‘Delight’ at Pope’s stand

Sydney
9 December 2001

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‘Delight’ at Pope’s stand

Archbishop Francis Carroll

The Australian Cath olic Bishops’ Conference is “delighted” that the Pope has taken up the cause of Australia’s indigenous people in his message to the people of Oceania following the 1998 Oceania Synod.

In the recently-released message, or Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in Oceania (The Church in Oceania), which The Catholic Weekly reported on last week, the Pope called for an honest acknowledgement of “wrongs done to indigenous peoples in Oceania” and apologised to them on behalf of the Church.

Responding to the Pope’s comments, the president of the Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Francis Carroll, said: “We are delighted that Pope John Paul II has taken up the cause of the indigenous peoples of Oceania and reiterated the forgiveness that we ask of our brothers and sisters for the shameful injustices of the past.”

He added that although “we were naturally dis appointed that the Holy Father was not able to be present in person among us, we were grateful for the release of this exhortation via modern technology.”

In an historic first the exhortation was promulgated on the Internet. The Pope traditionally delivers an Apostolic Exhortation personally but the length of the trip to Australia was thought to be too taxing for him. Instead, he delivered the message in Rome.

The long-awaited exhort ation is the follow-up to the 1998 Synod attended by the bishops of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and the Pacific.

Archbishop Carroll said: “Ecclesia in Oceania brings together many of the thoughts and issues raised by the bishops of Australia at the 1998 synod.

“This document also addresses key issues that are of concern in this region both for the comm unity life of the Church and its mission in the wider society,”

Pope John Paul sent a copy of the exhortation to each bishop in the region via the Internet.

The full text is available on www.catholic.org