The Francis Effect III: The Mission of Love and Mercy

“ I have often thought of how the Church may render more clear her mission to be witness to mercy.”

Misericordiae Vultus, Pope Francis

Mission of

Love Mercy and

THE

FRANCIS EFFECT III

Mission of

Love Mercy and

THE

FRANCIS EFFECT III

Edited by: Danielle Achikian, Peter Gates and Lana Turvey-Collins

We acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, waters, culture and community. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and future and we thank and honour them for their sacrifice and stewardship.

For more information on Catholic Mission please visit www.catholicmission.org.au For more information on Catholic Religious Australia please visit www.catholicreligiousaustralia.org.au Published by Catholic Mission and Catholic Religious Australia PO Box 1668 North Sydney, NSW 2059 Copyright ©2017. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-646-97077-6 Except as provided by the Australian copyright law, no part of this book may be reproduced in any way without written permission from the publisher.

The passages contained herein are from the written papal documents published by the Vatican.

Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia of the Holy Father Francis to Bishops, Priests and Deacons, Consecrated Persons, Christian Married Couples and all the Lay Faithful on Love in the Family, 2016.

Announcement and Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy Misericordiae Vultus of Francis the Bishop of Rome, Servant of the Servants of God, to all who read this letter Grace, Mercy and Peace, 2015.

Apostolic Encyclical Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis on Care for our Common Home, 2015.

Apostolic to the Bishops Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium of the Holy Father Francis to the Bishops, Clergy, Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World, 2013.

Copyright © 2013, 2015, 2016 Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 00120 Cittá del Vaticano. All rights reserved.

Book design: Smarta by Design Cover photo: ©Reuters Used with Permission.

Inside photos: Author’s own Please note: The opinions and observations contained in this book are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Catholic Mission and Catholic Religious Australia.

Printed by a waterless printer on 100% carbon neutral recycled paper.

Contents: 03

Ms Lana Turvey-Collins Preface Mr Peter Gates

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Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO The Mission of Love and Mercy

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Ms Patricia O’Gorman

Leadership, Women and the Mission of Love and Mercy

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Mrs Evelyn Enid Parkin

Aboriginal Theology: An Australian Faith Identity

27

Dr John Falzon

Fighting Injustice and Inequality: A Revolution of Love and Mercy

35

Mr Benjamin Oh

Inclusive Church: ‘Who Am I to Judge?’

43

Fr Peter Maher OAM

Mercy and Healing: Rediscovering Hope after Abortion

49

Mr Martin Laverty

Catholic Human Services: Servant to the Poor? Or Servant to the System?

55

Ms Jocelyn Bignold

Works of Love and Mercy: Responding to Family Violence

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ACRATH

Human Trafficking: Modern-Day Slavery

67

Mr Luke Tobin & Family Love and Mercy in Our Family: A Reflection on Amoris Laetitia

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Fr Noel Connolly SSC

Preparing to be a Synodal Church

79

Unwritten Chapter of Love and Mercy

81

Living Your Mission of Love and Mercy

83

Mercy Examen

84

Acknowledgements

85

Contributing Authors

89

Further Reading

90

Website References

91

Notes

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THE FRANCIS EFFECT III – MISSION OF LOVE AND MERCY

Preface

“We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy. It is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends on it. Mercy: the word reveals the very mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. Mercy: the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us. Mercy: the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the path of life. Mercy: the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.” (MV1) Pope Francis continues to inspire, challenge, provoke and motivate. His leadership has been one deeply committed to the teachings of Jesus, the core of the Gospel and the lived experience of his sisters and brothers. At the heart of his leadership is a message of a loving and merciful God. In recent years there have been significant ‘moments’ in our global Church which have provided the inspiration and theme for this book. The 2014 and 2015 Synods on the family were held, deliberately one year apart, to enable discernment and dialogue, culminating in the publication of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia on the Joy of Love in the Family.

During this time and amidst the synodal process, Pope Francis announced the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy bringing ‘mercy’ to the forefront of every facet of Church life. Mercy entered Church vernacular in a way it had never done THE FRANCIS EFFECT III – MISSION OF LOVE AND MERCY

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before. Opening the ‘door of mercy’ and inviting all of us “… to look beyond, focus on the heart” he encouraged the Church to become “the house where everyone is welcomed and no one is rejected”.1 The Francis Effect III: Mission of Love and Mercy has been published by Catholic Mission and Catholic Religious Australia’s Mission Network as the third in The Francis Effect series as a way of inviting all of our Church family to engage in dialogue about how we are called to become a more loving and merciful Church.

We felt compelled to contribute something that gathers the voices of our Church family. We offer this book as a tool of mission formation. The authors have taken great inspiration from Jesus’ ministry and mission, and the leadership, teaching and lived example of Pope Francis. Each reflection invites you to grapple with the tensions and complexities, to dialogue with people of diverse perspectives and respond positively to the call to live and lead a mission of love and mercy, to bring about the Reign of God in our Australian context.

Frank Brennan begins by reflecting on the effect Pope Francis is having on our global Church and the world. He discusses the place of conscience in our contemporary moral quandaries of being a loving and merciful Church and challenges whether righteousness, justice and truth are enough.

Patricia O’Gorman writes of the unique giftedness women offer the Church and questions whether we are truly able to become the kind of Church Pope Francis writes of if women are “on the margins”, rather than forming a significant part of Church leadership.

Evelyn Parkin, a Quandamooka woman, shares of her struggle to continue to hope for an inculturated Australian faith identity where we all share in an understanding of Aboriginal theology and spirituality and the riches it has to offer the Australian Catholic Church.

John Falzon declares that fighting justice and inequality requires each one of us to join in creating a ‘Beatitudan’ revolution of love and mercy. He asks us to rethink our understanding of ‘substantive equality’.

Benjamin Oh and Peter Maher invite us to consider how inclusive and welcoming we are for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex, for people who have experienced abortion and for others who may feel unwelcomed or excluded by Church.

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Martin Laverty writes of the tension between “mission and margin”, he calls Church to “appraise its mission priorities” and presents three points for consideration to model “brave, but merciful leadership” in Catholic human services.

Jocelyn Bignold, reflects on the work of the Church in response to family violence and ACRATH write of the efforts of Church and religious congregations towards eradicating human trafficking. Juxtaposition concepts from love and mercy, but the very heart of where The Francis Effect is calling us to live and lead mission.

In direct response to Amoris Laetitia, Mel and Luke Tobin and their three sons; Jack, Billy and Paddy, write their reflection on the Joy of Love and provide insight into some of the challenges of faith, love and mercy in their family life.

They invite us to consider how we are a merciful, responsive and loving Church for the myriad of all families who face the joys, challenges and dynamic realities of contemporary Australian life.

Noel Connolly provides wisdom and teaching on how our Australian Church could become what Pope Francis names as a “synodal Church”. He writes that this is critical if we are to respond authentically to The Francis Effect and become a more loving and merciful Church in the manner Pope Francis describes. He reminds us of the words in Evangelii Gaudium describing a “synodal Church” as a more “discerning, decentralised and consultative Church” and that achieving this will require “clear and enabling structures” and some significant changes in Church culture.

This reflection is particularly important for our contemporary Australian Church as we are challenged to prepare for the Plenary Council to be held in 2020. The Australian Catholic Bishops have called us to consider the future of the Australian Church. Speaking about becoming a “synodal Church” and preparing for the Plenary Council 2020, Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge said: “Our task … first, is to identify the facts on the ground; the second is to identify the grace of the moment. Pope Francis has helped us do both. It’s up to all of us now—boldly and imaginatively, humbly and faithfully—to take the path that will lead us not only into a future for the Church in Australia but out of the desert and home to the Garden where Cain can finally embrace Abel, his brother.”2 Finally, the Unwritten Chapter of Love and Mercy at the end of this book is for you to share your voice. We invite you to write you own reflection on The Francis Effect: Mission of Love and Mercy.

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Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia writes about the need to find a way to slow down and deepen our relationships with one another: “Love needs time and space; everything else is secondary” (AL224). We hope that reading the reflections in this book is a moment when time slows down, space is created and where you encounter the living mission of God’s unconditional love and tender mercy.

Ms Lana Turvey-Collins Mission Formation Team Co-Leader, Catholic Mission.

Mr Peter Gates Deputy National Director, Catholic Mission

“Pope Francis’ leadership of our universal Church is showing the world what it is to be truly Catholic. He is indeed having a great effect. The authors invite you to consider their perspective. Some of their opinions might be challenging for some, even disconcerting. This can be the beginning of a respectful dialogue, leading to greater mutual understanding.”

Fr Brian Lucas National Director, Catholic Mission

Pope Francis, The Announcement of the Jubilee of Mercy, Misericordiae Vultus, Vatican City, 2015.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge, From Wandering to Journeying: Thoughts on a Synodal Church, Cardinal Knox Lecture, Catholic Theological College, Victoria 2016.

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THE FRANCIS EFFECT III – MISSION OF LOVE AND MERCY

Love Mercy The Mission of

and

Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO Chief Executive Officer, Catholic Social Services Australia

“The hero of this encounter is certainly love, a mercy which goes beyond justice.” Misericordiae Vultus Pope Francis is having a great effect on the Church and our world. He has put love and mercy front and centre in all he says and does. He is a Pope for our times. He is a response and a complement to his immediate predecessors. Under the leadership and example of Pope Francis, accompaniment, discernment, conscience and mercy are given their due place alongside distinctive Catholic identity, moral certainty, definitive teaching, and notions of commutative, distributive and social justice. He sets out not to provide definitive answers or end points; rather he is a disruptor wanting to shake up everyone, in and out of Church, inviting them to question their starting points and their motivations, leading a Church

which is more like a field hospital than a basilica, a Church which is a pointer to a crucified and resurrected Christ rather than a final destination with all the answers. His example and leadership are beacons for guiding our own Australian response, showing that if we are to be more loving and more merciful, we may need to be more disruptive and counter-cultural in what we do as Church.

… we may need to be more disruptive and counter-cultural in what we do as Church.

Pope Francis is comfortable in his own skin and intimately familiar with

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the ways of the world and daily life.

His pastoral stance resonates strongly with the lived experience of so many people confronting the mess and complexity of modern life. He insists that “individual conscience needs to be better incorporated into the Church’s praxis” and that “conscience can do more than recognise that a given situation does not correspond objectively to the overall demands of the Gospel. It can also recognise with sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response which can be given to God, and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God himself is asking amid the concrete complexity of one’s limits, while yet not fully the objective ideal” (AL303). It’s not simply a matter of applying universal rules to a particular situation nor of arguing casuistically to render one’s situation as compliance with the rules. Rather it is a matter of “practical discernment” (AL304) practised by friends in the Lord who accompany each other, engaging in spiritual conversation.

Rather it is a matter of “practical discernment” practised by friends in the Lord who accompany each other, engaging in spiritual conversation.

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Pope Francis has his own way of calling his listeners and interlocutors to an account of conscience. He does so using an inclusive, welcoming and slightly cheeky approach evident in his address to the United States Congress in September 2015. He commenced: “I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of Congress in ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave’. I would like to think that the reason for this is that I too am a son of this great continent, from which we have all received so much and toward which we share a common responsibility.”1 He lulled his listeners into the proud contentment of national identity before turning the tables and establishing a shared geographic identity, underpinning their shared responsibility for the stranger and the one in need south of the Mexican border.

We Australian Catholics inevitably see our Pope through the prism of our own social circumstances, including the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the radical decline in Australian vocations to the priesthood and religious life, the increasing secularization of public life and the marginalization of the Catholic hierarchy in the public square. The bold, confident, assertive Catholicism exemplified by Pope John Paul II flanked by Cardinal George Pell

THE FRANCIS EFFECT III – MISSION OF LOVE AND MERCY

has given way to the more humble, tentative, searching Catholicism of the five senior Australian archbishops appearing before the Royal Commission seeking answers to the clear questions put by a female barrister appearing as senior counsel assisting the Royal Commission.

One of Australia’s newest bishops, Vincent Long, himself a migrant, refugee and victim of sexual abuse in the Church told the Royal Commission: “I think we really need to examine seriously that kind of model of Church where it promotes the superiority of the ordained and it facilitates that power imbalance between the ordained and the nonordained, which in turn facilitates that attitude of clericalism.”2

The Church, like life, is more complex than a series of choices between binary options.

The Church, like life, is more complex than a series of choices between binary options. Pope Francis embodies and exemplifies the balancing and reconciling of conflicts, knowing that most of us act most of the time with a diversity of motivations, seeking the greater good in the midst of the mess and

complexity of life, seeing that many situations are multi-coloured or grey rather than simply black or white.

… the Holy Spirit is at work in the ambiguity and complexity of our lives.

The quest for certainty and truth is an important part of our individual and communal quest as followers of Jesus. But we must remember that the Holy Spirit is at work in the ambiguity and complexity of our lives.

Pope Francis gives us hope precisely because he has the humility and openness to tell us: “I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a Mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, ‘always does what good she can, even if in the process, her shoes get soiled by the mud of the street’.” (AL308) We are members of a Church which in our lifetime has failed to protect its most vulnerable members – children. We are citizens of a country which actively pursues a policy of exclusion for those who are seeking refuge from global wars, which in part are atrocities borne of wealthy nation states draining natural resources for their own over-consumption.

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We are beneficiaries of an international economic order which cheats billions of our sisters and brothers the opportunities to achieve their own human flourishing in community. We are all in need of God’s forgiveness and loving mercy.

Pope Francis tells us to hope. He is adamant: “No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!” (AL297)

Pope Francis tells us to hope. He is adamant: “No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!”

Pope Francis recognises there is no easy solution to any of the great moral quandaries of modern life. He makes no pretence at providing ready answers by papal decree which is unsettling for those who would look to the Papacy and the Magisterium for certainty and unambiguous rulings.

Concluding his Encyclical Laudato Si’ on Care for our Common Home he said that he had found his lengthy reflection “both joyful and troubling” (LS246). His Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia commences with the observation that “not all discussions of doctrinal, moral or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions

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of the magisterium” (AL3). He tells us that “everyone should feel challenged” (AL7) by the chapter entitled “Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating Weakness”. This is a distinct difference of approach to papal leadership than that of Pope Francis’ immediate predecessors. This more nuanced response resists clear cut definitions and judgements which may exclude; rather it keeps God’s tenderness, love and mercy at the core.

This more nuanced response resists clear cut definitions and judgements which may exclude; rather it keeps God’s tenderness, love and mercy at the core.

In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis writes: “We have long thought that simply by stressing doctrinal, bioethical and moral issues, without encouraging openness to grace, we were providing sufficient support to families, strengthening the marriage bond and giving meaning to marital life. We … find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We have been

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called to form consciences, not to replace them.” (AL37)

“We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.”

He says that a person can be living in God’s grace while “in an objective situation of sin” (AL305), and that the sacraments, including the Eucharist might help, because the Eucharist “is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak”.3 It’s the sick and supplicant who need the doctor, not the well and the righteous. Speaking to the Bishops of the United States, some of whom have been great warriors in the culture wars fearlessly declaring Catholic doctrine in the public square, Pope Francis told them that “we are promoters of the culture of encounter” and “living sacraments of the embrace between God’s riches and our poverty”. He heralded an altogether different approach: “Harsh and divisive language does not befit the tongue of a pastor; it has no place in his heart. Although it may momentarily seem to win the day, only the enduring allure of goodness and love remains truly convincing.”4

love and mercy. When meeting the President of Rwanda, he spoke of “a future of peace, witnessing to the concrete possibility of living and working together, once the dignity of the human person and the common good are put at the centre”.5 For him, righteousness, justice and truth are not enough, though they be espoused and cherished. He draws us to those realms of the heart and human affairs which cry out for that love and mercy – where justice and certainty are not the whole picture and where they are just not enough. His abiding effect is to engender hope that love and mercy can be faithfully expressed in the midst of the ordinary, the messy and the complex.

His abiding effect is to engender hope that love and mercy can be faithfully expressed in the midst of the ordinary, the messy and the complex.

Pope Francis continues to delight and console me because he believes in the all conquering power of God’s THE FRANCIS EFFECT III – MISSION OF LOVE AND MERCY

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Apostolic journey of His Holiness Pope Francis to Cuba and the United States, Address of the Holy Father

1

to the United States Congress, 24/09/2015.

