” People who have encountered the darkness, and yet found strength in the possibility of light. “It’s that possibility that drives Christians to be actors for change in our world, to draw us ever closer to the world God imagines for us” he concludes.
see http://australiancatholics.com.au (PA) (Agenzia Fides 30/1/2007 righe 26 parole 264)
