Connecting
CatholicLIFE is new in the Archdicoese and we want answer any questions that you might have. This sections provides a list some frequently asked questions and answers. We value any other questions you might have and encourage you to submit them here.
Who are CatholicLIFE and what do they do?
What does CatholicLIFE stand for?
Who do they offer their services to?
Are the offerings only available to Catholics?
How do CatholicLIFE offer their services?
Who is behind CatholicLIFE and who runs it?
Has what they're doing been done before in the Archdiocese or is it new?
What consultation has taken place for the design and development of CatholicLIFE?
What experience should I have?
Where can I find out more information about events happening in the Archdiocese?
What is the Australian Quality Training Framework?
What is Accreditation?
Why offer accredited training in a Church context?
Who are CatholicLIFE and what do they do?
- CatholicLIFE is a newly developed agency of the Archdiocese Canberra and Goulburn. It is born out of the 2004 Synod and the needs identified in the Pastoral Development Project, for specialised support, ministry and formation in the community. It offers a range of innovative ministry solutions designed to equip and grow the local Church. Whether it's our youth or the more mature among us, CatholicLIFE seeks to empower each member of the community with materials, consultancy, and more.
- It also provides relevant and responsive faith formation combined with personal development programs which are now being stamped with an option of formal accreditation. In addition, it seeks to harness the collaborative capacity of the wider faith-based network to facilitate the sustainability of these initiatives. CatholicLIFE has not been built around any particular event, single community or charism, but has rather been constructed to allow interaction and communication for the entire Archdiocesan calendar and wider community - from the city to the country and back again!
- CatholicLIFE is a restorative organisation. This philosophy is at the heart of our practice and enables us to explicitly translate our faith and Catholic values into our work, our relationships and our operating systems.
What does CatholicLIFE stand for?
The name CatholicLIFE has its origins in the following acronym:
- Catholic: The Pastoral Support agency of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn
- Learning: Focused on a broad, flexible and practical approach faith formation and education
- Institute: Offering capacity to accredit courses, programs and previous learning under the Australian Quality Training Framework
- Faith: The whole focus, content and driving value of all our Support, Ministry and Formation - faith in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead.
- Evangelisation: A proactive and energetic approach towards the challenging task of finding new ways to connect the Gospel with individual lives and contemporary culture (see The New Evangelisation)
Who do they offer their services to?
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Everyone - whether you're a priest, a parishioner, a young person or older, CatholicLIFE wants to support initiatives that fill the gaps missing in the current pastoral structure. CatholicLIFE aims to represent all in what it does and welcomes input from each member of the community.
- In 2009 some of CatholicLIFE's more well known dedicated services and programs include:
o Catholic Adult Faith Formation (CAFF 1 & 2)
o Beginning Theology and Spirituality Workshops
o Youth and Young Adults Ministry and Events
o Catholic Youth Ministry Team
o Sexual Integrity Education Pilot Project
o Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
o The Rheinberger Functions Centre
Are the offerings only available to Catholics?
- Certainly not, everyone is welcome; all we ask is that you respect our beliefs and each other.
- CatholicLIFE has not been built around any particular event, single community or charism, but has rather been constructed to allow interaction and communication for the entire Archdiocesan calendar and wider community - from the city to the country and back again!
- The Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn requires that all people working within its institutions and agencies, regardless of religious background or allegiance respect and support the beliefs and teaching of the Catholic Church.
How do CatholicLIFE offer their services?
CatholicLIFE provides SUPPORT, MINISTRY and FORMATION for all. For more information on these services please click on the applicable website links.
Who is behind CatholicLIFE and who runs it?
CatholicLIFE is an agency of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn accountable to Archbishop Mark Coleridge and like the other Archdiocesan agencies (i.e. CEO and Centacare) is governed by the Trustees of the Archdiocese. The agency is managed by a Pastoral Director role, which was created in 2007 support the development of a strategic focus to Archdiocesan planning and pastoral ministries. This role forms part of the Archdiocesan Senior executive team with the Directors of the Catholic Education Office, Centacare, Catholic Communications and the Archdiocesan Business Manager.
In 2009, a CatholicLIFE advisory board will be established to further assist with its development and strategic direction.
CatholicLIFE employs approximately twenty people and there are also a number of dedicated volunteer roles who contribute to the agency. For more information about our team, please click here.
Has what they're doing been done before in the Archdiocese or is it new?
CatholicLIFE is a new initiative, however, it stands on the shoulders of previously well-known and successful Ministry and Formation support programs and pastoral planning over many years.
Following the 2004 Synod the decision was taken to establish a new "Pastoral Director" role in the Archdiocese and re-locate the existing "Pastoral Services" (Centre for Faith and Ministry and Catholic Youth and Young Adults Ministry) to the newly Refurbished Rheinberger Centre in Yarralumla ACT. This new Director role was established with a mandate to develop a greater strategic focus to Archdiocesan Pastoral Planning and Ministry and Formation programs.
What consultation has taken place for the design and development of CatholicLIFE?
Given that it is not every day that an Archdiocese establishes a new Pastoral agency, a comprehensive survey was conducted in the Archdiocese throughout 2007. This survey was named the "Pastoral Development Project" and involved 400 participants in focus groups held in locations around the whole Archdiocese. The Survey had the two-fold focus of researching the needs, expectations and hopes for a new pastoral agency and also understanding the particular culture and needs of the Archdiocese as a whole. For more information on this project click here.
What experience should I have?
As much or as little as you have, CatholicLIFE is about working together to enhance your Faith experience and develop your knowledge along the way.
Where can I find out more information about events happening in the Archdiocese?
Through our website we will endeavour to keep you up to date with all events within the Archdiocese.
For information on youth, adult and family MINISTRY related events, click here.
For information on training and education and other FORMATION related events, click here.
If you have any questions that are not answered here please submit them here
What is the Australian Quality Training Framework?
The Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) is the quality framework that guides the activities of Registered Training Organisations (RTO's). RTO's are audited against the standards defined in the AQTF, covering all aspects of their business from learning and assessment, to processes for recordkeeping, staff qualifications, financial processes and privacy.
What is Accreditation?
Accreditation means the course is nationally recognised and that a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) can issue a nationally recognised qualification or Statement of Attainment following its full or partial completion or through recognised prior learning.
Once a course has been accredited, it is listed on the National Training Information Service (NTIS) by the course accrediting body. Accreditation shows clients that the course meets national quality assurance requirements. It can also be an important promotion tool as it is evidence of national recognition.
Why offer accredited training in a Church context?
CatholicLIFE accredited programs expand over the territories of Youth Ministry initiatives through to more formal programs in Catholic Adult Faith Formation. A range of practically focused professional development initiatives will also be offered. In this way the CatholicLIFE faith formation and spirituality can be made relevant to modern life!
The Second Vatican Council emphasised the importance the continuing faith education of the laity, and since the Council this has been reiterated and emphasised locally, nationally and internationally.
Within the local Church CatholicLIFE takes up the task of providing broad based Catholic Education and of giving formal recognition to the efforts of those who undertake its programmes.
On 26 November 2000, Pope John Paul II gave a homily on the Jubilee of the Lay Apostolate and said, "With the Council the hour of the laity truly struck, and many lay faithful, men and women, more clearly understood their Christian vocation, which by its very nature is a vocation to the apostolate" (cf. Apostolicam actuositatem, n. 2).
Through its accredited Formation programs CatholicLIFE seeks to support this special vocation of the Laity.