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Transcript, Day 252, p. 25779 3 Amoris Laetitia, footnote 351 4

Apostolic journey of His Holiness Pope Francis to Cuba and the United States, Meeting with the Bishops 2

of the USA, Address of the Holy Father, Cathedral of Saint Matthew, 23/09/2015 https://w2.vatican.va/ content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/september/documents/papa-francesco_20150923_usa-vescovi.html 5 See http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2017/03/20/170320c.html

Questions:

1. What dimensions of the mission of love and mercy does Frank Brennan bring into focus for you?

2. After reading this reflection, how can Pope Francis’ leadership and teaching influence the way you live and lead your mission of love and mercy?

3. Frank Brennan highlights how Pope Francis has re-emphasised the importance of conscience. What are the challenges and benefits of using conscience and practical discernment as a significant part of Church praxis?

4. Why does Frank Brennan suggest that for Pope Francis “righteousness, justice and truth are not enough, though they be espoused and cherished.” What might this mean in practice for your parish, organisation or ministry?

5. In 2020 we will have a plenary council to plan for the future of the Australian Church. We are being asked to consider ‘the facts on the ground’ and ‘to identify the grace of the moment’. What ‘facts’ and ‘graces’ are considered in this reflection?

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Leadership, Women

and the Mission of Love and Mercy

Ms Patricia O’Gorman Director of Mission Integration, Good Samaritan Education

“Being Church means being God’s people … The Church must be a place of mercy freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel.”

Evangelii Gaudium 114

In the four years since Pope Francis began his journey to becoming, who Vanity Fair has dubbed ‘the people’s pontiff’, he has presented to us a courageous and empowering dream of a revitalised, more merciful, more forgiving, more loving, more human, inclusive Church, a missionary Church with a strong commitment to those on the margins. His words and his actions have exhorted us to become “a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security” (EG49).

His personal witness has nourished and shaped, challenged and energised us to bring the Good News of the Gospel to all areas of social and political activity and into our ways of working and leading. His message has been a clarion call to connect to the reality of people’s lives, to make the Church a ‘verb’ again. Pope Francis’ vision is Good News indeed, giving hope, unleashing energy and firing the imagination of many committed people, like me, who work in areas of governance, leadership and formation within various Catholic organisations.

We are encouraged to believe that there just might emerge a more inclusive, wholesome, welcoming Church which is more tolerant, more patient, more

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tender. We dare to hope that there may arise renewed cosmologies, theologies and teachings that engage with and reflect the lived experience of all people, especially women.

We dare to hope that there may arise renewed cosmologies, theologies and teachings that engage with and reflect the lived experience of all people, especially women.

As a woman in the Church I have often felt on the margins excluded from full participation in many areas of Church life, leadership and governance. One of the lingering memories of my childhood is standing longingly at the door of the sacristy as my brother donned the garb of an altar server while I was banished to the pews. Even the parish priest’s Old English sheepdog was allowed onto the sanctuary, but I was not. It was the first of many ways I noticed that women were treated differently in Church. They were certainly in the choir loft, making the cups of tea, arranging the flowers and polishing the brass on a Saturday morning but never up front and leading the community. In high school it was the

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Sisters who presented one of the few alternative role models to being wives and mothers in the Church. This was explored wonderfully in the 1991 television mini-series Brides of Christ.

The character of Diane (formally Sr Catherine) describes eloquently the witness of the sisters: “That’s the way it was with these women. When you called into question everything they stood for, when you spat, complained and argued, they returned love. I was surrounded by strong, luminous women intent on doing good.” These strong, luminous women opened my eyes to the New Testament, to the Gospels and the teachings of Vatican II encouraging a deep desire to participate in and be Church.

Galatians 3:28 became my manifesto: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female.” Powerful lessons about compassion, social justice and equality in the eyes of God however, could not hide the proof that in the eyes of the Church, women were relegated to a supporting role.

Why do I remain a Catholic I often ask myself?

My answer is usually ‘because it is who I am’.

Working in Catholic education for nearly forty years I have been asked

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over and over why I continue to work for an institution that frequently misses the mark of its own teachings and fails more than half of its members. Why do I remain a Catholic I often ask myself? My answer is usually ‘because it is who I am’. My Catholic identity is in my bones, embedded in the way I view the world and myself. It is part of my DNA and the Church’s faith, its ritual, its social teachings and its many expressions of mission give my life meaning and context. The Church needs me to stay and to question. Many years ago, I was given this quote attributed to John Gaden which still speaks truth for me: “I survive on the periphery and try not to get too involved in all the clap-trap and self-destructive silly stuff that goes on. I look for the company of similar types both in my Church and in others, people who hang loose to the institution, but burn with the vision of Jesus and God’s commonwealth of justice and love.

Like me they stay linked to the Church because it is the only community officially committed to keeping the memory of Jesus alive, and that is all-important for its dangerous and subversive power.”1 I refuse to leave the Church I love and despite its many failings it is where I belong and it is from within its heart for mission that I can contribute to the ‘project of love’2 required by Pope Francis.

Pope Francis is calling all those who work in the different fields of mission … to join him in planting and cultivating the seeds of change.

Pope Francis is calling all those who work in the different fields of mission, whether in education, health, social welfare or as part of the growing numbers of ministerial public juridic person entities (PJPs), to join him in planting and cultivating the seeds of change. We are called to effect a mission of love and mercy, a mission which “is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the community, from service, from reconciliation with others” (EG88). Our work and leadership actions must influence the transformation of the Church. The message is clear, the way things are, is not the way things have to be. Indeed, the reign of God demands otherwise.

Speaking from my experience in Catholic education, though committed to fostering communio and sharing in the mission of God, we are not yet an ecclesial community which lets the Gospel touch every dimension of its reality; we are not yet fully actualised agents of the reign of God. We continue to grow in our spiritual

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awareness, theological understanding, vocational motivation and capabilities for mission, yet we recognise much is still to be addressed concerning the internal life of the Church. We accompany the wounded humanity in our school communities, we struggle when issues of inclusion and equality are not addressed and we yearn for the transformational leadership required to bring about a rebirth of the Church.

moving into new frontiers, and working to bridge the widening gap between the Church and the reality of the people’s lives with whom we work.

Leadership for this mission of love and mercy demands that we become risk takers for the sake of the Gospel …

Pope Francis has been purposeful in underscoring the ‘evil’ of clericalism and the structural imbalance that has skewed people’s understanding and experience of Church. Clericalism, with its failure to dialogue and engage with people, results in a homogenisation of the laity which limits the Church’s mission says Pope Francis. “Clericalism, far from inspiring various contributions and proposals, gradually extinguishes the prophetic flame of which the entire Church is called to bear witness in the heart of her peoples.”3

In our own Australian context the fallout from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has brought into sharp focus the ramifications of an abuse of power, privilege and participation in the Church which has led to the loss of credibility and a perception of moral bankruptcy. We have to work together to acknowledge our failings as a Church and examine the structures and culture that have brought us to this place. Leadership for this mission of love and mercy demands that we become risk takers for the sake of the Gospel, pushing the boundaries of love and inclusion,

Holding this tension up to our face Pope Francis identifies what is required of leadership to effect change.

It is mercy, he reminds us, that builds “the bridge that connects God and humanity, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness” (MV2). Mercy calls for leadership that will rebuild hope and morale and work to reclaim the heart of the Church. It requires leadership that will take time to name and lament the brokenness in our midst, leadership that will commit to strong and deep actions to shift culture and bring about attitudinal change at every level within the Church. It

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requires leadership capable of striking new paths, investing in new structures and processes for guiding the Church — no easy task.

Mercy calls for leadership that will rebuild hope and morale and work to reclaim the heart of the Church.

In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis writes “Love needs time and space; everything else is secondary” (AL224).

He continues by describing his vision for Church: “I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a Mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, ‘always does what good she can, even if in the process, her shoes get soiled by the mud of the street’.” (AL308) Pope Francis poignantly has reminded us that we are not living in an era of change but rather a change of era that calls on us to hold firm to the constancy of the Gospel which is a message of joy, a message of mercy, a message of love.

poor and the oppressed. May there be raised a Church that knows humility, a Church willing to go to the margins and dwell in the frontier spaces, a Church willing to accompany others amid the ambiguities and complexities of life.

May there emerge a Church that dares to imagine gender-blind leadership in the ‘Body’; recognising the Spirit at work in all its baptised members. As co-creators of this vision of hope may we continue to work at the coalface of the Church seeking new opportunities for growing more deeply in our identity and mission as followers of Christ.

Out of the tomb of our messy, emergent times may there be resurrected a more inclusive and synodal Church concerned for the reign of God, a Church that stands on the side of the vulnerable, the poor and the oppressed.

Out of the tomb of our messy, emergent times may there be resurrected a more inclusive and synodal Church concerned for the reign of God, a Church that stands on the side of the vulnerable, the

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Source unknown.

Boff, Leonardo, The Magna Carta of holistic Ecology: cry of the earth/cry of the poor, online: 02/07/2015. https:// leonardoboff.wordpress.com/2015/07/02/the-magna-carta-of-holistc-ecology-cry-of-the-earth-cry-of-the-poor/ 3 Latin American Plenary Assembly, April 26, 2016 1 2

Questions:

1. What dimensions of the mission of love and mercy does Patricia O’Gorman bring into focus for you?

2. After reading this reflection, how can Pope Francis’ example and teaching influence the leadership, culture and structures in the Australian Church?

3. How might the Australian Church be enriched by the leadership of women?

4. Patricia O’Gorman writes: “Leadership for this mission of love and mercy demands that we become risk takers for the sake of the Gospel.” What ‘risks’ do you think we need to take?

5. In 2020 we will have a plenary council to plan for the future of the Australian Church. We are being asked to consider ‘the facts on the ground’ and ‘to identify the grace of the moment’. What ‘facts’ and ‘graces’ are considered in this reflection?

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Theology:

A n Australian Faith Identity

Mrs Evelyn Enid Parkin Quandamooka woman of Moreton Bay. Queensland Representative, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council

“For when you share the noble traditions of your community, you also witness to the power of the Gospel to perfect and purify every society, and in this way God’s holy will is accomplished.”

Letter to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, 2016, Pope Francis

My faith story

My name is Evelyn Enid Parkin and I am fourth generation Catholic. I am passionate about the spirituality, identity and relationship with the Holy Trinity and the people of this ancient land, Australia. My journey as an Aboriginal Christian woman is a continuing life story with God and how God made himself known from the time I was a little girl growing up in my community called ‘One Mile’. In my family, we worshipped the Holy Trinity from a western point of view and as a child, it seemed to me that everything was fine for all of us to do so.

But there was a void within me. I remember sitting in Church in silence

and although I didn’t understand the Mass in Latin, I found that language was not a barrier. It did not stop me from feeling connected to God. I loved Jesus and he filled the void in my heart.

As I grew older, I wanted to explore an Aboriginal theology. When I began my search for direction, one of the many steps I took was studying a Diploma of Theology at Wontulp-Bi-Buya College. During my studies, I struggled with the divide between being Aboriginal and being Christian. I did not want my identity to be divided into two parts and it was some time before I understood that I didn’t have to be white to be

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Christian. I found inspiration in Rainbow Spirit Theology: “God does not speak to us first and foremost through European and Western theology.”1 These introductory studies broadened my view and some things began to fall into place, but I knew there was more to understand.

I found inspiration in Rainbow Spirit Theology: “God does not speak to us first and foremost through European and Western theology.”

One day I heard God say to me “Evelyn, why don’t you go and find out who you really are.” It was then that my spirit led me on a journey of renewing my ancient spirituality in the depths of myself. Over time I listened to my Elders and Ancestors, spent time researching in the western way and studying theology, spirituality, ritual, tradition and faith praxis in the many areas of Aboriginal culture and Christianity, eventually achieving a Masters of Theology at the University of Queensland in 2006.

What is an Aboriginal Theology?

We did not have name tags for these things; it was and still is, a lived experience. Aboriginal theology is

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about a way of life entwined with a Higher Power who is known by many names. I have come to use the name “The Creator Spirit” and I believe this is the same Spirit of our Christian Story of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

I remember as a child Mum took me for walks in the bush to gather wild flowers and berries. It was during this quiet time that I got in touch with my surroundings and the Spirit. I walked quietly in the silence of the bush and for me, it was about feeling and connecting. Today, I think of my Ancestors who have been living for thousands of years in silence with Mother Nature. They have left their stories in the land for us to read today, just like we read the Scriptures.

Aboriginal theology is about a way of life entwined with a Higher Power who is known by many names. I have come to use the name “The Creator Spirit” …

In Pope Francis’ Apostolic Encyclical Laudato Si’ he wrote of his own understanding of the connection between spirituality and land for Indigenous peoples: “For them, land is

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not a commodity but rather a gift from God and from their ancestors who rest there, a sacred space with which they need to interact if they are to maintain their identity and values.” (LS146)

Our historical story

Imagine being on the eastern shores of our country 229 years ago when some new people came and conquered my people, taking over our life, our land, driving out all that we had known. Our sacred sites were desecrated and our relationship with our Creator Spirit was suppressed.

Families were massacred, the land was covered with blood and we were poisoned with arsenic in flour. The remnants of my people were taken away from families and put onto reserves to be kept ‘under control’.

Little children were taken away and put into dormitories. Those who were old enough were made to work in homes as domestic servants and many other places such as hospitals, farms and roads to support the build-up of towns. Australia has been built upon the foundations of these atrocities.2 This experience is living history for me. Family members were taken from my own community and put onto a reserve far away because a supervisor said they were causing a ‘disturbance’.3 On the reserve, some of us went to a ceremony where we worshipped

the new people’s God. The Church was a place we gathered to sing new songs. When we heard some of the stories at the Church, we had a feeling we knew their God and the good man Jesus because the stories resonated with our own stories4 of the land and her people.

When we heard some of the stories at the Church, we had a feeling we knew their God and the good man Jesus because the stories resonated with our own stories of the land and her people.

Voices of leadership, reason to hope

In 1986 Pope John Paul II addressed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Alice Springs.5 It was an historic moment and gave us great hope. He affirmed that our country is indeed a place of God, naming it “the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit” and proclaimed that our “Dreaming” touches the mystery of God’s spirit in creation and within our selves. He affirmed that our faith identity could not be divided from our indigenous identity, saying: “You do not have to be people

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divided into two parts, as though an Aboriginal had to borrow the faith and life of Christianity, like a hat or pair of shoes from someone else who owns them.” He lamented the loss of language, custom and culture due to “interference by people from other places,” and told us that our “culture, which shows the lasting genius and dignity of your race, must not be allowed to disappear”.

I believe that we were challenged to find our place in Church and that the content of this powerful speech made more than thirty years ago is still critically relevant today. We must continue trying to make sense of the Scriptures through our own Australian Indigenous context.

We must continue trying to make sense of the Scriptures through our own Australian Indigenous context.

In November 2016 on the 30th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s speech, Pope Francis affirmed that “God’s holy will is accomplished” if the fullness of Australia’s Indigenous people’s faith, traditions and customs are one with Church. He expressed “deep esteem for

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the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and for your ancient cultural heritage”.6 I view the address to our people from Pope John Paul II and these words from Pope Francis as a rite of passage for Australian Indigenous Christians into the wider Australian Catholic Church. We have been waiting for such a long time to be welcomed with our contribution toward our Church.

We have been waiting for such a long time to be welcomed with our contribution toward our Church.

The challenges we must face together

Pope Francis has called us to become a merciful and loving Church. We have a mission to become an inclusive and inculturated Australian Church.

We must ask ourselves what kind of healing, reconciliation and leadership is needed for such a change?

I acknowledge that there has been a tremendous amount of good work towards reconciliation, but my own experience and that of my people says that it is just not working. It is not bringing the healing which is needed to repair that deep destruction of

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identity, culture and tradition which has taken place over generations.

We have a mission to become an inclusive and inculturated Australian Church.

We all need to sanctify the land to make it holy once again. I think of the Genesis story of Cain killing his brother Abel; God questions him: “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.”

(Gen 4:10) I believe healing can be achieved by everyone participating in prayer for the Spirit to sweep over the land and waters. We can hold smoking ceremonies across Australia to cleanse Mother Earth and sanctify our land.

