The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
21 September 2003
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Heaven
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strangers’ call
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Fight racism
Bishop
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Senate
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nuns gather in Sydney
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It’s
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Editorial:
Spectre of fear
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Conversation:
Amanda McKenna, Catholic singer and songwriter - ‘God’s messenger’ on a journey
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Opintion:
‘Good mother of all ...’
Voice
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Insights:
Biblical ancestors?
Religious:
Spirit-ualities are everywhere
North
American, Irish, Australian sisters in historic Loreto reunion
Education:
Decade a day at school
Social
Work degree course at Strathfield
Balmain
kids hit right note
Catechism:
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New
bishops ‘help God’s light shine in darkness’
Capacity
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‘Heroic
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‘Kids
worth dying for’
Inspirations:
‘Schoolies’ faith patrol
Welcome strangers’ call
By Chris Lindsay
We can all take small, effective steps to help strangers find a welcome in our neighbourhood, our parish and our schools, Australia’s Catholic bishops have declared in a statement for Social Justice Sunday (September 28).
“In public life, Church groups can and must help to define acceptable political behaviour, and refuse to allow vulnerable groups, such as immigrants, indigenous Australians and refugees to be used as political targets,” they say.
The Social Justice Sunday statement was launched in North Sydney this week by the former Governor-General, Sir William Deane, and Bishop Christopher Saunders, Bishop of Broome and chairman of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council.
It says that in Australia, as in other nations, there have always been groups whom people have found it “difficult to welcome and easy to exclude”.
“Such relationships of welcome and exclusion - between the first Australians and white settlers, then later, between white Australians and people of other races and among older settlers and immigrants after World War II - eventually moved us towards a multicultural Australia where people were able to accept the challenge of living in a society where cultural diversity can be treasured and celebrated,” the bishops say.
“There have been times, however, when the shame of racism and the unfair treatment of cultural minorities have emerged with force in the community.
“Sadly, the events of September 11, 2001, and the consequent military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, the tragic bombing in Bali and further terrorist attacks have caused distress and anxiety, not only among the general Australian population, but also among Arab and Muslim communities in Australia.”
However, the bishops say that if the public face of Australia has been harsh and unwelcoming, many Australians have passionately expressed their desire for a more welcoming society.
The Churches and their leaders have also been among those who have persistently called on Australians to welcome refugees and immigrant groups into the community.
“From his earliest years, Jesus experienced what it was to be a stranger,” the bishops say. “The Gospel account of the flight into Egypt portrays a family facing persecution and seeking safe haven in a foreign land.
“That Jesus and his parents were displaced persons - refugees seeking asylum - reminds us of the threats and hardship faced by many families in today’s world.
“In his life and teaching, Jesus stressed God’s love for strangers, particularly people excluded because of their race or background. He insisted that God’s Kingdom had a place for all. Jesus insisted that all were invited because God loved them and invited them to conversion.”
The bishops point out that the Gospels often praise foreigners.
“Today the term Good Samaritan is commonly used for a person who shows kindness to strangers in need,” they say. “Samaritans were members of a despised race and religion, and to hear them held up as models shocked Jesus’ hearers.
“In John’s story of the woman by the well, we meet another Samaritan. She is surprised that Jesus would speak to her. In his stories and actions Jesus meets strangers, looks into their faces, engages them in conversation and reveals a God who loves all human beings.
“In his teaching, too, Jesus addresses the anxieties that make us exclude people. To dispel the anxiety that makes us see strangers as competitors, he invites his hearers to consider the flowers of the field.
“He also praises the goodness of the hated Samaritans, Romans, Gentiles and tax collectors. He urges them to love their enemies, imitating God who makes the rain fall on the good and the evil alike.”
The bishops say that Jesus’s insistence on God’s universal hospitality made him a stranger in his own land.
“He was taken outside his own city to be crucified as an outsider,” they say. “But the early Christians recognised that it was by Jesus’s exclusion that they had been invited to be God’s people.
“Right from the start Christians were challenged to embrace difference. At Pentecost, the crowds heard the apostles in their own languages.
“The Spirit united them in faith in Jesus Christ, but respected their differences of culture. They remained Greek or Jew, male and female, slave and free, but were all welcomed by Christ. St Paul later insisted that Jewish religious customs not be imposed on Gentile Christians, who were to be received with acceptance of their own cultures, languages and histories.
“The Gospel urges us to welcome strangers because we are all precious in God’s sight. Our worth does not depend on the colour of our skin, our customs, or our religion. We are made in God’s image, each deeply loved by God, and that is finally the source of our human dignity.”
The bishops say respect for people demands respect for their cultures; our differences reflect the variety and inexhaustible beauty of God. Churches can nourish the spiritual and cultural life of immigrants and help them feel at home in their adopted land.
“May Christians, in the love of Christ, set an example of openness and generosity towards our sisters and brothers of every race and background,” the bishops add.