Internet Edition Issue 1
March 2006

Editorial

Viewpoint

A Roman Double for Kimberley Sisters

Compassion in Action - Project Compassion's 2006 theme

From the Office of Justice, Ecology & Peace

KCP Magazine

Compassion in Action – Project
Compassion’s 2006 theme

By contributing to Project Compassion you will be helping people in Tanzania to access safe drinking water. In the photo a local community in Kighare help install pipes for their new water system which was funded by Caritas Australia. Photo: S Spragu.

Speaking to his community over a thousand years ago, Saint John said that “our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active.”

That same simple yet profound message is just as important now as ever before and has been re-echoed by Pope Benedict in his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love).

The second half of this recent encyclical, his first, is a closely argued passage on the practical theological issues around the ministry of charity, and it shows that Pope Benedict is making a strong commitment to the Vatican II model of a church of service to all people.

It also argues that Christian charity is an outreach to the whole world, irrespective of religious tradition, gender or even politics. It encourages us not just to relieve the suffering of the poor but also to ask why they are poor.

So our “Compassion in Action” theme for Project Compassion this year is particularly synchronistic with Pope Benedict’s sentiments.

While Caritas Australia continues to respond to emergencies, the main work of Caritas Australia today is in long-term community development which encourages self reliance. It’s about working in partnership with many communities at the grass roots level to promote peace and justice.

Among our many projects, through Project Compassion 2006, Caritas Australia would like to help:
• The people of Tanzania to access safe drinking water
• Empower Indigenous Australian women in remote communities
• Provide trauma support for the people of the Solomon Islands
• Improve human rights and access to education for children in Bolivia.
• The people of Papua New Guinea fight against HIV/AIDS.

For more information please contact Caritas Diocesan Director, Fr Emil Ciecierega SDS on 08 9192 4950.

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