We need to inculturate the celebration of the source and summit of our faith to truly discover a deeply Australian faith identity. Each year the Australian Church celebrates National Aboriginal and Islanders Day of Observance Committee (NAIDOC) Sunday. We feel proud to share our stories of finding Jesus in Spirit who was with our people and in the land of long ago (John 1:1-14).

However some leaders choose not to participate in this special day and this leaves us feeling disillusioned. We are an Australian Church every week, not

just for NAIDOC Sunday. My hope is that through dialogue and leadership we will find a way to share Aboriginal theology and that it will begin to form how we celebrate Mass every week in every parish, so that all Australians and visitors come to know “the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit”.7

My hope is that through dialogue and leadership we will find a way to share Aboriginal theology … so that all Australians and visitors come to know “the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit”.

A need for courageous leadership

As the Queensland Representative for NATSICC, I sometimes wonder what else we need to do for those Church leaders who do not show empathy or understanding of our culture.

I wonder, do they know our story?

I believe we need faith-filled leaders who are willing to understand and act, not only for the sake of our spirit and our land, but also to fulfil the words of Pope John Paul II all those years ago: “You are part of Australia and Australia is part of you. And the

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Church herself in Australia will not be fully the Church that Jesus wants her to be until you have made your contribution to her life and until that contribution has been joyfully received by others.”

Come Together A prayer from my mother, Bethel Delaney

I believe that prayer, dialogue and courageous leadership are the pathway to a future whereby we celebrate an Australian faith identity expressed through an inculturated, reconciled, merciful and loving Church.

That they have the knowledge of God, love come from God and everything on earth and heaven under Christ.

Those who believe in one and the same thing so we can help each other in truth and love, He made the Church clean by washing her with water and a form of words …

Jesus prays for unity, for those who believe in Jesus through us that they all be one.

Holy and faultless, not unclean.

Amen.

It is by the blessing of Jesus’ grace that we can be a forgiving people. Jesus went to a quiet place to pray to God for guidance and strength. Pope Francis too reminds us of the power of prayer saying “prayer makes miracles!”8 I believe that prayer, dialogue and courageous leadership are the pathway to a future whereby we celebrate an Australian faith identity expressed through an inculturated, reconciled, merciful and loving Church.

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Rainbow Spirit Elders, ‘Rainbow Spirit Theology: Towards an Australian Aboriginal Theology’ ATF Press, 2008 http://www.atf.org.au/files/atf/Rainbow%20TOC%20and%20back.pdf A collection of books and readings which tell the historical story of Australia from Aboriginal perspective. Elder, Bruce, ‘Blood on the Wattle, Massacres and Maltreatment of Australian Aborigines since 1788’ New Holland, 1988. Harris, John, ‘One Blood’ Lion Books, 1990. Kidd, Rosalind, ‘The Way We Civilise’ University of Queensland Press, 1997. Markus, Andrew, ‘Governing Savages’ Allen & Unwin, 1990. Reynolds, Henry, ‘Why Weren’t We Told’ Penguin Books Australia, 1999.

3 Oral history from my mother.

4 Pastor George Rosendale OAM, ‘The Peacemaker: Story of the Emu, Brolga and Jabiru’, Wontulp-Bi-Buya Publications, 2005. http://www.wontulp.qld.edu.au/publications.php#a1 5 Pilgrimage in Australia, Address of Pope John Paul II to the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, Alice Springs, 29 November, 1986. https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1986/november/documents/hf_jp-ii_ spe_19861129_aborigeni-alice-springs-australia.html 6 Papal letter to the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council from Pope Francis, November 2016. http://www.natsicc.org.au/assets/papal-letter.pdf spe_19861129_aborigeni-alice-springs-australia.html 7 Pilgrimage in Australia, Address of Pope John Paul II to the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, Alice Springs, 29 November, 1986.

8 Pope Francis’ homily, Mass at Casa Santa Marta, 12 January 2016. http://www.news.va/en/news/mass-at-santa-marta-astruggle-with-god 1

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Questions:

1. What dimensions of the mission of love and mercy does Evelyn Parkin bring into focus for you?

2. After reading this reflection, how can Pope Francis’ leadership and teaching further influence the way we “celebrate an Australian faith identity” with an Aboriginal theology and spirituality “expressed through an inculturated, reconciled, merciful and loving Church”?

3. Evelyn Parkin writes: “We feel proud to share our stories of finding Jesus in Spirit who was with our people in the land of long ago.”

How can we make time and space for the sharing of stories to better understand Aboriginal theology and spirituality?

4. What kind of healing is needed to repair the deep destruction of identity, culture and tradition which has taken place?

5. How might the Australian Church be further enriched by the leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?

6. In 2020 we will have a plenary council to plan for the future of the Australian Church. We are being asked to consider ‘the facts on the ground’ and ‘to identify the grace of the moment’. What ‘facts’ and ‘graces’ are considered in this reflection?

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Injustice Fighting

and

A Revolution of Love and Mercy

Dr John Falzon Chief Executive Officer, St Vincent de Paul Society, National Council of Australia

“Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality.”

Evangelii Gaudium 53

I am writing these words as a way of reflecting on inequality and injustice on land that always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

I acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of this land, and I pay tribute to their spirit of collective dreaming, collective resistance and collective hope.

Our history is laden with the long and violent act of dispossession, of forcefully taking members of the First Peoples away from their homes.

Long before there was such a thing as Australia, there were families who lived here, people who cared for each other and the earth, people for whom the world was a deeply spiritual place,

people who loved to tell stories about the things that really mattered to them: their dreams and their struggles, their hopes and their passions.

Then there was a giant cataclysm.

Families were broken. Some were massacred. Many were taken away from each other. Dreams were torn apart, the sacred was trampled upon. It wasn’t just the land that was colonised; families were made to feel the wounds of dispossession.

When we reflect on the sacredness of the family we are sadly reminded of the Stolen Generations, the Aboriginal children who were forcibly removed from their parents.

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The family is not an abstract idea.

Amoris Laetitia is Pope Francis’ message of how love and joy is made real in the family and he hopes that we will “love and cherish family life” (AL7). For the community of faith, empowered and inspired by the Incarnation, we know the family to be real flesh and blood, real hopes and dreams, real struggles and sufferings.

Families in desperation have embarked on dangerous journeys across the seas in dilapidated vessels.

Scarred by torture, rape and the disappearance or death of their loved ones, these families are now being sentenced to the unjust limbo of life on Manus Island and Nauru.

Families are torn apart by incarceration in the prisons and Juvenile Detention Facilities across Australia, a reality that impacts disproportionately on the families of the First Peoples.

Families destroyed by poverty and inequality in prosperous Australia.

It is life that has taught us that an injury to one is an injury to all. Pope Francis laments the indifference to such destruction and injury which exists in our society: “In this globalised world, we have fallen into globalised indifference. We have become used to the suffering of others:

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it doesn’t affect me; it doesn’t concern me; it’s none of my business!”1 We are injured when the common good is dismembered, when people are forced into poverty, compelled to rely on charity, when all they long for is justice.

It is life that has taught us that an injury to one is an injury to all. Pope Francis laments the indifference to such destruction and injury which exists in our society …

We are injured when the maximisation of profits takes priority over the rights of workers, including the residualised and discarded, the shattered and the shunned.

As Pope Francis is fond of pointing out, the long, fruitless wait of the excluded for some of the wealth to trickle down is one of the most audacious con jobs in modern history. “The excluded are still waiting,” he reminds us, while “some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world” (EG54).

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We all know that our economic system is built not on the objective of the wealth trickling down, but on the certainty that wealth bubbles up.

Disability advocates have long made the excellent point that the construction of disability largely depends on how we structure our society and our economy. If someone cannot walk up the steps we can decide as a society that it’s tough luck or even that they should be blamed.

On the other hand we can just use our common sense and build a ramp.

Disability advocates have long made the excellent point that the construction of disability largely depends on how we structure our society and our economy.

The same goes for other experiences of exclusion. Unemployment is painted as a moral failure. The causes, however, are structural rather than personal. The ground-breaking Social Justice Statement of the Australian Bishops in 1996 articulated this bold prophetic message, saying that “… people are poor not because they are lazy or lacking in ability or because they are unlucky. They

are poor because of the way society, including its economic system, is organised”.

Pope Francis affirms the words of the Australian Bishops and states that it is only when the “convictions and habits of solidarity” are put into practice that structural transformation becomes possible. But he also notes the importance of ongoing education, advocacy and awareness to shape hearts and minds of leaders and decision makers. “Changing structures without generating new conviction and attitudes will only ensure that those same structures will become, sooner or later, corrupt, oppressive and ineffectual.” (EG189)

“Changing structures without generating new conviction and attitudes will only ensure that those same structures will become, sooner or later, corrupt, oppressive and ineffectual.”

If we are to respond authentically to living and leading a mission of love and mercy, where life and dignity for all is a priority, then we need to be honest about the fact that we

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refuse to build the ramps. We need to acknowledge that actually we do the opposite. We build walls. And then we condemn the people we’ve built the walls around, for lacking the aspiration to scale them.

For many of us, our day-to-day work is focussed on helping people over the walls. This is good. But our historic task is to tear the walls down.

Tackling inequality means investing in high quality social and economic infrastructure for the benefit of all.

In 2004, Tom Calma, then Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, explained the difference between formal and substantive equality: “[I]f there are two people stuck down two different wells, one of them is 5m deep and the other is 10m deep, throwing them both 5m of rope would only accord formal equality. Clearly, formal equality does not achieve fairness.

The concept of substantive equality recognises that each person requires a different amount of rope to put them both on a level playing field.”

Tackling inequality means giving everyone enough rope. In other words: From each according to their ability. To each according to their needs. As things stand we give extra rope to those who stand above the wells while leaving those who are stuck down the wells with nothing

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but the view from below and the dream of sunlight.

Social spending helps build greater equality. This isn’t just good for the people stuck down the wells. It’s good for everyone since the higher the level of inequality the higher the rates of crime, mortality and physical and mental illness. Inequality is literally bad for our health. Pope Francis writes that “inequality is the root of all social ills” (EG202). Or as the World Health Organisation explained in their 2008 report on the social determinants of health, social injustice is killing people on a grand scale.

Tackling inequality means giving everyone enough rope. In other words: From each according to their ability. To each according to their needs.

But inequality is not just about a redistribution of wealth and resources.

It must also be about a redistribution of hope, a redistribution of power.

As the Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra put it so eloquently, in relation to the Northern Territory Intervention: “People are sick and tired of being

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controlled. When people are sick and tired of control they just give up hope … people are dying, not just dying spiritually and emotionally but dying physically. They cannot live for the day because their lives are controlled by somebody else.”

… inequality is not just about a redistribution of wealth and resources.

It must also be about a redistribution of hope, a redistribution of power.

society but the old social organisation fetters them and keeps them down.

As the martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero put it so beautifully: “Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the other epithets they put on us, we know we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down.”

We can condemn and humiliate people for not being able to get up the steps or we can build a ramp.

This is our revolutionary calling, in the spirit of the Beatitudes: to turn everything upside down. We have only one enemy. It is called inequality.

And no matter how long it takes, we will win against this enemy. Pope Francis is leading in this direction, compelling the Church into action, telling us that systems and structural causes of poverty must no longer be endured. “We must change it. We must put human dignity again at the centre and on that pillar build the alternative structures we need.”2

But, as the history of progressive social change teaches us, humiliation can also turn into revolution under the guiding stars of struggle and hope. Because the truth spoken by the people pushed to the margins will always in the end drown out the lies told about them. New forces and new passions spring up in the bosom of

This is our revolutionary calling, in the spirit of the Beatitudes: to turn everything upside down.

We have only one enemy.

It is called inequality.

We don’t build a community up by putting its people down. We only achieve humiliation.

Humiliation begets disempowerment.

Or rage.

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This is our beautiful struggle and we are very many, we who make up the massive movement for progressive social change, a movement that finds its history in the coming together and rising up of the crushed and the cursed, the excluded and exploited, the biblical people of God, the poor of Yahweh; and finds its expression in our common belief that those who refuse to take the side of the oppressed give their aid to the oppressor, of whom the prophet Isaiah (3:15) writes: “It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?”

This is our beautiful struggle and we are very many, we who make up the massive movement for progressive social change …

As Lila Watson and a group of Aboriginal activists in Queensland in the 1970s put it so eloquently: “If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine. Then let us work together.”

We will only achieve liberation for ourselves if we are fighters for the liberation of others. We will never achieve our own liberation while we ignore those who are in chains. Their struggle is our struggle. In the words of the poet Bobbi Sykes:.

“The revolution is alive while it lives within us; beating, making our hearts warm, our minds strong, for we know that justice is inevitable – like birth.”

What we know is what we learn by listening to and learning the language of the unheard instead of swallowing the lies of those who seek to justify harm to humanity and to the planet in which humanity finds its home.

Inequality is our enemy, but our goal is liberation.

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Visit to Lampedusa, Homily of Pope Francis, 8/07/2013 http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2013/ documents/papa-francesco_20130708_omelia-lampedusa.html Address of Pope Francis to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, 28/10/2014 http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/ en/speeches/2014/october/documents/papa-francesco_20141028_incontro-mondiale-movimenti-popolari.html

Questions:

1. What dimensions of the mission of love and mercy does John Falzon bring into focus for you?

2. After reading this reflection, how can Pope Francis’ leadership and teaching influence how we fight injustice and inequality more effectively and bring about a revolution of love and mercy?

3. How does your parish or workplace help “people over the walls” of exclusion and inequality? What needs to change to “tear the walls down”?

4. John Falzon writes: “Tackling inequality means giving everyone enough rope. In other words: from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.” How does this resonate with your understanding of “substantive equality”, of giving everyone “a fair go”?

5. In 2020 we will have a plenary council to plan for the future of the Australian Church. We are being asked to consider ‘the facts on the ground’ and ‘to identify the grace of the moment’. What ‘facts’ and ‘graces’ are considered in this reflection?

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Inclusive

Church: ‘Who Am I to Judge?’

Mr Benjamin Oh Co-founder, Equal Voices.

Human Rights and Development Advocate

The Church “… is a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a centre of constant missionary outreach. We must admit, though, that the call to review and renew our parishes has not yet sufficed to bring them nearer to people, to make them environments of living communion and participation, and to make them completely mission-oriented.” Evangelii Gaudium 28 The Francis Effect is leadership and language which I believe invites people who have diverse perspectives to engage with others in a manner which may have not been previously possible. It is my hope this chapter encourages such important dialogue throughout our Church and helps to ensure it is a place of sanctuary for our siblings who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI).

Being open and honest about one’s homosexual orientation is not an

easy or singular act. It is risky and can be fraught with danger. While recognising the risk, I believe that when someone does ‘come out’, it humanises and creates opportunity for important dialogue, flourishing human relationship and sharing of story.

One element of acknowledging my own sexual orientation was discovering there are others like myself from other cultural and religious traditions who share similar experiences. In this chapter, I am sharing my story mindful that it is but one of many.

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Oxygen for the wounded

In his concluding address to the Synod on the Family, Pope Francis urged the Church to find new ways of strengthening the human family “without burying our heads in the sand”1. He encouraged us to be fearless and challenged anyone who may have “… closed hearts which frequently hide, even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families”.2 Unfortunately, for many LGBTI people, their experience of Church is one of judgement, ostracism and discrimination. In these circumstances, it is not only the LGBTI person themselves who are hurt, the ostracism extends to their family, friends and colleagues. The need to find ways to be a Christ-like Church is something that involves all people and the burden should not fall solely on LGBTI members of our community.

Jesus said: “Judge not, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Lk 6:37) Pope Francis echoed Jesus in his own words: “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”3 For I and

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many others I know, it was like a breath of urgently needed oxygen in a Church which has not always been experienced as hospitable, merciful or just towards LGBTI people.

Pope Francis echoed Jesus in his own words: “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

Voices of love in the wilderness

These words from Pope Francis respond pastorally and theologically in a manner which first recognises the humanity and inherent dignity of the person, made in the image and likeness of God. There have been several others who have shared their voice and advocated for growth in teaching and praxis throughout the Church.

For example in 1986 the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference Statement on Homosexuality titled ‘Dignity, Love, Life’ wrote: “Concern for the dignity of persons leads us to oppose forms of unjust discrimination against homosexual person. Like all persons, they are made in the image and likeness of God, and are called to a living relationship with God as equal members of God’s people.”

