Catholic Mission
People and Ministries in the Catholic Church
Introduction
One thing we all like is to belong in some way or another to a
family. Families may take different forms, but it is love that makes
a family. That is why Jesus asks us to love one another the way
that he has loved us (John 13:34).
Our family should have no limit. God dreams for us to all be one
family with one loving Father, even a world family. Creating a
world family is the task Jesus left for us. It is our mission. In other
words, mission means building happy families so everyone can
understand God’s love for them. Mission means loving and caring
for each other, caring for creation and caring for our world, and
making one world family. It is easy for us to get information about
how our sisters and brothers around the world live.
We also understand how our life and our choices affect them.
Therefore it is important that we make the right choices to act to
help everyone of our global family so that everyone can live life in
all its fullness as Jesus wanted. In this worksheet are true stories
of young people who have had a tough life and who are working
towards making life better for everyone.
Where a roof over your head
means the difference between
living and dying.
“Being homeless is all the same, whether
you’re in Australia or Thailand”.
Liam 12, Sydney.
Our Mission
To achieve Life for all in the work of Global Mission
The Son of God came that we may have life and have it abundantly.
Catholic Mission sharing in the mission of the church in the world
enthusiastically commits itself to carrying on the unfinished mission
of Jesus as its own mission.
As did Jesus, Catholic Mission is sent to:
* bring good news to the poor,
* proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
* let the oppressed go free,
* proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour (Lk 4: 18) .
Catholic Mission understands this mission of Evangelisation to be:
1. the inauguration of the Reign of God in the person of Jesus Christ
2. and the proclamation of the Good News.
The Good News is proclaimed most powerfully in selfless acts of love. By these acts, Christians are
both signs and revelations of Christ. “This witness is the first and irreplaceable form of mission.”
The Reign of God is fully realised when the necessary conditions are created which ensure
equality and respect for the dignity of all persons, and a guarantee of human rights as the values
reigning supreme in the world.
This ideal only becomes reality when we place the intrinsic value of the human person at the
centre of our lives and our societies, and encourage the living out of the Gospel values in service
of the person.
This mission of bringing good news in all its forms (proclamation of the Word, witness, dialogue,
justice making, denouncing injustice, repentance, the putting on and revealing Christ) is inclusive
of all peoples. It excludes no one.
Catholic Mission is not afraid of acting contrary to popular opinion where the dignity of the person
is at risk, to protect the innocent, the powerless and exploited, that is the anawim of our planet,
and will stand in solidarity with the weak and the suffering.
Catholic Mission also works with the exploited and marginalised to empower, enable and ennoble
them to reclaim their rightful participation and inclusion in the human family.
Select one of the following
countries to base your research on:
 Philippines
 Thailand
 Tanzania
 Bangladesh
 Fiji
Using the country you have selected, write a
150 word paragraph describing a person who
has experienced living in poor conditions.
• You may wish to include:
– Descriptions of their living environment
– Descriptions of their day-to-day
requirements to survive
– Quotes
Using the country you have selected, write a
150 word paragraph describing a person who
has experienced living in poor conditions.
Using the country you have selected, write a
150 word paragraph describing a person who
has experienced living in poor conditions.
Reflect upon the life of the people
from your selected country
Describe in 150 words how you would survive on
the street (in your selected country ) for one day.
Think about:
• Where exactly do you live?
• How do you get money?
• What do you use the money for?
• How do people treat you (consider your appearance
and that you may have a disease)?
• Where do you put your things?
• Where do you wash?
• Do you go to school?
• How do you feel?
Reflect upon the life of the people
from your selected country
Reflect upon the life of the people
from your selected country
Create a collage of film or images which
identify the variety of functions Catholic
ministries play to assist those in your
selected country.
Images and Film Attachments
Images and Film Attachments
Attach quotes explaining the
benefits of those who have received
assistance from Catholic ministries
Hope for a new life
• Investigate a story about how
missionaries have allowed others to
have a ‘new life’ and describe why
they choose to assist others. 200
words
Hope for a new life
Hope for a new life
Outline how missionaries
help to support communities
• You are required to include specific
examples of the duties Catholic
missionaries have performed to
support communities. This question
may be answered in dot point form
over at least two [2] slides, 20 -24
size font.
Personal reflection
Someone once said, “Often the difference
between life and death is simply the luck of where
you were born.”
•
•
•
•
You are required to respond to this statement in
150 words. Use the following questions to guide
your reflection:
Do you agree with this statement?
How does it apply to the lives of those you have
researched?
Do you agree with Liam’s statement on slide 3?
Being homeless is all the same, whether you’re in
Australia or Thailand”. Liam 12, Sydney.
Why or why not?
Outline how missionaries
help to support communities
Outline how missionaries
help to support communities
Gospel Reflection
Our mission is to build family and include
everyone as Jesus did.
Read this story from the Gospel of St Mark
2:13-17 on the following slide.
• But first we need to understand the work
of tax collectors. The tax collectors worked
for the Romans who were foreigners. The
tax collectors collected money from the
Jewish people and passed it to the
occupying foreign army of the Romans. For
this reason the tax collectors were
despised and rejected and called sinners.
Gospel Reflection: Mark 2:13-17
Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd
gathered around him and he taught them.
As he was walking along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting
at the tax collector’s booth and he
said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
As Jesus sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and
sinners were also sitting with
Jesus and his disciples – for there were many who followed
him.
When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating
with sinners and tax collectors, they
said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and
sinners?” When Jesus heard this,
he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a
physician, but those who are sick; I have
come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
Reflection on what Jesus
teaches us
1. Explain why the village didn’t like tax collectors or the
other sick and poor people?
2. How would you define in your own words the term
‘outcast’?
3. Explain why were the Scribes and the Pharisees so angry
that Jesus was eating dinner with the tax collectors and
other people who had been outcast from the village?
4. Explain why Jesus chose Levi and asked him to follow him?
5. Explain why Jesus shared a meal with Levi, the other tax
collectors and people who had been outcast from the
village?
6. List examples of the people we reject and treat as outcasts
in our society?
7. Describe how can we include others more in our own
lives?
Reflection on what Jesus
teaches us
Reflection on what Jesus
teaches us
Website resources
 Child Rights Information Network: www.crin.org
 Jubilee Debt Campaign: www.jubileeaustralia.org
 Global Call to Action Against Poverty: www.whiteband.org
 Make Poverty History Campaign: www.makepovertyhistory.org
www.newinternationalist.org
 Millennium Development Goals for the United Nations:
www.unicef.org/sowc06/
 Catholic Mission:
www.catholicmission.org.au
1800 257 296