a generous heart in the love of christ

Social Justice Sunday Statement 2003

AA GGEENNEERROOUUSS HHEEAARRTTIINN TTHHEE LLOOVVEE OOFF CCHHRRIISSTT

Challenging Racism in Australia Today

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

Chairman’s messageOn behalf of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, I present the Social Justice Sunday Statement for 2003, AGenerous Heart in the Love of Christ: Challenging Racism in Australia Today.

We live in a time of national and international divisiveness and bitterness, often based on racial and religiousdifferences. The Statement traces Australia’s own story of welcome and exclusion, from the impact of the earlywhite settlers on our first inhabitants to the development of a multicultural nation, but notes the recurrence todayof widespread racial hostility and rejection, expressed most clearly in our attitude to prospective refugees andasylum seekers, mostly from the Middle East.

The Statement presents, however, positive and helpful advice based on the stories and actions of Jesus who meetsstrangers, looks into their faces, engages them in conversation and reveals a God who loves all human beings.

It suggests steps that we, as individuals andmembers of our parishes, schools and localcommunities, can take to respond to the challengeof the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II:

How can the baptised claim to welcome Christ ifthey close the door to the foreigner who comesknocking?(Message for World Migration Day 2000)

I would like to express the deep appreciation of theAustralian Catholic Social Justice Council for thewise pastoral guidance of my predecessor, BishopWilliam Morris.

2 Social Justice Sunday Statement 2003

AcknowledgementsThe Social Justice Sunday Statement 2003 has been prepared by the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council

(ACSJC), the national social justice and human rights agency of the Catholic Church in Australia. The ACSJC isaccountable to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference through the Bishops Committee for Justice,

Development, Ecology and Peace.The Bishops Conference acknowledges the major contribution of Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ in the preparation of the

Statement and the work of the ACSJC members and secretariat.An electronic version of the Statement is available on the ACBC website at www.catholic.org.au and the ACSJC

site at www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au.The ACSJC gratefully acknowledges the continuing and generous support of photolibrary.com, supplier of our

cover picture.Editor: Margaret Zucker

Production Editor: Bruce PollockTypesetting and page make-up: Graphic Type

Printing: Lindwall and Ward

With every blessing

Christopher A. Saunders, DDBishop of BroomeChairmanAustralian Catholic Social JusticeCouncil

AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS CONFERENCE

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference is the permanent assembly of the

bishops of our nation and the body through which they act together in carrying

out the Church's mission at a national level. The ACBC website at

www.catholic.org.au gives a full list of Bishops Conference committees as well as

statements and other items of news and interest.

A GENEROUS HEART IN THE LOVE OF CHRISTChallenging Racism in Australia Today

3Social Justice Sunday Statement 2003

One of the loveliest sights is that of a childrunning with a smile towards mother orfather, and being welcomed with open arms.And one of the saddest sights is that of a

little child running happily towards an adult, only tobe pushed away with a frown and harsh words. Weall know how encouraging we find it, even as adults,to be welcomed, and how devastating it is to be shutout and excluded.

To be rejected is bad enough if we have donesomething wrong. But it is even more bitter if we areexcluded simply because of our religion, ourbirthplace, our colour, our race, or the way we speak.We are upset when people decide we are worthlesseven before they know us. Equally, to be welcomedby people who do not know us encourages us.

If experiences of welcome and rejection are significantfor us as individuals, the same is true of our nationallife. Australian life has been a story of relationships.First, Indigenous Australians related to one anotherwithin the clan and with other clans. Later they hadto relate to the powerful British immigrants, who alsorelated to would-be settlers from other parts of theworld. These patterns of relationship have constantlychanged: sometimes excluding, sometimeswelcoming. The more welcoming a family, town, city

or nation has been to strangers, the healthier is itsspiritual state.

In Australia, as in other nations, there have beengroups whom people have always found it difficult towelcome and easy to exclude. The relationships ofwhite immigrants to the first inhabitants of the landhave been difficult, beginning in violence andbanishment, and continuing in uneasy and oftenpatronising co-existence. For much of Australia’shistory, too, people of races other than Caucasianhave not been welcome, while many Chinese andSouth Sea Islanders were expelled. All this happenedin the name of the White Australia policy.