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In 1995: ‘On the Teaching of the Catholic Church Concerning Homosexual People’, Cardinal Basil Hume, the Westminster Archbishop wrote: “The Church has a serious responsibility to work for the elimination of any injustices perpetrated on homosexuals by society. As a group that has suffered more than its share of oppression and contempt, the homosexual community has particular claim upon the concern of the Church.”

“There can be no future for the living Church without there being space for those who have been hurt, damaged or alienated, be they abuse victims, survivors, divorcees, gays, lesbians or disaffected members.”

In June 2016, during his homily at his installation Mass as the Bishop of Parramatta, Bishop Vincent Long declared that: “There can be no future for the living Church without there being space for those who have been hurt, damaged or alienated, be they abuse victims, survivors, divorcees, gays, lesbians or

disaffected members.”4 He called for our Church to become a “… house for all peoples, a Church where there is less an experience of exclusion but more an encounter of radical love, inclusiveness and solidarity”.5 For those who identify with LGBTI members of our community these words of affirmation help us to continue our journey as a Church to greater understanding and deeper compassion. They create an environment from which we can participate in the life and the conversation of the Church. They invite us into dialogue with those who have different interpretations of the place of LGBTI Catholics in our Church. In a wilderness of experience of prejudice, discrimination and exclusion, they are counter-cultural voices of love and mercy.

I count myself fortunate, my own father’s response was deeply loving.

I remember vividly the Saturday morning I spoke with him for the first time about my sexual orientation. The sun was bright, cloudy and the air was humid. I woke that morning, knowing I had to tell my father, I could no longer keep this truth from him. I had hidden the truth about my sexual orientation from my father because of fear. I witnessed some of my friends thrown out of their homes, disowned by their family, sent to damaging

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camps and tragically some committed suicide, these are not uncommon stories amongst LGBTI persons. I didn’t want my relationship with my father to be broken, but I could no longer live with hidden identities.

I said clearly to my father: “I am gay.” He paused for a moment and responded gently and kindly, as if he knew all along: “You are my son and I love you and I respect you as you are.” We cried. Even though we were close, I didn’t know what response I would receive. His words were affirming and without reservation, but more importantly was his loving actions that followed which showed genuine care, sensitivity and support.

My father took more time and effort to build a deeper friendship with me.

He took time to understand both the scientific as well as the lived realities surrounding LGBTI persons. He continued to journey in faith with me, allowing us both to grow together.

I said clearly to my father: “I am gay.” He paused for a moment and responded gently and kindly, as if he knew all along: “You are my son and I love you and I respect you as you are.”

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The danger of a single story

LGBTI people’s stories are rich, diverse human experiences and sexuality is only one part of the whole story. Silencing all other parts of any person’s story strips them of their humanity and no longer recognises the divine nature of their being.

Through stories, we discover truth.

We cross boundaries and we no longer are separate from “the other”.

Through stories, we discover truth. We cross boundaries and we no longer are separate from “the other”.

I am a follower of Jesus Christ.

I am someone who has worked in advocating for human rights and countering discrimination against minority groups. I am the son of parents. I am a brother, a cousin, a grandson and a friend. I am gay. I am a Catholic man. I am an advocate for dialogue with LGBTI people in the Catholic Church.

My parents are religious and orthodoxly devout in their practice of their faith. My dad, my mum and my grandparents are faith heroes of mine.

They are my first teachers in faith and continue to inspire me today. Just a

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week ago, we buried my grandfather who taught me to pray unceasingly, especially when I am in distress. I also learnt from my parents what it means to be in a mutually respectful and equal relationship that goes beyond gender binaries and stereotypes in building a loving spousal relationship with my partner Nam. In the words of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: “All of these stories make me who I am. But to insist on only negative stories is to flatten my experience and to overlook the many other stories that formed me.

The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.

The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasises how we are different rather than how we are similar. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.”6 Jesus used stories to connect communities, to teach, to empower people and challenge the status quo.

He used stories to remind us of one thing: God’s unconditional love and abiding mercy is for every one of us.

Power of language: we are children of God

Language is a powerful tool. Mindful and respectful language can be the difference between dialogue and relationships being healthy or not.

It can open the door to love, signalling sincerity, reconciliation and shared mission and common purpose.

Language which is exclusionary and ‘othering’ is divisive and separates us not only from one another, but from God.

Mindful and respectful language can be the difference between dialogue and relationships being healthy or not. It can open the door to love …

For me, one of the most powerful effects Pope Francis is having is on how LGBTI Catholics and their loved ones are given hope for a better Church and a kinder world, one that is caring, hospitable, inclusive, loving in words and in deeds.

The Catholic Church is my family in faith and I consider myself blessed to have encountered wonderful Christians in the Church who are ‘Jesus people’. Religious sisters and brothers, cardinals, priests, bishops,

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priest, lay leaders and everyday Catholics who have challenged their own paradigms and treated me as their equal sibling in faith. In word and deed, we treat one another as co-heirs to the Kingdom, as children of God. It is time for all of us to come together and respond to Pope Francis’ call to make our Church a place of radical love, inclusiveness and solidarity that stands for justice, mercy and hope.

To truly become sanctuaries where all people can come to drink and be nourished, no matter their race, colour, creed, sexual orientation or gender identity.

It is time for all of us to come together to and respond to Pope Francis’ call to make our Church a place of radical love, inclusiveness and solidarity that stands for justice, mercy and hope.

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Address from His Holiness, Pope Francis at the Conclusion of the Synod of Bishops on the Family, Saturday October 24, 2015 http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/october/documents/papa-francesco_20151024_sinodoconclusione-lavori.html 2 Ibid.

3 NCR Online https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-explains-who-am-i-judge 4 Installation Mass, Homily Address given by Bishop Vincent Long OFM, 16/6/2016 http://cathnews.com/cathnews/61archive/25601-bishop-long-investiture 5 Ann D Clark Lecture 2016 ‘Pope Francis and the Challenge of being Church today’ Bishop Vincent Long OFM Parramatta, 18/6/2016. http://www.css.org.au/Portals/51/Bishop%20Vincent%20Long%20Ann%20CLarke%20 lecture%20August%202016.pdf 6 TEDTalk ‘The Danger of a Single Story’ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, October 2009. https://www.ted.com/talks/ chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en 1

Questions:

1. What dimensions of the mission of love and mercy does Benjamin Oh bring into focus for you?

2. After reading this reflection, how can Pope Francis’ leadership and teaching influence how we can be a more inclusive and welcoming Church?

3. How can you help nurture “a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink” in your context, particularly for those who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI)?

4. Benjamin writes: “For I and many others I know, it was like a breath of urgently needed oxygen in a Church which has not always been experienced as hospitable, merciful or just towards LGBTI people.”

Can you relate to this experience? How have you responded?

5. In 2020 we will have a plenary council to plan for the future of the Australian Church. We are being asked to consider ‘the facts on the ground’ and ‘to identify the grace of the moment’. What ‘facts’ and ‘graces’ are considered in this reflection?

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Healing:

Mercy and

Rediscovering Hope after Abortion Fr Peter Maher OAM Parish Priest, St Joseph’s Catholic Parish, Newtown.

Chair, Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat Ministries

“The thing the Church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the Church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds.”

America Interview with Pope Francis1

Pope Francis began the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy by suggesting that our response to those who feel excluded should be pastoral in nature. That there should be “words of genuine welcome” expressed for the person seeking the love and mercy of God through the Church.

In my work with Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat Ministries I have heard many stories of women and men who have experienced post abortion stress. I know how significant the open and warm nature of Pope Francis’ words can be for those who seek healing from grief and loss after abortion.

Abortion is rarely given space in daily conversation and carries a deep sense of shame. In our Australian society where eighty to ninety thousand abortions happen annually2, this lack of space for safe and open sharing, can leave many people who have experienced an abortion unhealed, unforgiven and in trauma with various forms of post abortion stress, not dissimilar to post traumatic stress.

It makes it even more important for Church to be a place of welcome and mercy, “a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey” (EG28).

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A healing ministry

Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat was created

by Theresa Burke in America. She found that the most important first step to healing is acknowledging what happened. The retreat offers a safe space to share the story for healing and to bring hope. It is a sacred space.

Abortion happens for several different reasons. Sometimes, as Pope Francis acknowledges, many “have no other option” and then afterward “bear in their heart the scar of this agonising and painful decision”.3 Women and men can experience great pain after an abortion. They can be confused by the experience and the circumstances around the abortion. They can feel grief and loss because they have no baby and can experience guilt and shame for their part in the decision. Sometimes people who have experienced an abortion feel excluded from Church and find it difficult to embrace their faith, their community or their God.

Sometimes people who have experienced an abortion feel excluded from Church and find it difficult to embrace their faith, their community or their God.

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Rachel’s Vineyard Healing Retreat in Australia is designed to address the confusion and pain of abortion through a healing process that acknowledges what has happened and invites women and men into a safe space to tell their story, acknowledge their child’s life and find self-forgiveness, God’s forgiveness and love.

For a person seeking God’s tenderness after experiencing abortion, the Church’s response can either be loving and merciful, or harsh and judgemental. If the approach to the person overburdens them with shame and guilt, they may feel they could never be accepted again, not just by the Church, but also by God. The retreat offers encouragement to see things through the eyes of Jesus’ love for them and there are many ways in which the wider Church could provide this encouragement too.

Love, not judgement

In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis writes of the Gospel imperative Jesus gives us all in Matthew 7:1 and Luke 6:37 “not to judge or condemn” (AL308) and affirmed this in his own words saying “Who am I to judge?”4 Pope Francis is encouraging us to be inclusive and he rejects the kind of language that pushes people out. He reminds us that judgement is only for God.

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Just as Jesus loved the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11), the woman at the well (John 4:1-42) and the woman with the haemorrhage (Mark 5:25-34), Jesus loves all people and especially those who are hurting and in pain. Through the sacraments of the Church we are empowered to invite people to address their pain and celebrate Jesus’ invitation to restore fullness of life. They can become aware of themselves and their place in the world, to respect themselves and others and to honour their child as a member of God’s family.

Through the sacraments of the Church we are empowered to invite people to address their pain and celebrate Jesus’ invitation to restore fullness of life.

Mercy for all

On the final Sunday of the Jubilee of Mercy 2016 Pope Francis explained that this ministry of healing is for all and must become part of who we are as Church. He said: “This aspect of mercy, inclusion, is manifested in opening one’s arms wide to welcome, without excluding; without labelling others according to their social status,

language, race, culture or religion: there is, before us, only a person to be loved as God loves them. The person whom I find at my work, in my neighbourhood, is a person to love, as God loves. ‘But he is from that country, or that other country, or of this religion, or another … He is a person whom God loves and I have to love him’. This is to include, and this is inclusion.”5

Clare’s story: an experience of mercy

“Raised in a very active Catholic family, I never could have imagined that I would one day have an abortion; but it did happen and from that dreadful day I believed myself to be lost forever in the eyes of the Church and worse still, in the eyes of God. I felt resigned to silently carrying a heavy burden of shame and guilt for all time, never being able to forgive myself or be forgiven by others for the awful thing I had done. The turning point for me was reading about the founder of Rachel’s Vineyard in Australia, Julie Kelly. Hearing her story helped me to see that forgiveness was possible, that there was hope beyond the seemingly gloomy horizon.

“The retreat was a wonderfully liberating experience when I told the story of my abortion for the first time, publicly named my lost child and honoured him in ritual and song.

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I began the long journey towards healing through my encounter with the healing Gospel stories of Jesus, carefully guided by compassionate people who showed me the merciful face of God. Hearing the stories of other retreatants was also a very privileged experience and assisted me to begin to make sense of my experience and to chip away at the burden of guilt and shame.

“Some years after my retreat I still carry feelings of regret and sadness.

Grief never really ever goes away completely, but I have been able to forgive myself and the others in my story and to turn my terrible experience into a positive one by helping others in their journey of grief and shame. My lost child is an important part of my life that I hold within and Rachel’s Vineyard has enabled me to bring dignity and acknowledgement to his life. Never fully healed, but well and truly in a much better place with the knowledge that my God understands, loves and forgives.”

Called to respond

Abortion is but one area of social margins we are called to minister to as Church. There are many others. We are challenged to find ways to embody Pope Francis’ call in our daily lives and work. How can we ensure that all are included in our parishes, schools

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and Church agencies? First, we must name the truth about our reality. So often people who are marginalised are not included or considered and remain marginalised. How often do we seek the voice and wisdom of Aboriginal people, asylum seekers, the divorced and remarried, gay and lesbian people or the poor either directly or even as part of the liturgy or pastoral care and outreach programs? What policies do we have to ensure that all people are treated equally and with dignity?

Do we have employment policies that don’t unjustly discriminate? Are all voices equally valued in the decisionmaking processes of our Catholic institutions? Do we have adequate care for all in our anti-discrimination and anti-bullying policies and are they acted upon?

My lost child is an important part of my life that I hold within and Rachel’s Vineyard has enabled me to bring dignity and acknowledgement to his life.

There are many good works throughout the Church, however we have a long road ahead of us to truly become the kind of Church Pope

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Francis is calling us to be. My hope is that reading this reflection inspires creative response, actions for helping us to become a merciful and loving Australian Church for all.

My hope is that reading this reflection inspires creative response, actions for helping us to become a merciful and loving Australian Church for all.

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Spadaro, A. sj, ‘A Big Heart Open to God: An Interview with Pope Francis’, America Jesuit Review, 30/09/2013 http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2013/09/30/big-heart-open-god-interview-pope-francis Chan A. and Sage L., Estimating Australia’s abortion rates 1985 – 2003, The Medical Journal of Australia 182(9): 447-452 https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2005/182/9/estimating-australia-s-abortion-rates-1985-2003 3 Spadaro, A. sj, ‘A Big Heart Open to God: An Interview with Pope Francis’, America Jesuit Review, 30/09/2013 http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2013/09/30/big-heart-open-god-interview-pope-francis 4 NCR Online 10/01/2016 https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-explains-who-am-i-judge 5 Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis, Jubilee Audience, St peter’s Square, 12/11/2016.

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Questions:

1. What dimensions of the mission of love and mercy does Peter Maher bring into focus for you?

2. After reading this reflection, how can Pope Francis’ leadership and teaching influence how we are more, inclusive, loving and merciful?

3. Peter Maher writes: “For a person seeking God’s tenderness after experiencing abortion, the Church’s response can either be loving and merciful or harsh and judgemental.” How can we nurture a space in Church where we welcome and care for those who are vulnerable, wounded and in need of love and mercy?

4. How do you feel after reading Clare’s story? What insights does it provide for you about God’s unwavering love and mercy for each of us? How are we called to respond?

5. In 2020 we will have a plenary council to plan for the future of the Australian Church. We are being asked to consider ‘the facts on the ground’ and ‘to identify the grace of the moment’. What ‘facts’ and ‘graces’ are considered in this reflection?

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Catholic Human Services:

ervant

to the Poor?

Or Servant to the System?

Mr Martin Laverty

“The private ownership of goods is justified by the need to protect and increase them, so that they can better serve the common good; for this reason, solidarity must be lived as the decision to restore to the poor what belongs to them.” Evangelii Gaudium 189 At around the time Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina became Pope Francis of Vatican City, a very capable and scholarly cleric joined the board of a Catholic hospital in Australia. When I asked about his role, he said he loved seeing clinicians at work, he delighted in the pastoral care team’s pragmatic compassion, but loathed aspects of the hospital’s corporate board room that called on skills of merchant bankers more than theologians.

The pressures of mission and margin, or challenge for Catholic ministries to place pastoral priorities ahead of cash, is not a new dynamic. The Code of Canon Law in fact devotes an entire book (Book V) to rules governing

Church assets and investments to serve Church priorities. Canon 1254(§2) is illustrative in instructing Church administrators to manage financial and property resources for divine worship, support of clergy, works of the Church and finally works of charity.

The papal conclave’s election of Francis as two hundred and sixty sixth Bishop of Rome signalled the possibility of upending staid traditions. The 115 Cardinal electors knew who they were electing. None should have been surprised at Pope Francis’ first media conference when he told 5,000 journalists: “How I would like a Church that is poor and for the poor.”

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A Church which is “poor and for the poor” (EG198) would not devote its vast financial resources first to worship, then to clergy, its works and finally charity. A Church for the poor would act in reverse order.

