Unit Overview

In this unit students will recognise that in Australia, Catholics come from many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, bringing with them distinctive traditions and celebrations. Students will deepen their understanding that with all its diversity, the Catholic Church in Australia, both Western and Eastern traditions, remains firmly part of the Universal Church.

Download Support Document

Enduring Understanding

There are different expressions of being Catholic and as a Church we are enriched by the diversity of gifts that each one brings.

Objectives

A student will

value and appreciate and become aware of the various expressions of God’s presence in the world; recognise the religious diversity of humanity; acknowledge the tension between good and evil; be open to the need to integrate religion with life
develop an understanding of the action of God in creation, the reality of good and evil and the human search for meaning in Christian and other traditions
reflect on the action of God in creation; reason with appropriate information and present coherent viewpoints; recognise the reality of good and evil; make informed responses in their search for meaning

Outcomes

A student

values the heritage, contemporary experience and cultural diversity of Australian Catholics. (RECVC6)
explains the Universal Catholic Church in Australia and the distinctive traditions of some Eastern Churches. (RECKC6)
investigates the contributions that the Eastern Catholic Churches have made to the Catholic Church in Australia. (RECSC6)

Essential Questions

How did the Catholic Church flourish and grow in Australia?
Which are the Eastern Catholic Churches in Australia?
What are the traditions of the Eastern Catholic Churches?

Learning Focus & Statements of Learning

Students gain an understanding of the history of the Catholic Church in early Australia by

- examining the development of the Catholic Church in early Australia.
- Explore The Catholic Church in Australia Part 2 (storytelling).
- Revise the story of the Catholic Church in early Australia and identifying the key people, dates and events.
- Read KWL Book 5 Chapter 12 Our Church in Australia p117-120 and discuss the history of the Church in Australia, with reference to the arrival of non-English speaking Catholics.
- recognising the influence of migration to the Church’s growth and diversity.
- Define the terms ‘migration’ and ‘multiculturalism’.
- Explore when, where and why Catholics from around the world migrated to Australia.
- recognising that there are different Rites of the Catholic Church.
- Explore Matthew 28:16-20 The Commissioning of the Disciples and recognise that Christianity spread across many nations as a response to Jesus’ call to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
- Recognise that the Catholic Church is made up of 23 autonomous Rites, or Churches, one ‘Western’ and 22 ‘Eastern’, all in communion with the Bishop of Rome.

Students develop an understanding of Eastern Catholic Churches by

- identifying the different Churches.
- Explore The Story of the Eastern Catholic Churches (storytelling).
- Locate on a map the countries where these Churches were originally founded by the Apostles:
  ○ Saints Peter, Barnabas and Paul in Antioch, Syria, Turkey (Asia Minor) and Rome.
  ○ Peter’s brother of St Andrew in Greece and the Ukraine.
  ○ St Bartholomew in Arabia.
  ○ St Jude Thaddeus in Syria, Northern Iraq and Armenia.
  ○ St Mark in Egypt.
  ○ St Thomas in Iraq and North-Western and Southern India.
- Discuss the names and the traditions given to the Catholics that belong to each Eastern Church.
- exploring the Churches that are present in Australia.
- Investigate the Eastern Catholic Churches that are present in Australia.
- Identify on a map where the Eastern Catholic churches are located in Australia.

Students examine the Eastern Catholic Churches by

- exploring their diversity.
- Investigate the traditions of the different Churches including:
  ○ Ethnic and cultural origins
  ○ Languages used in the Liturgy
  ○ Liturgical seasons
  ○ Lenten traditions
  ○ Reception of Sacraments
  ○ Communion
  ○ Holy days of obligation
  ○ Significant Saints
  ○ Significant feast days
  ○ Other interesting information, for example Patriarchs, devotional objects, vestments, iconography, art, and architecture.
- Investigate an Eastern Catholic Church closely connected to your school/community/dioceses.
- Appreciate how these churches offer distinctive traditions and celebrations and add richness to the Universal Church.

Compulsory Scripture

Unit Content 1
Matthew 28:16-20 The Commissioning of the Disciples

Unit Content 2
The Story of the Eastern Catholic Churches

Storytelling

Unit Content 1
The Catholic Church in Australia Part 2

Unit Content 2
The Story of the Eastern Catholic Churches

Church Documents

Catechism of the Catholic Church

830 – The word “catholic” means “universal,” in the sense of “according to the totality” or “in keeping with the whole.” The Church is catholic in a double sense:

First, the Church is catholic because Christ is present in her. “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church.”³⁰⁷ In her subsists the fullness of Christ’s body united with its head; this implies that she receives from him “the fullness of the means of salvation”³⁰⁸ which he has willed: correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession. The Church was, in this fundamental sense, catholic on the day of Pentecost³⁰⁹ and will always be so until the day of the Parousia

831 – Secondly, the Church is catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race:

All men are called to belong to the new People of God. This People, therefore, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God’s will may be fulfilled: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as one. . . . The character of universality which adorns the People of God is a gift from the Lord himself whereby the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the return of all humanity and all its goods, under Christ the Head in the unity of his Spirit.³¹¹Each particular Church is “catholic”

832 – “The Church of Christ is really present in all legitimately organized local groups of the faithful, which, in so far as they are united to their pastors, are also quite appropriately called Churches in the New Testament. . . . In them the faithful are gathered together through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and the mystery of the Lord’s Supper is celebrated. In these communities, though they may often be small and poor, or existing in the diaspora, Christ is present, through whose power and influence the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is constituted.

833 – The phrase “particular church,” which is the diocese (or eparchy), refers to a community of the Christian faithful in communion of faith and sacraments with their bishop ordained in apostolic succession. These particular Churches “are constituted after the model of the universal Church; it is in these and formed out of them that the one and unique Catholic Church exists.

854 – By her very mission, “the Church…travels the same journey as all humanity and shares the same earthly lot with the world: she is to be a leaven and, as it were, the soul of human society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into the family of God.” Missionary endeavour requires patience. It begins with the proclamation of the Gospel to peoples and groups who do not believe in Christ, continues with the establishment of Christian communities that are “a sign of God’s presence in the world” and leads to the foundation of local churches. It must involve a process of inculturation if the Gospel is to take flesh in each people’s culture.

863 – The whole Church is apostolic, in that she remains, through the successors of St Peter and the other apostles, in communion of faith and life with her origin: and in that she is “sent out” into the whole world. All members of the Church share in this mission, though in various ways. “The Christian vocation is, of its nature, a vocation to the apostolate as well.” Indeed, we call an apostolate “every activity of the Mystical Body” that aims “to spread the Kingdom of Christ over all the earth.”

910 – The laity can also feel called, or be in fact called, to cooperate with their pastors in the service of the ecclesial community, for the sake of its growth and life. This can be done through the exercise of different kinds of ministries according to the grace and charisms which the Lord has been pleased to bestow on them.

KWL

Unit Content 1
KWL Book 5 Chapter 12 Our Church in Australia p117-120

Unit Content 3

# Eastern Catholic Churches poster resource

Prayer

General Capabilities

Australian Curriculum
Cross Curriculum Priorities		The General Capabilities
	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures		Critical and creative thinking
	Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia		Ethical understanding
	Sustainability		Information and communication technology capability
Other important learning identified by the NSW Educational Standards Authority (NESA):			Intercultural understanding
	Civics and citizenship		Literacy
	Difference and diversity		Numeracy
	Work and enterprise		Personal and social capability

C6 – The Eastern Catholic Churches