Today, when fear of terrorism abounds, asylumseekers are widely feared and loathed, and Muslimimmigrants often meet hostility in schools,workplaces and the wider community. That Jewishcommunities have also been targets of racial hatred atthis time reminds us that a strain of anti-Semitismperiodically reasserts itself in our society.

Even in times when society is inhospitable, however,we hear inspiring stories of people who go out oftheir way to welcome strangers and make them feelat home. We are proud that many of these storiesbelong to the Christian churches, reflecting, in the

❛We all know how encouraging we find it, even as adults, to be welcomed, and howdevastating it is to be shut out and excluded.❜

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parable of the Good Samaritan, the hospitality of aGod who sent His Son to die for all human beings ofevery race and religion. Of course, we Catholics havealso often shared with other Australians a blindnessand lack of sympathy towards strangers. But thisdoes not reflect the Gospel. Nor does it display theproud Australian tradition of "a fair go".

In this Social Justice Sunday Statement, then, we shallreflect on our Australian story, exploring our reasonsfor welcoming or excluding those different from us.We shall then ask why our faith in Jesus Christcommits us to be hospitable to strangers, and suggestways we can welcome those different from us.

The Australian story:welcome and exclusion

First Australians and settlers

The early relationships between the white settlers andthe first Australians illustrate the many reasons we soeasily exclude people and do not welcome them.

When the British settlers met the Indigenous people,the differences of language and culture were so greatthat it was difficult for them to meet as fellow andequal human beings. It was easier for the powerfulnewcomers to look down on the first inhabitants asprimitive, as barbarians, as less than human. Lack ofmutual understanding makes it difficult to look intothe faces of strangers and to welcome them.

Lack of understanding soon grew into hostility whenthe newcomers took control of resources on whichIndigenous people depended in order to maintaintheir traditional way of life. They built on traditionalsites and fenced land on which the Aborigines hadhunted. Competition for resources led to hostility,violence and fear. In many parts of Australia therewere massacres and incidents of a kind that are morecommon in civil war than in peace.

Sicknesses to which Western bodies had becomeaccustomed also proved lethal for IndigenousAustralians. The result was a land organised by thenew settlers in the interests of the economy that theythemselves had instituted. The relationship betweenthe settlers and the Indigenous people was now onebetween a powerless group and an economically andpolitically dominant group that made the decisionsfor the weaker.

It is very difficult for adults in unequal relationshipsto welcome one another. In the Australian situationthe dominant regarded the others as racially andculturally inferior, destined to die out because of theirinferiority. Although the plight of the Indigenous

people aroused some sympathy, the newcomers sawthe first inhabitants through their own eyes, andmade laws that did not respect Indigenous traditions.The powerful white settlers removed children fromtheir distressed families, placed them on reservationsand subjected them to a regime the settlers wouldnever have accepted for themselves. IndigenousAustralians were regarded as a problem to be solved.

The early Australian history of relationships betweenraces is bleak. But in it we also read accounts ofpeople who became interested in the first Australiansand related to them as human beings. Some formedloving relationships and marriages that crossed racialboundaries. In rural areas, stories are told both bylandholders and members of the local clans aboutsome relationships that were respectful on both sides.Some settlers risked ostracism by criticising theirneighbours who treated Indigenous people cruellyand exploited their labour. Unsurprisingly, there wasexclusion; more surprisingly, there was also welcome.

This pattern of exclusion and welcome was also seenin churches. Their members shared many of theattitudes of their society, but they also preached andtried to live by the Gospel of welcome. Guided asthey were by principles of love and commitment totheir faith, many Christians accepted hardship andsuffering in establishing missions to the Indigenouspeoples. Some also protested at the way in which thelatter were exploited and mistreated. Missionarieswere, however, commonly disappointed at the lack ofimpact they believed they had made on the peoplewhom they served. Their sense of failure arose partlyout of their desire to convert nomadic people to theforms of a European Christianity. They found it hardto appreciate positively the religious world, nomadiclife and marriage customs of the Indigenous peoples.In turn, the Indigenous people saw the missionariesas a source of material goods, but also as agents of anexcluding and uncomprehending culture.