Service to the poor is a key and theologically considered theme of Pope Francis’ papacy. In Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis invites “The decision to restore to the poor what belongs to them” (EG 189) in part because “Everything that is fragile … is defenceless before the interests of a deified market” (EG 56). He starkly says “No to a financial system that rules rather than serves” (EG 57).

He starkly says “No to a financial system that rules rather than serves.”

Theologian Harvey Cox wrote in a 1999 an article for The Atlantic on “The Market as God”. He argued: “The market is becoming more like the Yahweh of the Old Testament— not just one superior deity contending with others but the Supreme Deity, the only true God, whose reign must now be universally accepted and who allows no rivals.”1 The role of markets is confronting those involved in human services.

Researchers2 have studied the

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dramatic change in the provision of social services in Australia, finding governments are relying on non-profit and for-profit service delivery through subsidies, vouchers and private payment. The researchers ask who benefits, who suffers and who decides in this marketisation of human services.

That human service provision in Australia now occurs in a market is no new phenomenon. Your local general practice, which is the main front door to Australia’s healthcare system, is a privately owned small business.

Your family doctor either owns the business, works in partnership, or practices as part of a larger privately owned corporation. The market goal of profit ultimately drives decisions in these small or large medical businesses. Taxpayers, through Medicare, pay a voucher charge every time you visit. In the main, you, like most Australians, are happy with this arrangement. The market mostly serves healthcare needs well.

Yet the healthcare market lets some Australians down when they face a barrier to access. For some it is cost – where they can’t afford a medical co-payment. For others, it is distance – where they live in areas where healthcare is scarce. For others, it might be health literacy that prohibits access. For Aboriginal and Torres

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Strait Islanders, and some newly arrived migrant community members, it may be institutionalised racism.

The Church is a major provider of healthcare in Australia’s hospital system. It commenced hospital care before a market existed. Its original mission was to provide care for the poor. As the market grew, and government and other private providers expanded services, Church healthcare also expanded to achieve scale and remain competitive.

The question if the Church’s mission for the poor remains relevant or indeed achievable in this new healthcare market remains unanswered. Stunning health disparities between wealthy and poor Australians persist. The Church’s own research3 shows the wealthiest Australians live an average of three years longer than the poorest, and the poorest face up to three times the prevalence of avoidable chronic illness during their life. The Church has been unable to dent these disparities, in part because Church healthcare is restricted to being able to deliver care only when public or private funding allows it.

Just as healthcare operates in a market, so too does social services.

Care for the aged, support for people with disability, out of home care for children, employment placement, and support for those living in socioeconomic disadvantage or crisis was

once the domain of Church and charity providers. There used to be no market, with government block funding and charitable donations enabling Church and community groups to offer services as often as they saw fit.

The question if the Church’s mission for the poor remains relevant or indeed achievable in this new healthcare market remains unanswered.

Today, governments conduct contract contests and fund commercial and not-for-profit providers who best demonstrate cost efficiency.

Consumers themselves receive funding packages and select their own care providers. Citizen purchasers, rather than traditional social service providers, get to decide the construct of this market. Churches and charities no longer have funding freedom to determine the human services they want to deliver; only eight percent of charity income in Australia in 2015/16 was garnered through donations for charities to spend freely, with forty one percent coming in tied to government grants and the remaining fifty percent in fees for services.4

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Evidence shows some Church agencies have considered threats and opportunities of this marketisation.

Catholic hospitals looked to the United States and replicated in Australia public juridic person governance structures and mergers of individual hospitals into systems.

Social services have observed personal care vouchers in the United Kingdom and built community service systems that stand proud in the new Australian market. Yet the Church as a whole in Australia has not together considered implications of marketisation of human services. The structure of the Australian Church prohibits discussion. We live with false comfort in our different sectors and areas of authority. We’ve not put Catholic silos aside to chart a course for common good in this new market.

Brave but merciful leadership is critical if we are to hold ‘mission’ and ‘market’ in tension with one another.

Brave but merciful leadership is critical if we are to hold ‘mission’ and ‘market’ in tension with one another.

Pope Francis affirms we are personcentred carers, teaching: “There is no human life more sacred than

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another, just as there is no human life qualitatively more significant than another. The credibility of a healthcare system is not measured solely by efficiency, but above all by the attention and love given to the person, whose life is always sacred and inviolable.”5

“The credibility of a healthcare system is not measured solely by efficiency, but above all by the attention and love given to the person, whose life is always sacred and inviolable.”

If the Church were able to collectively appraise its mission priorities in response to the changed human services market, we would be better placed to become a Church for the poor. Three simple pointers could guide its thinking.

The first is opportunity to realise the Catholic Social Teaching principle of subsidiarity in consumer choice in human service purchasing. Few can argue an individual or their advocate nominee is not best placed to make decisions about the type of care and support they need. If the Church

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grasped this opportunity, it could strategically approach the growing market of human services with a defined product of mission driven care for the most vulnerable.

The changing human services market needs the Church to not only serve the poor but speak and act for them as well.

The second is for the Church to define what type of market participant it wants to be. In the Encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis said “By itself the market cannot guarantee integral human development and social inclusion” (LS 88). The market needs varied provider participants to keep it equitable. The changing human services market needs the Church to not only serve the poor but speak and act for them as well. This principle might see the Church vacate services for those able to find care elsewhere in the market and instead serve those on the margins who otherwise miss out.

Such a decision would challenge if the Church could remain in mainstream care for the middle classes and the wealthy. If it is to stay, its rationale for doing so could be to direct all profits to the service of the poor.

The third is not to let the current mission drift for too much longer. The risk for the Church is that it misses this moment and is beaten to the new market starting line by those with more commercial capability. Worse would be if the Church rushed to the starting line simply to be commercial or to get into the game without defining its mission priority first.

I’ve written here as if human service market dynamics are neat and tidy, as if there is time to define a market role on a clean sheet of paper. The reality is that such tidiness does not exist. The market evolution is long underway.

Yet the Church’s mission compels our faith leaders to constantly confront the dynamics of the changing human service market. The Church should pause. It should discern its proper place within the market. It should be “a Church which is poor and for the poor” (EG198) rather than drifting along as a servant to the system.

Yet the Church’s mission compels our faith leaders to constantly confront the dynamics of the changing human service market.

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Cox, Harvey ‘The Market as God: Living in the new dispensation’ The Atlantic, March 1999. https://www.theatlantic.com/ magazine/archive/1999/03/the-market-as-god/306397/ Goodwin, S. & Phillips, R. (2015). The marketisation of human services and the expansion of the not-for-profit sector, in Meagher, G. & Goodwin, S. (2015) Markets, rights and power in Australian social policy (pp. 97-114). Sydney: Sydney University Press.

3 Brown, L., and Nepal, B., (2010), Health lies in wealth; Health inequalities in Australians of working age, NATSEM: Catholic Health Australia, University of Canberra.

4 ACNC (2016), Australian Charities Report. The Australian Government, Canberra.

5 Address of Holy Father Francis to the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, September 20th, 2013. https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/september/documents/papa-francesco_20130920_ associazioni-medici-cattolici.html 1

2

Questions:

1. What dimensions of the mission of love and mercy does Martin Laverty bring into focus for you?

2. After reading this reflection, how can Pope Francis’ leadership and teaching influence how our Catholic Human Services are servant to the poor rather than servant to the system?

3. Martin Laverty writes: “A Church which is ‘poor and for the poor’ would not devote its financial resources first to worship, then to clergy, its works and finally charity. A Church for the poor would act in reverse order.” What are your thoughts in response to this? What might this mean in practice for your parish, organisation or ministry?

4. What are the three ‘simple pointers’ Martin Laverty suggests would help Church ministries appraise their mission priorities in response to market forces?

5. In 2020 we will have a plenary council to plan for the future of the Australian Church. We are being asked to consider ‘the facts on the ground’ and ‘to identify the grace of the moment’. What ‘facts’ and ‘graces’ are considered in this reflection?

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Works of Love and Mercy: Responding to

Family Violence

Ms Jocelyn Bignold Chief Executive Officer, McAuley Community Services for Women

“If violence has its source in the human heart, then it is fundamental that non-violence be practised before all else within families. I plead with equal urgency for an end to domestic violence and to the abuse of women and children.” 2017 World Day of Peace (5), Pope Francis Family violence is often insidious and misunderstood, even by women who experience it and men who perpetrate it. Children can be confused about what is going on and who is to blame. There are often damaging intergenerational impacts. There are multiple inter-related causes which lead to violence in the family, and there are a multitude of complex and inter-connected effects of family violence. Across Australia there are fragmented attempts from both Church and State to prevent family violence and provide support services for victims and survivors, however these efforts lack cohesion and are having limited effect on decreasing the level of family violence. Pope

Francis’ pleas for an urgent response must be listened to. Radical change in leadership, culture, structures, response and support services are essential if we are to move toward a future free from family violence.

As the Chief Executive Officer of McAuley Community Services for Women (CSW), I witness the strength and courage of women facing seemingly insurmountable difficulties, struggling just to survive, driven by the thought that they can have a future different than their current reality of isolation, shame and fear.

I write this reflection as an attempt to educate readers about the reality of family violence in Australia, to

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enable a connection with the human experience of someone fleeing from a violent situation and importantly to encourage action and leadership which can bring about the change needed to eradicate family violence in our Australian society.

In Australia one in three women have experienced physical violence.

A ‘hidden scourge’ In Australia one in three women have experienced physical violence.

Australian women are most likely to experience physical and sexual violence in their home at the hands of a male current or ex-partner.1 Between 2008-2010, approximately one woman per week was killed by her current or ex-partner. The reality is that while both men and women experience violence, domestic and sexual violence is ‘overwhelmingly committed by men against women, while they are at home’.2 It would not be a complete picture if the reality for children living in these situations wasn’t also mentioned.

More than one million Australian children are exposed to, or experience, domestic and family violence.3 This has immediate and long lasting effects. 61% of women who experience

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violence had children in their care4 and the leading cause of women and children needing shelter and requesting specialist homelessness services is domestic violence.5 Pope Francis has spoken of his own anguish for children who suffer abuse and violence: “Words cannot fully express my sorrow for the abuse you suffered. You are precious children of God who should always expect our protection, our care and our love.”6

More than one million Australian children are exposed to, or experience, domestic and family violence.

These statistics and the human lives at stake behind the numbers, are a tragedy. This reality of family violence in Australia is what Archbishop Christopher Prowse of the Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn names as “one of society’s biggest scourges, sadly too often a hidden scourge”.7 Cause and effect: a gendered crime There is no single factor that leads directly to family violence. There are many and varied factors it is a complex myriad of inter-related and inter-dependant elements which

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means the experience and the response for each person is unique.

Some of these include pre-exposure to violence or witnessing violence during childhood, poverty, alcohol, socio-economic demographics such as language, education, social inclusion and mental health.8 This diversity presents an immense challenge for the design and implementation of prevention and support services.

However amidst this complexity, there is some clarity.

Gender inequality is a significant factor in family violence.

Gender inequality is a significant factor in family violence. In the introduction to the Victorian Strategy for Preventing Violence Against Women through Gender Equality, Hon Daniel Andrews wrote that the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence “… made clear an uncomfortable truth: family violence is a gendered crime, full stop. The majority of victims – 75% – are women”.9 Society’s attitudes, norms, cultural beliefs, language, behaviours, systems and social structures about the roles of male and female, form an essential construct for our human identities and social relationships.

In his message for World Peace Day 2017, Pope Francis declared that “peaceful coexistence between individuals and among peoples cannot be based on the logic of fear, violence and closed-mindedness, but on responsibility, respect and sincere dialogue”.10 But this dialogical approach is not possible unless there is equality.

This reality of family violence in Australia is what Archbishop Christopher Prowse of the Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn names as “one of society’s biggest scourges, sadly too often a hidden scourge”.

The effects for women and children experiencing family violence are deep and lasting. In the past twelve months, McAuley CSW have supported over 400 women and children, each with their own unique story. The families who seek support have made the very difficult and dangerous choice to leave, and in doing so are faced immediately with social isolation and exclusion, displacement and transient homelessness, financial destitution, physical injury and psychological and

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emotional trauma. It takes immense courage to leave an abusive or violent situation and the women I encounter do so with incredible strength, solidarity and hope.

It takes immense courage to leave an abusive or violent situation and the women I encounter do so with incredible strength, solidarity and hope.

Prevention and support: a fragmented approach Prevention and a comprehensive solution to the epidemic of family violence needs all sectors of Australian society to be involved and faithbased organisations have a critical role to play. In a submission to the Government Department of Social Services on the formation of a second action plan to reduce violence against women and their children, Catholic Social Services Australia affirmed that “a multi-faceted approach is required … governments, business and community groups all have a part to play in reducing violence against women and children”.11 A key element for prevention is to address gender inequality in society.

This of course is a utopian feat in

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itself but it is critical to eliminating violence against women and children.

After many years of counselling women to remain committed to their marriage vows and persist, a number of Churches are now implementing holistic programs to address the issue. Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge has launched a website, education program and response service ‘ReWrite the Story’ and he explicitly states: “A very important task of the Church in some situations is to say ‘That [searching the Bible to support abusive behaviour] is a satanic misreading of the scripture, not the word of God’, because the All Merciful God would say there are no situations where a person should be expected to continue absorbing that kind of punishment.” He clarified: “No woman should feel constrained to stay in what is a violent and abusive relationship.” Archbishop Coleridge acknowledged his own family’s experience of domestic violence.

Radical hope: radical change needed Radical change in leadership, culture, structures, response and support services are essential if we are to move toward a future free from family violence. Gender equality is essential to this future. The best work society and Church can do is to deconstruct and reshape social and cultural norms which embed gender inequalities and stereotypes. The Catholic Church

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is in an important position because Catholic communities and services offer vital opportunities to reach people who are affected by family violence, many of whom may not use formal family violence service pathways to seek help.

The best work society and Church can do is to deconstruct and reshape social and cultural norms which embed gender inequalities and stereotypes.

The Church is also called to consider what institutional structures it has in place that enable violence to flourish.

Patriarchy which encourages gender inequality, the unequal position of women in power structures of the Church are critical things to be addressed. Education and training for faith leaders is essential for effective leadership, preaching and response to family violence.

Employers of women who are victims of family violence can be an incredible support if there is education and understanding in the workplace. It is essential for the woman affected to attend the legal, social-support and needs of the children while

confident in her ongoing employment and income.

Other recommendations for community, civil society, government and social services include increasing the availability and access for women and children to safe and affordable housing, the establishment of emergency accommodation which is staffed and available 24/7. McAuley CSW is the only service of this kind available in Victoria. Widespread community education and awareness is also essential to bring this crime into the public discourse and out from the shadows of secret shame.

Overall, solutions and approach must be holistic and integrated – inclusive of both practical and psycho-social support for women and children. We need to think clearly about the future and advocate for radical change if there is to be hope of a future free from the ‘hidden scourge’ of family violence.

“… conflicts have to be resolved not by force but by dialogue, respect, concern for the good of the other, mercy and forgiveness.”

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Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, Violence against women: key statistics. http://media.aomx.com/anrows.org.au/s3fs-public/Key%20statistics%20-%20all.pdf Ibid.

3 The Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse, The University of New South Wales, The Impact of Domestic Violence on Children: A Literature Review, August 2011 4 Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, Violence against women: key statistics. http://media.aomx.com/anrows.org.au/s3fs-public/Key%20statistics%20-%20all.pdf 5 Australian Government, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Specialist homelessness services 2012-13, 2013, p. 19 6 Apostolic Journey of His Holiness Pope Francis to the USA, Address to Victims of Sexual Abuse, Philadelphia 27/09/2015 http:// w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/september/documents/papa-francesco_20150927_usa-vittime-abusi.html 7 Catholic Voice, The Hidden Scourge, http://cgcatholic.org.au/catholic-voice/blog/the-hidden-scourge/ 8 Parliamentary Report on Domestic Violence, ‘Contributing factors.’ Chapter 1, p4. 20/08/2015 9 Safe and Strong: A Victorian Gender Equality Strategy, 2016. Page ii http://www.vic.gov.au/system/user_files/ Documents/women/161108_Victorian_Gender_Equality_Strategy_ONLINE.pdf 10 Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the Celebration of the 50th World Day of Peace, ‘Non-Violence: a Style of Politics for Peace’ 01/01/2017 http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/peace/documents/papafrancesco_20161208_messaggio-l-giornata-mondiale-pace-2017.html 11 Catholic Social Services Australia, Comments to inform the development of the second Action Plan under the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children 2010-2022,’ 24/03/2014 http://www.cssa.org.au/storage/ CSSA%20Submission%202nd%20Action%20Plan%20-%20Final.pdf 1

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Questions:

1. What dimensions of the mission of love and mercy does Jocelyn Bignold bring into focus for you?

2. After reading this reflection, how can Pope Francis’ leadership and teaching influence how we respond to family violence in our homes, parishes, communities and workplaces?

