PERTH, WA: March 14, 1991
Registered by Australia Post Publication No. WAR 0202
Project Compassion the start of a completely new kind of spirituality
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Down to earth... Project Compassion is the beginning of a completely new kind of spirituality and a new re-direction of Lent, says one of the Church's outstanding lay leaders of this century. "It has given a whole new re-direction to Lent which is the spirituality of the Church redirecting people to the earth, to do something about justice," says Canadian Rom Maione who rase to the top of the world YCW and for the rest of his life worked in trade unions and aid programs. "Project Compassion is the beginning of a corn-
pletely new kind of spirituality that takes the world seriously and not just as a time when we are here as pilgrims. "If we are here as pilgrims we have got to take the world seriously. "Project Compassion and similar projects are one of the great successes of the Post Vatican II church. Even in the Third World itself the Catholic churches are running such programs. "It is other people who spark what is going on within you," he says of a Jewish acquaintance who was struggling to build up a more just society who one day said: "You are a lucky man
because you have got the faith." "I realised that the person who is doing the same work and even better in setting up the Kingdom, but who hasn't got the gift of faith gets sadder as he gets older. "As the Christian gets olders," he says, "there are other people who come behind me and want to continue on the work. We don't know when the Kingdom will come, but it will come. "The joy of participating in a work that will continue way past our time keeps us going right to the end while the person without the faith, but doing exactly the
same thing, needs to be respected because they suffer more than I ever will from the sadness of getting older. "Once we have faith that the world is important and that we are here to make it just a little bit better, there is sufficient to keep on going until the end." Asked whether Project Compassion was just a drop in the bucket he said:
ing per square inch in the First World than in all of the Third World.
"In the Third World there is hardship, poverty, — pornographic poverty. "Ask your grandfather and grandmother what Australia was like in the old days; it was the face of poverty we now have in Third World but it is a hopeful poverty, a poverty that wants to get out of the situation, that wants education for children.
"Ihope it is a drop in the bucket that will ignite because Project Compassion's job is more to help us to rediscover our • "When I feel down I go mission than even in the back into the Third Third World countries. World to meet people "There is more suffer- who in a spiritual way
6.00* COO The rt. ICS
Were raising the standard. DL 1631
Church and my great love of the trade union movement. "Choosing whether to go full time for the YCW or the trade union I went for the YCW because if it hadn't been for the YCW bringing me close to the faith, then I would never have been interested in the trade unions. He went back to the unions but turned away when he realised they were not interested in Third World countries. He took up government work in a $200 million program for overseas aid. "I was going to make damn sure the funds got to the poor of the world and we were matching church funds." After that it was retirement, in the Rom Maione style. "My main work is to be retired; when people ask me to do something I do it," said the man who is "crowding 66". "They sent me down to cover the World Assembly of Churches in Canberra. ("In my old age rye become a journalist") and the Catholic Church which believes in cheap labour has used me as an Australian Catholic Relief promoter . . ."
"We sold arms to Latin America and increased their debt; how they will repay that debt is beyond me but we still insist on our pound of flesh and therefore their development cannot match their population growth. "What I hope is that we 'That is the hope of the will take the ecnomic world into which are structures of society coming billions of people more seriously. who want a better life On the one hand we and are struggling for it. give to the poor to help "When we help these them organise thempeople the structures of selves to a better life but the First World are here in our own countaking back even more tries we must look at the because in the past four World Bank, the Internayears $160 billion has tional Monetary Fund flowed from the Third to and such structures the First World which are all in the countries. hands of the First World."
Robin Hood role...
Holy Spirit at work Rom Maione was "conceived through a camera" says the colourful Canadian of his Italian parents who migrated to Canada in 1913 and 1922. When his mother turned down her family's arranged marriage she had her photo taken and sent it to her aunt in Montreal. When his father who came from just 90 miles away in Italy saw the photo it was love at first sight. "It was an incredible story in which we have to see the Holy Spirit working but only in looking backwards," he says enthusiastically of the marriage and family that followed. His mother, he said, had broken out of the centuries old biological bind of her local village and a whole new life of genes was born. This surprise of life as he calk it was to have its impact on the Church and the world. He joined the YCW in 1948 ("It joined me; it came looking for me") and he stayed with the movement until 1961, becoming finally its international president. "ThenI went back to work for social action and for the
are my own parents. Nowhere do you get better hospitality than in the poorest villages in the world. Sometimes it shames because of the incredible sacrifices they make to offer this hospitality.
Mr Maione. . . outstanding lay leader.
"Not everybody's chosen. Australia and Canada were the first two countries to break from Some are given the faith and the European countries and others trot along behind. The develop a non-patermilistic aid people who say they have the giving office — the Asian faith have the most responsibilPartnership for Human ity others who have not got the Development. gift of faith live on others' faith. "The Church is never going to "Around the table are equal partners: those who are giving have 100 per cent good and those who are receiving leadership. There are people who will do good things, but in money," says Rom Marone. a narrow frame. And there are "We got that idea from the even more good people who Asian Bank; but with them have no faith. those who put the most money "Many young people who do in make the most decisions. not go to church are very strong "We, however, are Christians. on the question of justice and We shouldn't have more votes social action and fair play as because we put more money in. well as ecology. The problem is "Ours is no longer a money that we are not able to give relationship. It is a trusting, them faith roots. friendly relationship that We don't have the faith teaches the culture from the communities to bring them in; inside. too many want to take people "Our paternalism was based away from the world. on sin. We are getting all this "We must not only bring money from the Third World young people into the world and giving a little bit back to but go into the world to help the them. young people who are already "We are like Robin Hood, we struggling and there we may say 'It's your money, you discover the faith. decide what to do with it.'" "Faith today is going to be Asked why the burden of discovered by witnesses. My appeals like Project Compas- Jewish friend saw in me sion had to be carried by the something he did not have same few he said: himself."
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