White Australians and other racesIn time, the predominantly British and Irishimmigrants to Australia had also to deal withimmigrants of other races. The most significantgroups were from China and the Pacific Islands. Theformer came to seek their fortune in the gold rush,while many of the latter were kidnapped and forcedto work on the canefields where, it was believed,Caucasians could not safely work because of the heat.

The same factors that led to the exclusion ofIndigenous Australians also made it difficult towelcome the non-white immigrants. Because theChinese differed so sharply from their fellow minersin their language, customs, dress and appearance,

A Generous Heart in the Love of Christ


❛The powerful white settlers removed children from their distressed families, placedthem on reservations and subjected them to a regime the settlers would never have

accepted for themselves.❜

they often provoked hostility in their fellow diggersin the harsh and volatile conditions of the diggings.Pacific Islanders, too, were feared as cheap labourwhich would cost native-born Australiansemployment under fair conditions. To make a moreequitable society was an all-consuming struggle formany workers. When issues of racial difference andeconomic justice coincided, the concern for equitywas supported by the wildest of prejudices.

At Federation, Australia adopted the "WhiteAustralia" policy, which effectively restrictedimmigration to people of European descent. ManyChinese and Islanders, including some born inAustralia, were deported to their countries of origin.Would-be immigrants were subject to a dictation testdesigned to exclude those of other races.Australians who came from minority groups met

both exclusion and welcome. Exclusion was alwaysbitter, but the effects of welcome were often morelasting. The distinguished Australian, Faith Bandler,born in 1918, a descendant of South Sea Islanders andlater to become an advocate for racial justice inAustralia, recalls playground prejudice. She was 14.

It was recess ... and she was trying to stop a gang ofkids taunting a Jewish girl who had just arrived intown. They were shouting at her: “You killed JesusChrist! You killed Jesus Christ!” Says Bandler:“When I told them to give it away, they startedfollowing me chanting: ‘You killed Captain Cook!You killed Captain Cook!’”(Marilyn Lake, Faith: Faith Bandler, Gentle Activist,Allen & Unwin: Crows Nest, 2002, p15).

But Faith stayed at school because some of herteachers welcomed her. With her lunch money shebought a tie for one teacher who had been kind toher.

“Shyly I handed him this tie and I looked in his eyesand they were full of tears. I’ll never forget that. So

he told me ‘sit down’ and I just sat down and foundit hard to leave him. He was such a beautifulperson.”(Lake, p14).

These stories, with their mixture of exclusion andwelcome, of discouragement and encouragement, ofthe extraordinary power of kindness shown by agood person, will be familiar to any Australian whohas belonged to a minority group.

Immigrants after 1945

After 1945 the face of Australia became much morediverse and the nation more prosperous. Theexperience of the 1939-1945 war led Australia toaccept many people of a non-British background.

Governments believed that we needed a largerpopulation to defend ourselves and to industrialise.As our needs could not be met solely by Britishimmigrants, we sought people from Southern andEastern Europe, many of whom had been displacedby war.

Immigrants from this time remember the mixture ofwelcome and exclusion facing them in Australia.Although the exclusion they experienced was oftennot deliberate, it nonetheless had an adverse effect.They might have been accepted personally, but mostnative-born Australians showed little interest in theirlives in Italy or Poland or Croatia and their traditionsand language were not appreciated. They wereexpected to assimilate quickly into Australian societyas if they had no past, no culture of their own. Untilthey spoke English they were handicapped; indealing with hospitals, bureaucracy and business,they found that Australians could understand neithertheir language nor their customs. Life in Australiacould be profoundly difficult, particularly for olderimmigrants.



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Still, many also found people who made them feel athome. Groups established to help immigrants settlewere very generous with their time and expertise, andsome Australian families offered hospitality. Thechurches were especially important, because there thenew arrivals found a place where they could meet topray in their own language and celebrate their ownculture. In time, most groups had chaplains and founda measure of hospitality within established parishes.Some immigrants found Australian Catholicism coldand forbidding, but many came eventually to find ahome. One Australian couple remembers withaffection welcoming a large Dutch family, dressed intraditional clothes, coming over the mullock hills totheir country church, singing songs of their own land.The family remembers the difficulty of settling intoanother culture and another style of church life.