3. Jocelyn Bignold writes: “The best work society and Church can do is to deconstruct and reshape social and cultural norms which embed gender inequalities and stereotypes.” What practical steps can we take to do this?

4. Considering that gender inequality is a significant factor in family violence, how can Church “customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures be suitably channelled” (EG27) to protect and care for women and children and help to eradicate family violence?

5. In 2020 we will have a plenary council to plan for the future of the Australian Church. We are being asked to consider ‘the facts on the ground’ and ‘to identify the grace of the moment’. What ‘facts’ and ‘graces’ are considered in this reflection?

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Human

Trafficking: Modern-Day Slavery

Written in consultation with Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking of Humans (ACRATH)

“Human trafficking is a crime against humanity. We must unite our efforts to free the victims and stop this increasingly aggressive crime which threatens not only individuals but the basic values of society and of international security and justice, to say nothing of the economy, and the fabric of the family and our coexistence.”

Address to New Ambassadors to the Holy See, Pope Francis1

From the beginning of his papacy Pope Francis denounced the culture of indifference which fosters the oppression and exploitation of people globally. He has consistently highlighted human trafficking and modern slavery, naming it very clearly as a crime and describing it as a “plague on the body of contemporary humanity”2 and has acted decisively to address it.

Current reality, hidden sin There are three main types of human trafficking – trafficking for forced labour, for sexual exploitation and

for harvesting of human tissue, cells and organs.3 It is an abuse of human rights and an international bordercrossing criminal activity. There are 700,000 – 800,000 people worldwide trafficked annually, more than 70% of victims are women who are trafficked for sexual exploitation. This criminal trade generates USD$7 – $10 billion annually for traffickers.4 Estimated numbers of enslaved people vary from 21 to 27 million people but, as much of human trafficking is invisible, Interpol estimates that only 5-10% of cases are reported, the numbers of people affected would seem to be considerably greater.

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Faces to numbers Behind every statistic is a life which has been destroyed by falling victim to perpetrators of trafficking. People, who are trying to escape poverty, situations of fear or violence or simply fall into a well-designed and intricate trap. Children are kidnapped, sold into sexual servitude, forced into marriage, taken as child soldiers, used as suicide bombers, forced into labour in such industries as fishing, mining, agriculture, construction and domestic service. Women and men, especially women, are forced or tricked into sexual servitude.

Labourers can experience illegal or extortionate recruitment fees, late, withheld, or deducted wages, withheld passports, enforced visa infringements, lack of freedom of movement, substandard living conditions, infection, disease, intimidation and physical and sexual abuse.

Behind every statistic is a life which has been destroyed by falling victim to perpetrators of trafficking.

Pope Francis understands the enormous number of lives at stake and reminds us of the imperative to

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respond. “Many lives, many stories, many dreams have been shipwrecked in our day. We cannot remain indifferent in the face of this. We have no right.”5

“Many lives, many stories, many dreams have been shipwrecked in our day. We cannot remain indifferent in the face of this. We have no right.”

Australian Stories6 Australia is a destination country for victims of trafficking. Trafficked victims come from diverse cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds.7 Ramon is a young boy in Manila who had been repeatedly sexually abused by a perpetrator engaged and paid by a man in Sydney for whom the abuse is live streamed. Cases of cyber prostitution in Australia are coming to the notice of police; it is easy for them to go undetected.

Alice, a backpacker saw an advertisement on Gumtree for eighty-eight days seasonal work on a farm in South Australia with a payment of $350 dollars a week in addition to board and lodging. She found she was the only worker on the farm besides the owner, her passport

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and phone were taken and she had to work twelve hours a day for two weeks without pay. Using his modem, she was able to contact a friend in Sydney who notified the police.

Grace, from Fiji, was employed as a housekeeper in Brisbane for three years. She received no wages and her passport was taken. Eventually, she summoned the courage to flee.

Fatima at a Catholic School in Melbourne was leaving school at the end of second semester and returning with her parents to Karachi to be forcibly married. She wanted to finish school and go to university. When she heard ACRATH present at her school on forced marriage and realised she had a legal right to refuse marriage she spoke with one of her teachers who contacted a human trafficking case worker from the Red Cross.

Collective action to combat human trafficking Eradication will not happen without collective action by the United Nations and its member States, corporations, community and faith-based organisations and citizen consumers.

Collective action will entail better strategic coordination of capabilities, better resourcing and better research.

This has implications for international trade, including the need to integrate human rights into trade decisions, and

the reform of practices in global supply chains and markets, because slavery is woven into the global economy.

Global responses In 2015 Theresa May, in the position of Britain’s Home Secretary, implemented the Modern Slavery Act and this set an international benchmark, particularly in relation to its provisions for businesses to establishing ethical practices in their supply chains. One of her early actions as Prime Minister in July 2016 was to establish a cabinet task force to address human slavery.

She also increased the international development budget by $33.5 million to form a five-year International Modern Slavery Fund targeted at prevention in high risk trafficking sourcing countries for the United Kingdom.

… slavery is woven into the global economy.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW), under the leadership of Cardinal Nicholls, has been actively working with civil society in the UK through the Bakhita Initiative to counter human trafficking. A key element of this initiative is the Santa Marta Group, an alliance of international police chiefs and bishops working with civil society. In a process endorsed by Pope

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Francis, they are developing strategies for prevention, pastoral care and reintegration.

Australian responses The Australian Government ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and the supplementary protocol – to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children – and has amended the domestic Criminal Code accordingly, most recently in 2013.

The Criminal Code now includes as criminal offences slavery, servitude, forced labour, trafficking in persons, child bondage, forced marriage, organ trafficking, harbouring a person and deceptive recruiting.

Currently, the National Action Plan 2015-2019 to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery provides the strategic framework for Australia’s domestic and international response.

In 2008 the government established a National Roundtable on Human Trafficking as a consultative mechanism with civil society in establishing strategies for prevention, prosecution and protection in relation to the issue.

The response of the Church in Australia, particularly since 2005, has been led by ACRATH. The organisation was born from the

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2001 meeting of the International Superiors General (UISG), the leaders of Women’s Religious Institutes, where they made a global commitment to establishing mechanisms for global networking of religious to counter human trafficking and eradicate modern-day slavery. With a strong regional presence in WA, SA, Vic., NSW, the ACT and Qld, ACRATH uses an integrated and holistic approach to combating human trafficking in Australia, the Asia Pacific region and globally.

The response of the Church in Australia, particularly since 2005, has been led by ACRATH. Pathways to a new future A critical element of paving a way toward a different future in Australia is treating human trafficking as more than a criminal issue.8 Most of our resources are allocated to criminal prosecutions and the legislation related to trafficking is within the Commonwealth Criminal Code. The effect of this is that attention and funding is directed toward the traffickers and not the people trafficked. Victims are given protection to the extent that they can help prosecutions. Protection rather

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should be based upon our obligation as a convention signatory to protect, shelter and care for the people who have suffered, in Pope Francis’ words “violations against human dignity and human rights”.9 Church has a powerful role to play in both supporting victims, rehabilitating perpetrators and challenging systems and structures in society which enable this hidden sin of trafficking to continue.

Church has a powerful role to play in both supporting victims, rehabilitating perpetrators and challenging systems and structures in society which enable this hidden sin of trafficking to continue.

ACRATH has done much to promote awareness of human trafficking through its presentations to schools, Church and community groups across Australia, through its website, e-news bulletins, education resources and through radio and print materials for culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

All people are encouraged to take action in their daily lives.

Working collaboratively with other non-government organisations, ACRATH advocates for systemic change to ensure slavery-free supply chains of goods such as chocolate, cotton, clothing and seafood, for recognition of the rights of people trafficked into Australia and for community education in relation to forced marriage.

ACRATH and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference celebrates the feast of St Bakhita, patron saint of trafficked people on February 8th each year. In local parishes, there is an Easter Chocolate campaign raising awareness of the involvement of child labour in the cocoa industry.

Together, we can find ways to heal this open wound and find a pathway to a new future where modern-day slavery is eradicated.

“One of the most troubling of those open wounds is the trade in human beings, a modern form of slavery, which violates the Godgiven dignity of so many of our brothers and sisters and constitutes a true crime against humanity.”10

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Address of Pope Francis to the New Ambassadors to the Holy See on the occasion of the presentation of the Letters of Credence, 12/12/2013 http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/december/documents/papafrancesco_20131212_credenziali-nuovi-ambasciatori.html 2 Vatican Radio, Address to Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Junno Arocho, 18/04/2015 http://www.news.va/en/news/ pope-francis-human-trafficking-is-a-plague-on-huma 3 See Interpol Fact Sheet: Trafficking in Human Beings for more detail: https://www.interpol.int/content/ download/796/6455/version/35/file/13_THB02_02_2017_EN_web.pdf 4 Australian Institute for Family Studies, Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation, ACSSA Briefing June 2005. https://aifs.gov.au/publications/trafficking-women-sexual-exploitation/introduction 5 Apostolic journey of His Holiness Pope Francis to Kenya, Visit to the United Nations Office, Nairobi, 26/11/2015 http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/november/documents/papa-francesco_20151126_kenya-unon.html 6 Testimonies and real stories from ACRATH, read more online: https://acrath.org.au/resources/human-trafficking/truestories/australian-true-stories/ 7 Australian Red Cross, Human Trafficking in Australia, Frequently Asked Questions, online PDF resource, 2013. http://www.redcross.org.au/files/Trafficking_FAQs.PDF 8 Borghi, Ellyse, ‘People Trafficking and Australia: Why sex-trafficking victims are human too’, Just Leadership Sex Trafficking Project, Monash University, 2012. http://rightnow.org.au/opinion-3/people-trafficking-and-australia-whysex-trafficking-victims-are-human-too/ 9 Apostolic journey of His Holiness Pope Francis to Turkey, Visit to the President of Diyanet at the Department for Religious Affairs, Address of the Holy Father, Ankara 28/11/2014. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/ speeches/2014/november/documents/papa-francesco_20141128_turchia-presidenza-diyanet.html 10 Greeting of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Second European Assembly of Religious in Europe Against Trafficking and Exploitation (RENATE), 07/11/2016 http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2016/november/documents/ papa-francesco_20161107_tratta-esseri-umani.html 1

Questions:

1. What dimensions of the mission of love and mercy does ACRATH bring into focus for you?

2. After reading this reflection, how can Pope Francis’ leadership and teaching influence how we counter the “culture of indifference” which enables the trafficking of humans?

3. ACRATH writes: “Church has a powerful role to play in both supporting victims, rehabilitating perpetrators and challenging systems and structures in society which enable this hidden sin of trafficking to continue.” How can you, your family and your parish community be a part of Church playing this “powerful role”? What actions can you take in your daily life to “heal this open wound” and help to “find a pathway to a new future where this modern-day slavery is eradicated”?

4. In 2020 we will have a plenary council to plan for the future of the Australian Church. We are being asked to consider ‘the facts on the ground’ and ‘to identify the grace of the moment’. What ‘facts’ and ‘graces’ are considered in this reflection?

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Love and Mercy in

OurFamily: A Reflection on Amoris Laetitia Luke and Melissa, Jack, Billy and Paddy Tobin

“Let me cross the threshold of this tranquil home, with its family sitting around the festive table.” Amoris Laetitia 9 Our family table is seldom “tranquil” and frequently “festive” and Pope Francis would be welcome to “cross the threshold” into our humble home at any time. In his latest Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia on the Joy of Love in the Family, Pope Francis writes with clarity and detail about the core of family life: love, tenderness and “to contemplate our loved ones with the eyes of God and to see Christ in them” (AL323).

Our Family

Mel and I have been married for twenty-five years and we have three boys; Jack aged 17, Billy 14 and Paddy 12. Pope Francis writes that “there is no stereotype of the ideal family” (AL57) and this is certainly true in Australia. We are blessed with rich

diversity in the make-up of what ‘family’ looks like. In the following pages, we offer our family story as just one example of the myriad of family stories who like us, face many challenges, joys and celebrations, changing contexts and realities of being ‘family’ in today’s world.

I was raised in a household which is not uncommon. My Catholic mother passed on the faith to her children and my atheist father thought it was all bunkum! I am eternally grateful for the gift of my faith and always looked forward to the time when I could do the same for my own children.

Mel’s mother Dawn was a devout Catholic, however her experience of Church was not always pastoral or caring in nature and was at times

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overtly and cruelly judicial. This did not sway Dawn from her faith but it did play a major role in Mel’s decision to leave the Church. Mel describes herself as spiritual and still lights a candle at St Mary’s Cathedral for sick friends when the need arises. Our boys have been baptised and have grown up in a Catholic household with some healthy critique along the way.

Recently, prior to reading Amoris Laetitia, Mel and I made the decision that we would invite the boys to attend Mass on the weekend, rather than making it a weekly obligation.

This took a long time to discern and once the decision was made we felt a quiet peace. We will continue to nurture their faith and to encourage them to care for the most vulnerable and marginalised in our society.

While still making the invitation, our home and family life will become their ‘Church’. As Pope Francis points out “… it is best to encourage them in their own experience of faith and to provide them with attractive testimonies that then win them over by their sheer beauty” (AL288). We made this decision responding to our own context and in our own time.

We understand that others may take a different approach depending on their context.

Soon after, we faced enormous challenge and grieved together as

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one of our best friends was hit by a car and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Our boys responded saying: “Dad we’re going to Mass with you this week.” My heart leapt at their response. Amidst pain and suffering there are amazing acts of love and kindness which bring great joy. Their faith has been given to them, like all of us, as a gift from God. They know how to integrate this gift into their lives and they know that God will always be waiting for their own acceptance of God’s unconditional eternal love. Does this mean Mass every Sunday? Not at this time. Do they pray regularly? In their own way, yes. Do they continue to search and ask questions? Most definitely.

“… it is best to encourage them in their own experience of faith and to provide them with attractive testimonies that then win them over by their sheer beauty”.

Love

There is comprehensive insight to St Paul’s dissertation on love in 1Cor 13. Pope Francis devotes a significant part of the document to a forensic examination of the text. It is

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wonderfully refreshing that love in the family is given such high importance.

As a family, we try to engender this tenderness and love in our married relationship as a couple, as parents and between the boys themselves.

In small daily actions, we are being Church with each other. The boys kiss their mum goodnight before going to bed and I get hugs from all of them before they go to school, go out at night or at bedtime.

In small daily actions, we are being Church with each other.

Tenderness

Amoris Laetitia mentions the word tenderness fourteen times. That word tenderness – it’s hard to keep top of mind when the kids leave their blazer on the bus; forget their phone at a shopping centre; slam the door in your face; or speak rudely to one of your friends … but Pope Francis continues to emphasise tenderness and reminds us of the love and mercy constantly shown by Jesus to all whom he encountered. Every parent and carer knows that if they could slow down, breathe a little and take the time to understand the situation better – the screaming match would be avoided. When we can remember this, all is well. At other times, we are

reminded “to never let the day end without making peace in the family” (AL104).

It is that very love, that very tenderness, that calls us to go back into our boys’ bedrooms and start the peacemaking. It is in this way that we as a family recognise our need to be community for each other.

Respect

Along with love, tenderness, mercy and peace comes the underlying respect that each member of the family has for one another.

“In the family three words need to be used.

I want to repeat this!

Three words: ‘Please’ ‘Thank you’, ‘Sorry’.

Three essential words!”

Pope Francis makes it quite clear with regards to manners: “In the family three words need to be used. I want to repeat this! Three words: ‘Please’ ‘Thank you’, ‘Sorry’. Three essential words!” (AL133, 266) Our sons know that when we are around the table for a meal, usually dinner, there are ways of behaving and speaking that are appropriate and those that aren’t. There is also a general understanding about

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how the boys speak with us as parents and how we speak with the boys. These ways of being in our family have been infused over time and began with the deep love, respect and tenderness witnessed by our relationship as wife and husband, as mum and dad.

