The Theme

A letter from the Caritas Australia Chairperson:

Each year, Lent offers us the opportunity to share what we have with those who have less.
In 2007, just over 8.9 million dollars was raised for Project Compassion. Your generosity enabled Caritas Australia to do so much to help so many people in need around the world. Thank you for your generosity and solidarity.

There are many distressing things that happen in our world today that prompt us to ask serious questions.

Why do so many people still go without clean drinking water?
Why are there still over 1 billion people living on less that $1 a day?
Why are men, women and children still being used as weapons of war?
Why do so many women still die in childbirth?

Caritas Australia with your support is working hard to support communities so that they can be empowered to find solutions to some of these difficult questions.

In the light of this desire to act, our theme for Project Compassion this year is ‘just want justice – a call to action’.

In marking World Youth Day, this year’s Project Compassion campaign also explores the role of young people around the globe empowering their communities and being advocates for change.
In 1 John 3:18 we are called to make our love ‘not just words, but something real and active.’ In this year’s campaign our young global brothers and sisters call upon us all to raise our voices and stand up for those whose basic rights are ignored and who live in desperate and dehumanising poverty.

Among our many projects, Caritas Australia will be helping:

The people of the Philippines through skill building workshops and income generation activities (Millennium Development Goals 1-7)
The young people of Indigenous Australia through traditional art and culture projects (MDG 1)
The people of Java, Indonesia as they implement water and sanitation programs (MDGs 1, 7)
The young people of Kenya as they learn new skills and take part in counselling so that they can address issues of abuse within their families (MDGs 1-6)
The people of Brazil as they develop cultural programs for young people who live in the favelas (MDGs 1-7)
The people of Fiji as they learn new farming and building skills (MDGs 1-6)

The challenge of just want justice – a call to action is echoed in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
signed by all United Nations Member States, including Australia, which aim to halve world poverty by 2015. Each of these goals calls us to action. For the goals to be achieved we must work with our elected leaders to make sure that poverty and the needs of the poor become one of our top priorities.
Let us stand together this Lent as we hear the call to work toward a more just world.

- Yours Sincerely in Christ,
Archbishop Adrian L. Doyle.
Chairperson - Caritas Australia