Multiculturalism

It was not in the national interest to treat immigrantssimply as individuals who could leave behind theirown culture and immediately settle into Australiansociety. Because of this expectation, some immigrantshad returned home disappointed while, of those whostayed, many struggled to live productively.Governments eventually realised that immigrantsderived from their own communities the skills andcourage needed to live in Australia. They encouragedvarious state community organisations such as GoodNeighbour Councils to help people adjust to life intheir new adopted home.

These practical steps implied a more welcomingattitude to immigrants: requiring them to accept theresponsibilities of citizenship, while respecting theirown culture as a gift that could be integrated with thegifts of other Australians. This policy and attitudecame to be called multiculturalism. It becamecontroversial in its detail, but in seeing immigrantsnot as individuals who had simply to assimilate, butas persons gifted by their own communities andculture, it respected their dignity.

As this more welcoming attitude to immigrants wasadopted, the White Australia policy was graduallyabandoned between 1949 and 1973. Shortlyafterwards Australia began to receive a large numberof Indochinese refugees. The Government andcommunity groups initially welcomed them withopen arms. The churches were particularly importantin extending this welcome. Some religious housesopened their doors to refugees, and the St Vincent dePaul Conferences offered great practical help. Indeed,many Cambodians still refer to the Vinnies who firstmet them as Mum and Dad – they are blessed withhundreds of children!

As well as remembering their past, those who comeas strangers often need to let go of it. Refugees

especially have bitter memories of brutalrelationships endured in poverty and violence, andunforgiving attitudes between people of differentraces or religions. To live in a democracy where thereis free expression of opinions, and where people mustnegotiate and represent the values of a diverse societybuilt on tolerance, is a challenge. It has largely beenmet. In Australia, ethnic tensions among differentgroups of immigrants have not been significant. Themore pressing challenge is for the majority towelcome minority groups.

Welcome and exclusion todaySadly, the national mood today is more fearful andmore suspicious of people who are different. Lesswelcoming attitudes reflect economic and politicalpressures and anxiety about security. Australia hasseen rapid change in work practices, in security ofwork, in the emphasis on competition, in publicspending that has not kept pace with thecommunity’s needs and the withdrawal of serviceslike transport and power from public responsibility.These trends have been worldwide.

Although national wealth might have increased,people generally feel less secure. There is a growinggulf between the richest and poorest in society.Throughout the world, such economic inequalitieshave bred resentful attitudes to people who aredifferent. These have been intensified by the anxietiescaused by terrorism. Pope John Paul remarked:

Unfortunately, we still encounter in the world aclosed-minded attitude and even one of rejection, dueto unjustified fears and concern for one's owninterests alone. These forms of discrimination areincompatible with belonging to Christ and to theChurch.(Jubilee of Migrants and Itinerant People Homily ofPope John Paul II, June 2, 2000 par. 3)

In Australia, the desire to exclude is expressed mostclearly in a hostile attitude to refugees and asylumseekers. The refusal to allow the asylum seekers onthe Tampa to land, the excision of parts of Australiaso that these are now places where people cannotclaim refugee status, and the detention for prolongedperiods of people, including children, behind barbedwire fences in the most inhospitable parts ofAustralia, are powerful symbols of Australianexclusion. These policies, exacerbated by someinfluential newspapers and talk-back radio showsaround the nation, have won the support of apolitically significant number of Australians, many ofwhom themselves were once welcomed as refugees.

These patterns of exclusion have also touched thelives of refugee groups and immigrants from theMiddle East. The events of September 11, 2001, the



❛Multiculturalism became controversial in its detail, but in seeing immigrants not asindividuals who had simply to assimilate, but as persons gifted by their own culture, it

respected their dignity.❜

consequent military action in Afghanistan, thebombing in Bali, the war in Iraq and subsequentterrorist attacks have caused distress and anxiety inmany Muslim communities, as well as in the generalAustralian population. These tragic events have alsobeen followed by crudely argued theories that Islamicimmigrants cannot accept Australian values andshould not be welcomed here. Such theories havebeen demonstrated in verbal abuse of Muslimchildren, vandalism directed against mosques, andhostility among groups of young people in poorersuburbs.