Role models

I have had the privilege of wonderful female role models in my life. I have already written of my own mother, my mother-in-law and there were others – grandmothers, aunties and women I have worked with – who have enabled me to develop great respect for women and understand the underlying principle of equality for women and men. Pope Francis writes about the essential role of the father in shaping the children’s perspective, particularly boys, of their mother and women in general (AL175). To grow as society, nurturing healthy respect and understanding of gender equality is important. As children grow, seeking out strong, loving and respectful male role models be they uncles, grandads, neighbours or friends is vital.

Search for meaning, connection and place

One of the major reasons Mel feels disconnected from Church is due to the patriarchal structure of Church authority. She is deeply troubled by Pope Francis outlining the importance of dignity and respect for women

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in this document and others, while seeing no process yet to allow for full participation of women in Church leadership: “… we must nonetheless see in the women’s movement the working of the Spirit for a clearer recognition of the dignity and the rights of women” (AL54). This question is valid and our boys ask about this too. They continue to search for relevance and meaning of Church for their own lives and seek connection to values we have as a family. There aren’t many satisfying answers to this challenge yet as Church leadership and governance remains locked in a patriarchal structure. However Bishop of Parramatta Vincent Long recently observed change is needed saying: “I need to lead the way in promoting the Church as a communio, as a discipleship of equals, that emphasises relationships rather than power.”1

They continue to search for relevance and meaning of Church for their own lives and seek connection to values we have as a family.

Pastoral parish, loving encounters When asked about their experience of Church in regards to love, tenderness, mercy and peace our boys had varied responses and yet each in their own

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way reflected the beauty of Amoris Laetitia. Jack remembers having to be an acolyte at the last minute (never having done so before) and was surprised when our parish priest thanked him at the end of Mass and everyone applauded. He didn’t think what he had done had meant so much to the priest and the congregation.

Billy said that he appreciated the humour our parish priest showed when the priest’s own mobile phone went off at the start of Mass and he and the priest had a little laugh about it while no-one else knew what was happening. Paddy commented that there are people who come up to him after Mass and ask how he is, thank him for altar serving. He often doesn’t know who they are. I will say later you know that’s Judy who sits on that side with so and so, and he’ll say “oohhhh I know them”. These moments reflect our parish community and in particular, the pastoral care shown by our parish priest to all.

Pope Francis frequently emphasises pastoral over judicial with regards to clerical leadership and particularly when responding to the most challenging situations. “Mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life.

All of her pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness which she shows to believers; nothing in her preaching and her witness to the world can be lacking in mercy.”

(AL310) Indeed, this has been the experience for our own children when attending regular worship.

Amoris Laetitia provides another example of the way Pope Francis is re-awakening in all of us a backto-basics framework for living an authentic Christian life. Our family has love at the centre, yet we all need reminding of the necessity for mercy, forgiveness, tenderness, closeness and respect for one another.

Our family has love at the centre, yet we all need reminding of the necessity for mercy, forgiveness, tenderness, closeness and respect for one another.

There is also a challenge for us as Church – clergy, religious and lay included – to ensure our behaviours, words and leadership reflect the loving and merciful nature of God. We are called to ensure the experience of Church nurtures the Joy of Love in the Family. Pope Francis urges us to become an expression of God’s unconditional love; to model the humility, compassion and inclusion, lived out in the person of Jesus; and to trust in the strength and grace of the ever-present Holy Spirit.

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Evidence Statement, Bishop Vincent Long given to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Day 11 21/02/2017.

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Questions:

1. What dimensions of the mission of love and mercy does the Tobin Family bring into focus for you?

2. After reading this reflection, how can Pope Francis’ example and teaching influence the way we experience love, tenderness and mercy in family life? How can Church and parish life nurture this?

3. The Tobin family writes that they offer their “family story as just one example of the myriad of family stories” who “face many challenges, joys and celebrations, changing contexts and realities of being ‘family’ in today’s world”. What are these for you?

4. How can using “Please, Thank You and I’m Sorry” bring more peace and joy to your family, community or workplace?

5. In 2020 we will have a plenary council to plan for the future of the Australian Church. We are being asked to consider ‘the facts on the ground’ and ‘to identify the grace of the moment’. What ‘facts’ and ‘graces’ are considered in this reflection?

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Preparing to be a Synodal

Church

Fr Noel Connolly SSC Head of Mission Studies, Columban Mission Institute, BBI The Australian Institute of Theological Education and Catholic Institute of Sydney

“What the Lord is asking of us is already in some sense present in the very word “synod”. Journeying together — laity, pastors, the Bishop of Rome — is an easy concept to put into words, but not so easy to put into practice.” 50th Anniversary of the Synod of Bishops (6), Pope Francis It was great to hear that the Australian Bishops Conference has decided to call a national plenary council in 2020. It is 80 years since the last one.

In announcing the plenary council, Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge outlined how we need to plan for a council where “everything is potentially on the radar screen”.1 There are many issues that we need to discuss and discern if we are to speak a Gospel that is intelligible to our brothers and sisters in secular and plural Australia.

But as Pope Francis is always keen to point out, “time is greater than space” (EG222) or it is the process,

the change of attitudes, the new style of consultation, the different type of Church that this generates that is as important as the results. What Pope Francis wants is a new synodal Church not just an occasional ‘Synod’.

This is clear when we look closely at the process for the 2014-2015 Synods on the Family. Pope Francis consulted the laity and the churches; called two meetings; encouraged all the Bishops to speak out even if they didn’t agree with him; didn’t force unanimity; wrote his marvellous reflection Amoris Laetitia, encouraging even more discernment and refuses even now to authoritatively close off debate.

His aim is a more adult, discerning,

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synodal Church as well as attempting to meet the needs of the family.

I also believed that building a discerning, consultative Church will demand a new level of faith, greater courage, deeper spirituality and new structures if we are to learn to discern for ourselves …

The challenge of consulting and discerning properly

The thing I found most challenging about Pope Francis’ first exhortation Evangelii Gaudium was his insistence on a discerning, decentralised and consultative Church. He expressed his confidence in local bishops (EG16) and Episcopal Conferences (EG32) and spoke of a desire for a profound decentralisation and for Christian communities to come up with solutions “proper to their own country” (EG186). I was surprised because, with the possible exception of Pope Paul VI in Octogesima Adveniens, I had never heard of a Pope who encouraged countries to come up with their own local solutions. I also believed that building a discerning, consultative Church will demand a new level of faith, greater

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courage, deeper spirituality and new structures if we are to learn to discern for ourselves after decades of waiting for Rome to speak.

We are not used to that level of responsibility. It will demand a much more adult approach to our faith and courage and wisdom to discuss and decide the important issues which until now Rome has decided for us. Even until now many Episcopal Conferences have not taken up the freedom that Pope Francis seems to be challenging them to. We will also have to develop the skills and spirituality for discernment. Discernment is a skill which takes time and practice to develop. It is not something learnt from a book. People also need the experience of speaking up and being heard to grow in the confidence and ability to contribute and learn constructively.

We will need structures to be able to consult

We also need to develop the structures that will enable widespread consultation. At the moment they do not exist uniformly across the country. Many parishes still do not have Parish Councils and most dioceses do not seem to have the experience of Diocesan Synods. But without clear and enabling structures consultations will be shallow and superficial. They will be dominated by the ‘right people’ or the compulsively

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articulate and the voices of the minorities and the people on the peripheries will not be heard. The real questions and true wisdom may not emerge. Incidentally, maybe we have a lot to learn from Religious Congregations in this regard. They have been having Chapters and Assemblies for hundreds of years and many have developed excellent structures and processes for consultation and decision making.

People also need the experience of speaking up and being heard to grow in the confidence and ability to contribute and learn constructively.

I appreciate we are very early in the process of preparing for the plenary council but I suspect that the best way to prepare might be to have parish meetings and diocesan synods to learn the skills and develop the synodal spirituality of “journeying together”.2 As a Columban Vicar General I travelled frequently to Chile and Peru. And know that those Churches have a long tradition of preparing for CELAM Meetings from Medellin to Aparecida (Latin American Bishops Conference). They have developed structures for consulting people in

parishes and even in pastoral sectors within the parishes and then sharing with the Diocese and so forth. We might learn something from them.

A synodal Church

On October 17th 2016, during the last Synod of Bishops Pope Francis gave an important speech to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the first Synod of Bishops in which he explained his vision for a synodal Church: “A synodal Church is a Church which listens, which realizes that listening ‘is more than simply hearing’. It is a mutual listening in which everyone has something to learn. The faithful people, the college of bishops, the Bishop of Rome: all listening to each other, and all listening to the Holy Spirit, the ‘Spirit of truth’ (Jn 14:17), in order to know what he ‘says to the Churches’ (Rev 2:7).”3 “The Synod of Bishops is the point of convergence of this listening process conducted at every level of the Church’s life,”4 Pope Francis continued. But the hierarchy’s authority is best interpreted within this Synodality of “journeying together” through history towards the Reign of God. Pope Francis often compares this Church to an inverted pyramid where the top is located beneath the base and listens to, learns from and serves the base. The only authority is one of service.5

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“A synodal Church is a Church which listens, which realizes that listening ‘is more than simply hearing’. It is a mutual listening in which everyone has something to learn.”

Ending clericalism

In this regard, one of Pope Francis’ constant priorities is to end clericalism and empower the laity.

Clericalism is often understood as the clergy taking too many privileges to themselves but I suspect the more dangerous form of clericalism is taking too much responsibility to ourselves. Many of us clerics have messianic streaks doing everything and showing little faith in the laity.

We fail to notice the talents and competencies of our ordinary people.

Recently I was listening to podcasts of Divine Renovation6 and one of the speakers who was a leader in a large company expressed his frustration at being asked to do little more than to pay, pray, obey and perhaps read and distribute communion in his parish.

He felt he had much more to offer.

Too often we priests spend most of our energy on controlling and managing rather than generating lay energy and involvement.

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On his visit to Brazil for World Youth Day in 2013, Pope Francis spoke to the Bishops of Brazil and the episcopal council of CELAM and posed these questions to the Bishops: “Do we make the lay faithful sharers in the mission?”

Do diocesan and parish councils, “whether pastoral or financial, provide real opportunities for lay people to participate in pastoral consultation, organization and planning?”

Do we give the laity “the freedom to continue discerning, in a way befitting their growth as disciples, the mission which the Lord has entrusted to them?

Do we support them and accompany them, overcoming the temptation to manipulate them or infantilize them?”7 These are real questions for us all to ponder as we prepare for our plenary council and more importantly for a synodal Church.

Going to and listening to the periphery

Pope Francis in a book by Antonio Spadaro, My Door Is Always Open: A Conversation on Faith, Hope and the Church in a Time of Change, makes the strong statement, “I am convinced of one thing: the great changes in history are realised when reality was seen not from the centre but rather from the periphery. It is a hermeneutical

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question: reality is understood only if it is looked at from the periphery …

Being at the periphery helps to see and to understand better, to analyse reality more correctly, to shun centralism and approaches based on ideology.”8

“… the great changes in history are realised when reality was seen not from the centre but rather from the periphery.”

Power, position and prosperity can stifle the Spirit, blind us to others and prevent us from understanding the weak. Witness the rich man who never understood or appreciated Lazarus at his door (Luke 16:19-31).

He wasn’t a totally bad person. He asked God to help his brothers but he was blind. Lazarus was just part of the scenery at his gate. He certainly didn’t see him as a person. That is why Pope Francis said, “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security” (EG49).

It is also why he wants us to have “the smell of the sheep” (EG25).

Pope Francis fears a clergy set apart and an enclosed self-referential,

unhealthy Church. We are not to be a holy huddle of the privileged and virtuous but a place where everyone will feel welcome, especially the poor, the abuse victims, survivors, divorcees, gays, lesbians, women, disaffected Catholics.

Clearly if we want to have a successful plenary council we will have to find some way of enabling all these marginalised people to speak and be heard.

Conclusion

All this amounts to a difficult but exciting challenge. But it is a challenge that we can face together. Pope Francis is fond of reminding us that synodal means “journeying together”. We need one another. No longer can one group be set apart and take all the responsibility. That is clearly the lesson of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In future, we are going to need more lay involvement, in particular from woman, in the governance of the Church in Australia on a national, diocesan and parish level. Women and lay people have insights, sensitivities, imagination and skills that are powerful, complementary and cannot be done without. It is the future and it is not only theologically desirable, psychologically necessary and administratively indispensable it is also enjoyable and life-giving for all of us.

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Catholic Leader 17/08/2016 http://catholicleader.com.au/news/brisbane-archbishop-calls-for-first-synod-for-entirecatholic-church-in-australia-since-1937 Synod as Journeying Together, 50th Anniversary of the Synod of the Bishops, Address of His Holiness Pope Francis, (1), 17/10/2015 http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/october/documents/papa-francesco_20151017_50anniversario-sinodo.html 3 Ibid (12) 4 Ibid (12) 5 Ibid (19) 6 Divine Renovation Podcasts http://www.divinerenovation.net/divine_renovation ©Divine Renovation 7 Apostolic Journey to Rio de Janeiro for the 28th World Youth Day, Address to the Episcopal Conferences of Latin America, His Holiness Pope Francis, 28/07/2013, para 3-5. https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/ july/documents/papa-francesco_20130728_gmg-celam-rio.html 8 Spadaro, Antonio, ‘My Door is Always Open: A Conversation on Faith, Hope and Church in a Time of Change’ Bloomsbury Publishing, London UK, 2014, pp147-150.

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Questions:

1. What dimensions of the mission of love and mercy does Noel Connolly bring into focus for you?

2. After reading this reflection, how can Pope Francis’ leadership and teaching influence the way we journey together and become a synodal Church?

3. What is your own definition of ‘synodal’? Who do you think needs to be consulted and what topics might be important to discern?

4. Why does Noel Connolly, a cleric himself, write about the need to address “clericalism and empower the laity” in order for us to become a synodal Church?

5. In 2020 we will have a plenary council to plan for the future of the Australian Church. We are being asked to consider ‘the facts on the ground’ and ‘to identify the grace of the moment’. What ‘facts’ and ‘graces’ are considered in this reflection?

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Unwritten Chapter

of Love and Mercy

“I have often thought of how the Church may render more clear her mission to be witness to mercy.” Misericordiae Vultus We would like to honour all the selfless, compassionate, merciful and loving people who fight for justice, advocate for those who are vulnerable and give of themselves, often at great cost – not just once or twice, but as the way they live.

Like Jesus, by their words, actions and the very person they are, they reveal the mercy of God. You know these people. This page is for the unwritten stories of love and mercy.

We invite you to write your own reflection on The Francis Effect: Mission of Love and Mercy.

If you would like to share it with us, please email adultformation@catholicmission.org.au

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“ I have often thought of how the Church may render more clear her mission to be witness to mercy.”

Misericordiae Vultus, Pope Francis

Mission of

Love Mercy and

THE

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Your

Living

Mission of Love and Mercy

Pope Francis tells us that “Jesus moves according to a different kind of logic … the logic of a God who is love”.1 He reminds us that “the more we experience the love and infinite mercy of God among us, and the more capable we are of looking upon the many ‘wounded’ we meet along the way with acceptance and mercy”2, the more we are able to respond courageously to the challenge of nurturing a merciful and loving Church.

The reflections in these pages are intended to inspire leaders throughout the Australian Church and all people with a vision for a better world. Below are some ideas for personal and communal action. These may lead you to think of other ideas and help you to live each day so that God’s love and mercy is present with all you encounter.

Personal Action † Read Pope Francis’ writings from the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy: Misericordiae Vultus, Bull of Indiction and The Name of God is Mercy, A Conversation with Andrea Tornielli. Reflect on the nature of God as love and mercy and make a daily commitment to living this out. † After reading the reflections in this book, choose a topic which is new for you and seek further learning and a personal encounter which can deepen your understanding.

