PERTH, WA: November 30, 1989
Registered by Australia Post Publication No. WAR 0202
Number 2664
POST ADDRESS: PO Box 50, Northbridge, 6000 W.A. LOCATION: 26 John St, Northbridge (east off Fitzgerald St).
TELEPHONE: (09) 328 1388
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Thanks for your care and concern
She looks at you searchingly, follows every movement and if it pleases her she'll break out into an approving smile. Baby Baleska was born in Chile seven months ago. She came to Perth with her parents Jaime and Marcela Cubillos as refugees only five months ago. They fled Chile after Jaime was released from prison for being a political activist. He could not agree with the dictatorship that has existed in Chile for the last 16 years.
Now they can breathe the sweet smell of freedom. Now they can knit into a democratic society. Baby Baleska, her parents together with other newly-arrived refugees from Chile, El Salvador and Cambodia, had an early dose of Christmas joy last Sunday. The Catholic Migrant Centre organised for the first time a Christmas picnic at King's Park. Also present were some of those helping to resettle refugees.
As baby Baleska watched the merrymaking she broke into adorable smiles and chuckles, as if to say "it's my party too." After all, it was her very first Christmas and chances are that there will be many, many more in Australia. Chances are, too, that she may never spend a single Christmas in her homeland. If she ever does, Chile will have to change for the better. And father knows best . . . LL
My night of horror in Chile
Baby Baleska is captured here in an inquisitive mood. The partly hidden man in the background is John Cochoran, who is helping to make the family feel welcome in Perth.
Pope-Gorbachev talks special
P. 10
P. 11
Gear up for migrants
Father Dino Torresan . . . another book.
The Catholic Church in Perth must brace itself for the migratory trend so much in evidence here.
and • Re-thinking reformulating our liturgical expressions of the new members of our Christian family.
That's the opinion of Scalabranian priest, Father Dino Torresan, who listed three major challenges facing the archdiocese in the light of current happenings. In his latest book, A Dream, A Journey and Some Shoes, Father Dino said that the Church had to prepare itself for • A new and fresh theological presentation of the Gospel Message (different from the traditional European one). • A truly Australian Catholic identity.
Said Father Dino: "These, I think, are the major challenges which must be faced by the Catholic Church in Perth, if we are going to prepare a Church which is alive and fit for Australia 2000."
He said statistics pointed to a continuing
He noted that major groupings migrant
tended to concentrate in specific areas. As such there was a need for a specific assistance to these migrant groups. This meant helping overcome the language barrier, cultural shock, cultural and religious differences. There was also a need for Migrant Social Workers and Migrant Chaplains to possess and actualise a "global vision" of Church, so as to avoid the formation of ghetto mentalities or the sterile stagnation in past traditions. "New migrations are coming to Australia, and specifically to WA," he noted.
Rather, it is the bishops' responsibility to ensure that changes conform to the teaching of the church and respect the dignity of its tradition.
"In your country, the people are not all from the same culture and your church must take that into account," he said. "The fact that you chose Rome as your meeting place is a proof, if any proof is needed, that you recognize that the Catholic Church is a universal church," the cardinal said. At the same time, he
said, "the church is like a good mother who cares for her children, for those who are fat and those who are thin, those who are tall and those who are short, those who need much and those who need little." While there are essential matters of faith which are the same for everyone in the church, the cardinal said, "there is room for flexibility."
In his book, Father Dino stressed among other things, that the Church in Perth is a "multicultural Church" which had 34.7 per cent of its members overseas born people.
trend "for many years to come . ."
With more than a half of the Perth Catholic population still with either one or both parents born overseas it meant that: • the variety of birthplaces is reflected in the Church's pews and Schools. • the different cultural background of families is shown in specific manners of worshipping. • we cannot forget the socio-religious implications that such a variety of religious cultures bring to the Church as a whole.
That meant: • an urgent need for "inculturation" within the structures of the local Church, inculturation about the Asian, South Asian and Pacific cultures. • a deep knowledge, on the part of leaders, of the cultural-religious traditions of the people they serve. • the need of information courses on Asian, Southern Asian, Pacific cultures, and any other cultures present in our geographical region: the last done as part of an "aggiomamento" period for Clergy, Religious and Lay-people involved in the apostolate of the Archdiocese.
Because the whole person is created in God's image, "we praise God with what we have. . . our way of vesting, of cooking, of speaking, of singing," he said.
Changes can only be made after close study ROME (CNS): Local c hurches must reflect local culture, but "inculturation is not a frantic effort to make everyone happy," said Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Vatican official and former archbishop in Nigeria. When a country has many different cultures, like in the United States, efforts at inculturation must be "nuanced", Cardinal Arinze told
some 100 U.S. black "The church has a Catholics meeting in tradition that has come Rome. from 2000 years, so we To reflect the best of any can't act like it started given culture, Cardinal with us today," he said. Arinze said, changes can "That doesn't mean we be made only after won't change, but it takes intense study, debate and time." consultation. Speaking as the former "Time does not respect what is done without it," archbishop of Onitsha, said the cardinal, who is Nigeria, he said, "you president of the Pontifi- cannot expect the cal Council for Interreli- bishops to be on the front line of change." gious Dialogue.
"To leave the church is not the answer," he said. "The growth of the African community will help the church to be more Catholic." Cardinal Arinze said during his Nov 13 remarks.
By claiming the best of the African-American culture, "you have the opportunity to help people feel at home in the Catholic Church," he said.