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WA's only Catholic weekly newspaper
Perth: October 24, 1996
Fishers of fish seek help from Mother of the Fisher of Men
Western Australia's Catholic bishops have backed attempts by Prime Minister John Howard and Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley to develop a bipartisan understanding on immigration pollqr. They have also urged a similar joint approach to the welfare of Aborigines. The criticism of, and support for, the maiden speech of the Independent member for the Queensland federal parliamentary seat of Cbdey, Pauline Hanson, has forced both leaders to act to stop sions in Australian society from being exacerbated. Ms Hanson questioned many of the arguments underpinning current immigration and Aboriginal policy. The bishops - Archbishop Barry Hickey, Bishop Peter Quinn of Bunbury. Bishop Peter Bianchini of GeraIldton IL and Bishop Christopher Saunders of Broome - said after their meeting in Perth last week they wanted to support publicly moves to formulate a bi-partisan approach on the two issues. "The possibility of developing policy on such matters in an atmosphere beyond party politics would be less divisive for our society and more constructive", they said. A common policy would protect the rights of all people to be treated with respect. "It is =fortunate that some figures in public life have recently made outrageous remarks about Aborigines and Asians - remarks that detracted from their dignity," the bishops said. "They were unjust and inflammatory statements that drove a wedge through the Australian nation." The bishops said that Mr Howard and Mr Beazley were
examining the possibility of developing a joint approach to public policy on immigration. Hopefully this would also take place in Aboriginal policy. If these vital issues could be addressed in a way that could be outside the pressums of party politics, it would be "a sensitive move and paid tribute to the Australian notion of fair-play and fair mindedness." "We welcome any determined effort that encourages unity for our country and enhances our integrity as a nation. "There is much that Australia can be proud of in its history. "To recognise the rights of the first nation indigenous people of Australia - and to affirm the dignity of newcomers who seek to make a home on these shores, is to promote fairness in the land and to add significantly to the pride we have about ounelves as a just-minded people. " The Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office in Canberra also entered the debate. praising Australia's openness to migrants and refugees and pointing to the benefits of this openness. ACMRO director Father John J. Murphy said that while all Australians had the right to comment on what they thought was best for Australia's future, the way in which some people were doing it was "saddening." "The tone of a number of remarks is hurtful and offensive to many migrants and refugees who have been accepted to live in Australia, who have the right to be here, and who also have the right to speak," Fr Murphy said in a statement last week Australia's record in responding to the problems of refugees and migrants, particularly since World War 2, had been "one of the best, if not the best."
Archbishop Barry Hickey, top left, blesses the fishing fleet atop a vessel at Fremantle last Sunday al the beginning of the cray fishing season. The ceremony took place after a colourful procession in honour of Mary, the Mother of God seeking her intercession for a safe season and a successful catch. The procession wound its way through the narrow streets of the Port of Fremantle, halting traffic on an unseasonably hot afternoon.
Brothers' family gives thanks St Mary's Cathedral was packed last Sunday for the Christian Brothers celebration and thanicsgiving for the beatification in Rome earlier this month of the founder of the Brothers, Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice. The leader of the Christian Brothers Province of Western Australia and South Australia. Br Tony Shanahan told the joyful congregation it had been a real privilege and a feeling of tremendous excitement to be part of the crowd of more than 50,000 gathered in St Peter's Square on 6 October. But he reminded the WA friends of the Brothers that, for him, the real spirit of the Christian Brothers rested in the streets of the Irish town of Waterford where Blessed Edmund began his work with poor boys in the early 1800s. Br Shanahan said that it was the streets and doc.ks of Waterford where Blessed Edmund met and knew its people. In particular he saw the children, wild. ignorant and without a future. Blessed Edmund then sat for long hours in St. Patrick's Church and the chapel at Mt. Sion before the Blessed Sacrament pondering in the company of Jesus Christ what he had seen and heard and smelt and felt in the streets of the city. "He saw famine, he saw dysentery, typhoid, hunger, dirt and disease," Br Shanahan saiii "He saw broken people - he would have seen men publicly flogged through the streets of Waterford for stealing something as petty as a bag of coal. "He saw destitute nual families trudging homeless, after famine and failure on the land, into the town where their hopes of employment and a new life would turn out to be an illusion. He saw beggars and the cripples and the poor." Yet Blessed Edmund answered the question: "Lord when did we ever see you hungry .... thirsty . . . . a stranger . . . . naked" by seeing Him in the
n• packed cathedral last Sunday faces of the poor around him and acting to help them with schools, a bakery and a tailor's shop. Br Shanahan also reminded the congregation that the question the Jews asked was waiting to be answered today in Perth, continuing the near 200 year old tradition of the Brothers. Continued on Page 5
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