05 MAY 2022
www.therecord.com.au
Edition #381
CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING TO COME ALIVE AT UPCOMING SEMINARS
United States Jesuit priest Fr Fred Kammer SJ will next week speak at two seminars with the aim of animating Catholic social teaching and bringing alive the Church’s best kept secret. PHOTO: SUPPLIED/FRED KAMMER.
By Jamie O'Brien
Perth Catholics will be privileged to learn more about Catholic social teaching through two seminars by renowned United States author, advocate and lawyer, Fr Fred Kammer SJ. Fr Fred will firstly speak at the University of Notre Dame next Tuesday 10 May, on the topic ‘A Passion for Justice and God’s Own Poor’. The seminar will explore ten ways Catholic charities are authentically ‘Catholic’, distinct from secular social
services. The seminar will draw from Fr Fred’s decades of experience both in leading Catholic charities and social services, where he worked to serve people experiencing vulnerability, as a lay volunteer, attorney, advocate, and administrator. In an exclusive interview with Fr Fred, who is visiting Australia while on sabbatical, he highlighted the importance of Catholic social teaching. “It’s the Church’s best kept secret that many Catholics haven’t been given the opportunity to learn more about,” Fr Fred explained.
“It speaks to our daily life in so many ways, the economic, the social, our human dignity and our duty to work for peace and justice,” he said. The second seminar, co-ordinated by the Western Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Of fice (WACMRO) is titled ‘Welcome the Stranger!’ and will be held on Wednesday 11 May at the Newman Siena Centre. This talk will examine the phenomena of human mobility as a social reality and in light of understandings from Scripture and key principles from Catholic Social Teaching. “It will be a considered Christian response which enhances the Catholicity of the local church, with online and written resources, as well as plenty of Q&A,” Fr Fred explained. Hailing from New Orleans, Louisiana, Fr Fred told The Record his passion for Catholic social teaching developed having grown up in an era when society was legally segregated based on colour. “This was a time of enormous social change and has shaped my own desires to support the poor, to animate what the Church teaches and to encourage renewal where necessary and possible,” he said. A member of the Central and Southern Province of the Jesuits, Fr Fred is the Director of the Jesuit Social Research Institute, a post he has held since 2009. Fr Fred was previously President of Catholic Charities USA from 1992 to 2001; the largest voluntary human service network in the US. Full Text available at
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