(Vatican Radio) A 19 year old Aboriginal student from Brisbane has been named as the inaugural Francis Xavier Conaci scholar, an initiative providing educational opportunities for young people from Australia’s Indigenous communities.Nathan Pitt was announced on Thursday as the first student to be awarded the scholarship, which allows him to study this month at the Rome campus of Australian Catholic University. He’s currently studying psychology at ACU’s Brisbane campus and plans to pursue a career providing mental health support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote, rural communities.The scholarship is named after a 19th century Aboriginal student, Francis Xavier Conaci, who was encouraged by a Benedictine abbot in Western Australia to travel to Rome to study, in the hope that he could return to work as a monk within his native community. Conaci died in 1853 at the Rome abbey of St Paul’s Outside the Walls, but his legacy ...
(Vatican Radio) A 19 year old Aboriginal student from Brisbane has been named as the inaugural Francis Xavier Conaci scholar, an initiative providing educational opportunities for young people from Australia’s Indigenous communities.
Nathan Pitt was announced on Thursday as the first student to be awarded the scholarship, which allows him to study this month at the Rome campus of Australian Catholic University. He’s currently studying psychology at ACU’s Brisbane campus and plans to pursue a career providing mental health support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote, rural communities.
The scholarship is named after a 19th century Aboriginal student, Francis Xavier Conaci, who was encouraged by a Benedictine abbot in Western Australia to travel to Rome to study, in the hope that he could return to work as a monk within his native community. Conaci died in 1853 at the Rome abbey of St Paul’s Outside the Walls, but his legacy lives on in this new initiative, supported by Australia’s embassy to the Holy See.
Philippa Hitchen spoke with Nathan Pitt to discover how he hopes to take forward that challenging task of empowering Australia’s indigenous communities….
Listen:
Nathan Pitt speaks of his family background, of his Catholic education and of how he grabbed at this opportunity to spend time in Rome to round out his culture and gain a more global perspective in order to be able to go home with better tools and knowledge with which to contribute to building a more just society.
Nathan also expresses his own thoughts and gives a personal perspective on the often tragic history of aboriginal Australians: “there were unfortunately groups who just trampled on all the indigenous people had, and forced their own cultures onto them”.
But, he points out, there were also those who came in and shared their culture, like Francis Xavier Conaci, who worked together with indigenous people helping them to build and develop their communities.
“I think there needs to be a lot more light shed onto the positive aspects” he said.
Nathan speaks of various initiatives that celebrate indigenous culture and heritage and all kinds of aspects of indigenous Australian life pointing out the valuable contribution of Church groups who lend their support and collaboration in building a positive relationship and shining the light on traditional culture.
Above all, Nathan speaks of his own desire to help empower indigenous communities and - in particular - help them to overcome deep-rooted discrepancies and injustice in a situation in which health care and imprisonment negatively affect generations of indigenous Australians: “I’m studying psychology and the key parts of my studies are going to be in criminal psychology and forensic psychology, not so much to go in and help people who have already been imprisoned, but to get in early and help young indigenous Australians to try and break that cycle of imprisonment”.
Pope Francis waves while traveling by boat in Venice, Italy, for a meeting with young people at the Basilica della Madonna della Salute on April 28, 2024. Earlier in the day he met with inmates at a women's prison. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).Pope Francis opened his one-day visit to Venice on Sunday morning with a meeting with female inmates where he reaffirmed the importance of fraternity and human dignity, noting that prison can be a place of new beginnings. "A stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others, as symbolized by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute," the pope said to the female inmates gathered in the intimate courtyard of the Women's Prison on the Island of Giudecca. Pope Francis left the Vatican by helicopter at approximately 6:30 in the mo...
Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of St. Mark the Evangelist inside St. Mark's Basilica in Venice on April 28, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).Pope Francis had a full slate of events Sunday during his day trip to Venice, a trip that tied together a message of unity and fraternity with the artistic patrimony of a city that has been a privileged place of encounter across the centuries. "Faith in Jesus, the bond with him, does not imprison our freedom. On the contrary, it opens us to receive the sap of God's love, which multiplies our joy, takes care of us like a skilled vintner, and brings forth shoots even when the soil of our life becomes arid," the pope said to over 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Mark's Square. Framing his homily during the Mass on the theme of unity, one of the central points articulated throughout several audiences spread across the morning, Pope Francis reminded Christians: "Remaining ...
Prayer house at San Simeone, Italy, September 2012. / Credit: Courtesy of Ricostruttori nella preghieraRome, Italy, Apr 28, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Across Italy there are houses of prayer run by the Ricostruttori (Reconstructors) community, a Catholic movement dedicated to people who are far from the Church but attracted to spirituality, particularly Eastern meditation and Buddhist practices. The Reconstructors was founded in 1978 by Jesuit Father Gian Vittorio Cappelletto. "During the postconciliar period, the Church was faced with the need for new forms of evangelization and apostolate, to reach out to people who were drifting away," Don Roberto Rondanina, priest and superior of the Ricostruttori, explained to CNA. "It was a time when Eastern meditation, Hinduism, Buddhism, the New Age ... were beginning to spread in Europe." "Father Cappelletto, who lived in Turin, sought to understand the meaning of this 'flight to the East' and felt the need to find new forms of sp...