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† Read Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, reflect upon and share about the themes and ideas within the context of your family experience with friends, colleagues and family members. † Use the Mercy Examen (p83) for your own daily reflection and prayer. † Make a commitment to do one of the corporal works of mercy and one of the spiritual works of mercy each month. Keep a journal of your experience and reflect on how these experiences make you feel. † Be intentional about using inclusive and welcoming language. † Look at the Further Reading and Website References sections of this book for resources to inform, inspire and support your actions. † Look for opportunities to lead and influence positive change where you encounter places of darkness, places and people which need love and mercy.

In the words of Pope Francis – “Go forth boldly!” (EG261)

Communal Action † Examine the relevant chapter(s) to your sector, ministry or workplace and discuss at your next executive leadership, board or staff meeting. † Use the reflection questions at the end of each chapter for considered discussion during your staff development day or professional learning session. † Invite people or groups you may consider to be ‘other’ or ‘on the margins’ to become a part of your organisational works and ministries. Create a space of encounter to dialogue with one another. † Participate in the World Day of Prayer Against Human Trafficking, February 8 annually. † Invite women and men in your workplace, parish or community to learn about the reality of domestic violence in Australia. Invite McAuley Community Services for Women or your local agency to lead the conversation. † Facilitate an organisational dialogue about how your workplace and ministry can become more merciful. Challenge the organisational structures and review the integrity, justice and mission-centred nature of your systems, practices, language and behaviours throughout your organisation.

Pope Francis, ‘The Name of God is Mercy’ Bluebird Books, United Kingdom 2016, p65 Ibid p67

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Mercy Examen

The Mercy Examen is based on the Ignatian Examen which is a method of reviewing your day in the presence of God. It is our hope that the five steps of the Mercy Examen assist you in setting aside time in your day to nurture a sense of love and gratitude and reflect on your relationship with God, creation and all humankind.

1. Every encounter with another person is an opportunity to meet the face of Christ and experience God’s love and mercy. Where was I most aware of this today?

2. Can I identify the moments where I made a conscious effort to show God’s love and mercy today?

3. What challenges can I recall from today’s experiences? How was God present in those moments?

4. How can I seek God’s mercy for any ways in which I judged, excluded or was indifferent today?

5. As I imagine tomorrow, I ask for God’s grace. May I recognise Christ in all whom I meet and may each encounter be an experience of God’s unconditional love and abundant mercy.

Conclude with the prayer of Jesus: The glory that you have given me, I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Source: Joseph Carver SJ

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Acknowledgements

We are proud to publish the third book in The Francis Effect series: Mission of Love and Mercy. A project like this one is the product of many hours of conversation, reading, thinking and writing by a great number of people. We sincerely thank each person who has played a part in turning this book from an idea into reality.

We thank Catholic Mission and the Australian Mission Network of Catholic Religious Australia, without their endorsement and encouragement this book would remain in our imagination. Their wisdom, guidance and resources make it possible for the production and publication of the book.

We also thank Sandra Marta from Smarta by Design for her incredible talent and creativity, and Danielle Achikian from Danielle Achikian Consulting for her advice, superior competence and limitless patience.

Finally, we honour the gifted and courageous authors whose perspectives are written in the pages of the eleven reflections of this book. It is a great privilege to bring together their thoughts and share them with you. Without their contribution and commitment to this project, this book would not be possible and we thank them wholeheartedly.

Pope Francis continues to live and lead in a way that is profound witness for our world today. We are grateful for the opportunity to present The Francis Effect III: Mission of Love and Mercy and hope that it inspires, encourages and challenges you in living and leading mission.

The Editors

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Contributing Authors Australian Catholics Against Trafficking in Humans (ACRATH) ACRATH is a volunteer organisation with a strong regional presence in WA, SA, Vic., NSW, the ACT and Qld, and is committed to the elimination of human trafficking in Australia, the Asia Pacific region and globally.

Incorporated as an association with DGR status, it receives funding through the Attorney General’s Department, from religious institutes and local communities.

ACRATH works collaboratively with other non-government organisations to educate and advocate for systemic change to ensure slavery-free supply chains of goods such as chocolate, cotton, clothing and seafood, for recognition of the rights of people trafficked into Australia and for community education in relation to forced marriage. ACRATH is represented on the National Roundtable for Human Trafficking and its working parties. Its members also provide companionship to people who have been trafficked.

Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO Jesuit priest Frank Brennan is Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Social Services Australia, the Catholic Church’s peak body for social services in Australia. Frank has been a long-time advocate for human rights and social justice in Australia. His contact and involvement with people who are poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged began early in his priestly ministry. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture and the Australian National University College of Law and the National Centre for Indigenous Studies. He is also the National Director of Human Rights and Social Justice for Jesuit Social Services and Superior of the Jesuit community at Xavier House in Canberra.

His books include: The Wik Debate, One Land One Nation, Sharing the Country, Land Rights Queensland Style, Too Much Order with Too Little Law, Legislating Liberty, Tampering with Asylum, Acting on Conscience, No Small Change and Amplifying that still Small Voice: A collection of essays.

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Ms Jocelyn Bignold Jocelyn Bignold has over twenty-five years’ experience in community development, policy development, management and advocacy. Jocelyn is the Chief Executive Officer of McAuley Community Services for Women, an organisation which provides support, advocacy and accommodation for women and their children who are experiencing homelessness, primarily as a result of family violence or mental illness. Throughout her career, Jocelyn has worked in many areas of community services including aged care, children and adults with chronic illness, adults with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities, children in residential care, adults and families experiencing homelessness, imprisonment and family violence. Her work has led to an extensive collaborative involvement with government and other non-government organisations to improve policy responses and service systems designed to support those in need.

Fr Noel Connolly SSC Noel Connolly is a Columban missionary priest. Noel worked in Korea and was Rector of the Pacific Mission Institute, Turramurra; Vicar General of the Columbans throughout the world (based in Ireland) and Director of the Columbans in Australia and New Zealand. He is Head of Mission Studies at the Columban Mission Institute and at BBI The Australian Institute of Theological Education. In 2017, Noel joined the Catholic Mission Formation Team as Senior Consultant in Mission. He also lectures in mission and culture at the Catholic Institute of Sydney. Besides mission, Noel’s major interest is in our growing multicultural Australian Church. He has worked with numerous dioceses to help welcome and enable overseas priests and religious.

Dr John Falzon John Falzon is an advocate for social justice and has led the St Vincent de Paul Society National Council of Australia as Chief Executive since 2006.

He is trained in sociology, theology, politics and poetics and has worked in academia, community development, research and advocacy in non-government organisations. John is also a poet. He has long been an advocate for a fairer and more equitable society, regularly commenting on matters of social equity, structural causes of marginalisation and injustice in the media and public arena. He is the author of The Language of the Unheard published in 2012.

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Dr Martin Laverty Martin Laverty was the Chief Executive of Catholic Health Australia from 2008 to 2014. He is currently the Chief Executive of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. He serves on the boards of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Board and the Board of the NSW Public Service Commission. A lawyer by training, Martin’s doctoral thesis assessed the mission contribution of board directors in public juridic persons governing Australian Catholic hospitals.

Fr Peter Maher OAM Peter Maher is Parish Priest of St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Newtown, NSW. He is chair of Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat Ministries, Sydney and works as a Pastoral Supervisor/Consultant. He is editor of The Swag, the National Council of Priests quarterly magazine. He is currently on the Human Research Ethics Committee of The University of Technology, Sydney and is chaplain to PALMS Australia. He has also worked in hospital and university chaplaincy.

His qualifications include Bachelor of Theology from the Catholic Institute of Sydney and Masters in Education (Adult) UTS. He is a member of Australasian Association of Supervision and Transforming Practices Inc. He received The UTS Ally Award Celebrating and Supporting Sexual Diversity and Identity in 2008 and the UTS Alumni Community Award in 2015. In 2015 he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for service to religion and community.

Ms Patricia O’Gorman Patricia O’Gorman is an experienced senior leader who has worked in Catholic Education for nearly four decades with experience in leadership, theology, faith formation, spirituality, education, Catholic life, identity and mission. She currently works with Good Samaritan Education as the Director of Mission Integration leading a team charged with responsibility for stewarding the Good Samaritan Benedictine tradition and the provision of systematic, collaborative and ongoing formation for mission. Patricia operates out of a belief that leaders act from the totality of ‘who’ they are as human beings and that collaborative teamwork driven by a values-centred and focused leadership brings about authentic change. She believes in leadership which holds at its core a sense of service, the importance of spirituality and a commitment to justice.

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Mr Benjamin Oh For many years Benjamin Oh has worked within and beyond the Church to build greater understanding of the LGBTI lived realities, particularly with those who are from strong cultural and religious communities. Ben worked as the 2008 World Youth Day Coordinator for the Dominican Order and then served as President of PALMS from 2011 to 2014. Ben coordinated the NSW Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project and recently co-founded the ecumenical coalition Equal Voices. He serves on several Christian, human rights and LGBTI organisational boards. His expertise includes adult education, health, human rights, intercultural and interfaith development, and international aid and development.

Mrs Evelyn Enid Parkin Evelyn Parkin is a Quandamooka woman of Moreton Bay Queensland and was recently elected as the Queensland Representative for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC). She is passionate about spirituality, identity and relationship with the Holy Trinity and the people of this ancient land, Australia. Evelyn achieved a Masters of Theology at Banyo University Queensland in 2006. She taught Contextual Theology to mature aged students at Wontulp-Bi-Buya College in Cairns. Evelyn is married to Alan and together they have four children and six grandchildren. She participates in her community and enjoys being on the Board of the Minjerribah/Stradbroke Island Museum.

Mr Luke Tobin Luke Tobin has worked in Sydney Catholic Schools for the past twenty-five years teaching Religious Education, Mathematics and Drama. His passion for mission was fired in 1999 when he went on immersion to Cambodia and encountered extraordinary people whose faith, hospitality and generosity of spirit remain heartfelt memories. In schools Luke sought roles specific to mission which focused on liturgies, retreats, justice, peace and ecology. After working for twelve months with Caritas Australia, Luke joined the Catholic Mission Formation team, specialising in Adult Formation and Mission Education. Luke and Mel have been married for twenty-five years and have three children; Jack, Billy and Paddy.

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Further Reading Allen, John Jr. (2014) Against the Tide: The Radical Leadership of Pope Francis.

Liguori, MO: Liguori.

Pope Francis (2015) Misericordiae Vultus, Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. Vaticana: Libreria Editrice.

Connolly, Noel. (2016) Pope Francis’ Inspiring Vision. Essendon, VIC: St Columbans Mission Society.

Pope Francis (2016) Amoris Laetitia: Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on Love in the Family. Vaticana: Libreria Editrice.

Elder, Bruce. (1988) Blood on the Wattle, Massacres and Maltreatment of Australian Aborigines since 1788. Frenchs Forest, NSW: New Holland.

Rainbow Spirit Elders. (2008) Rainbow Spirit Theology: Towards an Australian Aboriginal Theology. Hindmarsh, SA: Australian Theological Forum Press.

Gittins, Anthony J. (2002) Ministry at the Margins: Strategy and Spirituality for Mission. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis.

Reid OP, Barbara (2016) Wisdom’s Feast: An Invitation to Feminist Interpretation of the Scriptures. Grand Rapids, MN: William B. Eerdmans.

Lawson, Veronica. (2015) The Blessing of Mercy: Bible Perspectives and Ecological Challenges. Eugene, OR: Morning Star.

Lowney, Chris. (2013) Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads. Chicago, IL: Loyola Press.

Martin sj, James. (2017) Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community can enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion and Sensitivity. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Nouwen, Henri J. M. (1972) The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society.

New York, NY. Crown Publishing.

Pope Francis. (2016) The Name of God is Mercy. London, UK: Bluebird.

Rohr, Richard (2016) The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation. London, UK: SPCK. Rosendale, George. (2005) The Peacemaker: Story of the Emu, Brolga and Jabiru. Cairns, QLD: Wontulp-Bi-Buya College.

Ross, C & Bevans S. ed. (2015) Mission on the Road to Emmaus: Constants, Contexts and Prophetic Dialogue.

Maryknoll, NY: Orbis.

Schreiter C.PP.S, Robert J. (2001) Globalisation and Reconciliation: Challenges to Mission in Mission in the Third Millenium. Maryknoll, NY. Orbis.

Pope Francis (2013) Evangelii Gaudium: Apostolic Exhortation on the Joy of the Gospel. Vaticana: Libreria Editrice.

Pope Francis (2015) Laudato Si’: Apostolic Encyclical on Care for our Common Home.

Vaticana: Libreria Editrice.

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Website References

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Year of Mercy: www.catholic.org.au/year-of-mercy Australian Catholic Disability Council: www.catholic.org.au/advisory-bodies/australian-catholic-disability-council Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office: www.acmro.catholic.org.au Australian Catholic Religious Against Human Trafficking – World Day of Prayer: www.acrath.org.au/world-day-of-prayer Australian Catholic Social Justice Council: www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au Caritas Australia, Year of Mercy in Action: www.caritas.org.au/learn/year-of-mercy Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum: www.capsa.org.au Catholic Australia, Living the Faith and Mission: www.catholicaustralia.com.au/living-the-faith Catholic Earthcare Australia: www.catholicearthcare.org.au Catholic Health Australia: www.cha.org.au Catholic Mission: www.catholicmission.org.au Catholic Religious Australia: www.catholicreligiousaustralia.org.au Catholic Social Services Australia: www.cssa.org.au Centacare, Catholic Family Services: www.centacare.org.au Edmund Rice Centre: www.erc.org.au Equal Voices: www.equalvoices.org.au Good Grief: www.goodgrief.org.au Jubilee of Mercy, Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation: www.iubilaeummisericordiae.va McAuley Community Service for Women: www.mcauleycsw.org.au Mercy Partners: www.mercypartners.org.au National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council: www.natsicc.org.au National Catholic Education Commission, Formation Resources: www.ncec.catholic.edu.au/resources Rachel’s Vineyard Ministries Australia: www.rachelsvineyard.org.au Rainbow Catholic Global Network: www.rainbowcatholics.wordpress.com Reconciliation Australia: www.reconciliation.org.au Sisters of Mercy Worldwide: www.mercyworld.org St Vincent de Paul Society: www.vinnies.org.au Truth, Justice and Healing Council: www.tjhcouncil.org.au

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Notes

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Notes

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Notes

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God of Love and Mercy, May we be Emmaus people, conscious of your love and presence among us.

Give us hearts of mercy to reach out, respond and comfort others.

Remind us of the transformational impact of acts of kindness and compassion.

Strengthen us in our work as people living and leading mission today.

May we have patient hearts with the doubts of others, compassionate hearts for mission in our world and open hearts to our own needs for information and support.

Give us the courage to live with paradox and the strength to address those challenges which unsettle us and threaten to steer us off course.

May we be always mindful of the need for courageous leadership, authentic witness and advocacy for gospel values.

Keep our hearts and minds grounded in the teaching of your son Jesus.

Help us to be hearts and voices of love and mercy in our world.

Amen.

Adapted from Mercy Partners Board Prayer Resource for Boards.

Used with Permission.

What is the Francis Effect and why is it significant for us today?

In this book eleven prominent Catholic leaders from a variety of sectors and ministries provide their perspectives on the mission of love and mercy.

They offer readers insights and challenges to living and leading a life of mercy while taking great inspiration from Jesus’ ministry and mission, and the words and deeds of Pope Francis. These reflections are a contribution towards a deeper understanding, commitment and integration of love and mercy in mission for global and local Church.

Catholic Religious Australia is proud to partner with Catholic Mission to publish the third book in The Francis Effect series: The Mission of Love and Mercy. At a time when our Australian Church is faced with many challenges, the leadership of Pope Francis and his message of God’s unconditional love and tender mercy reminds us all, of the call to follow in the ways of Jesus and show God’s love and mercy to all whom we encounter. The reflections in the pages of this book are written wisdom from passionate and experienced leaders living and working in our Church. With courage and integrity, they offer their perspectives on how our Church can become more loving and merciful. I highly commend this publication to you and congratulate the authors for their significant and generous contribution to mission.

Marion Gambin rsj Chair, Australian Mission Network, Catholic Religious Australia

“In a word, we are called to show mercy because mercy was first shown to us. This is not sheer romanticism or a lukewarm response to God’s love, which always seeks what is best for us, for mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life. All of her pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness which she shows to believers; nothing in her preaching and her witness to the world can be lacking in mercy.”

Amoris Laetitia 310, Pope Francis

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