Mission and Role

Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation

Synod of Bishops, Justice in the World.

The Justice and Peace Office is an agency of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.

Justice and Peace Office Team

Dr Michael Walker

Social Justice Facilitator

Dr Michael Walker has more than 20 years of experience in advocacy, most of it at the SDA trade union. Before that, Michael interned at the Chicago-based Shriver Center on Poverty Law, working on equitable access to public housing and welfare benefits, and volunteered with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Kings Cross.

Michael is Co-chair of the Sydney Alliance Council, is a sessional lecturer at Australian Catholic University and is a member of Christian Life Community, where he has served as Asia-Pacific Animator and as Chair of the New South Wales EXCO.

Email: michael.walker@sydneycatholic.org

Mobile: 0439 584 221

Dr Julie Macken

Research and Project Officer

During the early 1990’s Julie wrote a number of documentaries including, Mary the story of Saint Mary MacKillop, The Business of Saint Making and Muslim Converts, before joining  The Australian Financial Review as a senior writer for over a decade.  From 2007 onward she worked with Federal Labor, the NSW Greens, United Voice (then the LHMU) Greenpeace and more recently, ActionAid. She recently completed her PhD at Western Sydney University into the question of Australia’s treatment of refugees. In 2016 she got together with Carmen Lawrence, Pamela Curr, Wendy Bacon and Claire O’Connor to form, Australian Women in Support of Women on Nauru.She is passionate about changing the way Australia treats those who ask for our protection and how we treat this ancient land.

Email: julie.macken@sydneycatholic.org

Fr Peter Smith

Justice & Peace Promoter

Fr Peter Smith has been a priest of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia since 1985. He is the Promoter of Justice and Peace for the Archdiocese. Peter is also the Parish Priest of the inner city parish of St Columbas North Leichhardt and an adjunct of the University of Notre Dame, Sydney.

Peter is the Co-editor in Chief of Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics. He has published articles on a variety of Social Justice Issues and presented at a number of international conferences including for the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development. He is a co-founder and partner of the Refugee Welcome Centre Lilyfield and a Founding member of The Global Catholic Climate Network (now the Laudato Si’ movement).