Join us for the

A Call to Stewardship through Justice 

Seminar Two: Refugees and Justice

Wednesday, 6 September 2023

Hear from Thanush Selvarasa, and his experience as a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka, as well as theologian, Dr Sandie Cornish as she discusses refugees and justice from a Catholic perspective on theology and advocacy for refugees.

Wednesday, 6 September

6:00pm - 7:30pm

Livestreamed

For further information, please contact mission@loretonh.nsw.edu.au

View the full invitation here

Presenters:

Thanush Selvarasa is a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka. He was a refugee on Manus island for 7.5 years, then in hotel detention in Melbourne Mantra for 1.5 years, and has now been living in community on a temporary visa for 2.5 years. Thanush wishes to speak about the treatment of refugees in the different forms of detention and about the support he received from different individuals and groups, particularly in regard to supporting the medivac evacuation of refugees and when living in community on temporary visas.   

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Dr Sandie Cornish is a practitioner and academic in the field of Catholic Social Teaching.  She is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Theology at the Australian Catholic University and a member of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development. She was one of the periti for the Fifth Plenary Council of the Catholic Church in Australia. 

Sandie has been Director of the Office for Justice, Ecology and Peace for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Director of Quality and Community Engagement for the Sydney College of Divinity, Province Director of Mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart in Australia and New Zealand, and has worked with the Good Shepherd Sisters in research and social policy. Sandie has also worked with the Australian Jesuits assisting in research, policy, planning, and formation in their social ministries. As the Social Justice Education Coordinator for the Diocese of Broken Bay, she had responsibility for the coordination of adult faith programs in social justice, and the development of academic programs in Catholic Social Teaching offered in distance mode through BBI-TAITE. Sandie led the Hong Kong based international human rights agency, the Asian Center for the Progress of Peoples, and served as the National Executive Officer of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council for five years. She played a significant role in each of the major research and consultation activities of the Bishops’ Committee for Justice, Development and Peace during the late 1980s and 1990s.

Sandie holds a PhD in Practical Theology, a Licentiate in Catholic Social Doctrine and Ethics from the Pontifical Gregorian University, a Master of Public Policy, and a Bachelor of Economics.

Facilitator:

Dr Cristina Lledo Gomez is a Theologian. She is the Presentation Sisters Lecturer at BBI-The Australian Institute of Theological Education and a Research Fellow for the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Charles Sturt University. Cristina’s role at BBI is directed toward promoting women’s spiritualities, feminist theologies, and ecotheologies.  She is the author of the Church as Woman and Mother (2018) and recipient of the Catherine Mowry Lacugna Award (2020-21) for her essay Mother Language, Mother Church, Mother Earth, awarded by the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA).

Recently, Cristina won an international grant from the American Academy of Religion (2021) to do research on the indigenous Filipina. At present, Cristina is Co-Chair of the Women’s Consultation for Constructive Theology at the CTSA. She is published in the areas of feminist theology, domestic violence, clerical abuse, ecotheology, migrational theology, and post-colonial theology. She has forthcoming publications in the Oxford Companion to Asian Theologies (on the Asian church), SCM Companion to Feminist Theologies (on Mary), and edited books on vulnerability, abuse and flourishing; post-colonial perspectives on Christianity in the Philippines; and mothering and the Christian faith.   

Cristina has held the roles of Pastoral Associate, Diocesan Social Justice Coordinator, High school Maths and Religious Education teacher, and Chair of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council. She also holds a PhD in Catholic Systematic Theology from Charles Sturt University and a Masters and Bachelor of Theology from the Catholic Institute of Sydney (the singular pontifical institute in Australia), University of Divinity. She is a mother of two children and wife to a permanent deacon of the Catholic Church. 

For further information, please contact mission@loretonh.nsw.edu.au.