But if the public face of Australia has been harsh andunwelcoming, many Australians, including churchgroups, have passionately expressed their desire for amore welcoming society. Some have made theirhouses available to asylum seekers and refugees,organised discussions of refugee policy in ruralcentres, taught asylum seekers, visited detentioncentres, provided free medical care to those deprivedof medical benefits, offered free legal advice andlobbied the government.

This practical welcome has been largely ecumenical,spontaneously bringing together people from manylocal churches. The Australian Catholic bishops, too,have been among those who have persistently calledon Australia to welcome refugees and immigrantgroups within the community. If our time has beenone of public exclusion, it has also been one ofpersonal welcome.

The Church recalls the Gospel account of Jesus andhis family as refugees seeking asylum in a foreignland. The story of The Flight into Egypt carries greatrelevance to events faced by millions of children andtheir families in today’s world. In many respects it istheir story. It presents a challenge to Australia, as onepoint of destination for people seeking asylum, torecognise the kinds of threats faced by the HolyFamily in this Gospel passage.

Welcoming the stranger

Jesus and the stranger

The stories that Christians tell are of a welcome thatovercomes exclusion. The people of Israel are to behospitable to strangers because God had welcomedthem when they too were strangers. Nor is Godexclusive: the Jews are God’s chosen people, butother nations, kings and prophets are also God’sinstruments.

Of course, life did not run so sweetly. Like modernAustralians, the ancient people of Israel found itdifficult to welcome strangers, particularly in times ofwar and economic hardship. They easily assumedthat because they were God’s chosen people theywere the only people whom God cared for. The storyof Jonah challenged this view: it portrays a God wholoves the people of Niniveh, and it discredits Jonahfor sulking because God spared the people.In his life and teaching, Jesus stressed God’s love for

strangers, particularly people excluded because oftheir race or their morals. He insisted that God’sKingdom had a place for tax collectors andprostitutes. In the Gospel, meals were often abattleground because the Pharisees believed that onlythose with whom God was pleased should be invited.Jesus insisted that sinners should be invited becauseGod loved them and invited them to conversion.

The Gospels often praise foreigners. Today the termGood Samaritan is commonly used for a person whoshows kindness to strangers in need. Samaritanswere members of a despised race and religion, and tohear them held up as models shocked Jesus’ hearers.In John’s story of the woman by the well, we meetanother Samaritan. She is surprised that Jesus shouldput himself out to speak to her, since she ishandicapped by being both a Samaritan and a



❛Welcomebegins whenwe look intothe faces andlearn thenames ofthose whoare differentfrom us.❜

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woman. But Jesus approaches her simply as a personand offers her God’s salvation. In his stories andactions, Jesus meets strangers, looks into their faces,engages them in conversation and reveals a God wholoves all human beings.

In his teaching, too, Jesus addresses the anxieties andlack of imagination that make us exclude people. Todispel the anxiety that makes us see strangers ascompetitors, he invites his hearers to consider theflowers of the field. He also praises the goodness ofthe hated Samaritans, Romans, Gentiles and taxcollectors. He urges them to love their enemies,imitating God, who makes the rain fall on the goodand the evil alike.

Jesus’ insistence on God’s universal hospitality madehim a stranger in his own land. He was taken outsidehis own city to be crucified as an outsider. But theearly Christians recognised that it was by Jesus’exclusion that they had been invited to be God’speople. Others remarked on their hospitality, both tovisitors from other Christian communities and tothose in need. Their way of life expressed theirgratitude to God, who had called them from beingstrangers to follow Jesus’ way of hospitality.

Right from the start, Christians were challenged toembrace difference. At Pentecost, the crowds heardthe Apostles in their own languages. The Spiritunited them in faith in Jesus Christ, but respectedtheir differences of culture. They remained Greek orJew, male and female, slave and free, but were allwelcomed by Christ. St Paul later insisted that Jewishreligious customs not be imposed on GentileChristians, who were to be received with acceptanceof their own cultures, languages and histories.

Human dignity and discrimination

The Gospel urges us to welcome strangers becausewe are all precious in God’s sight. Our worth doesnot depend on the colour of our skin, our customs, orour religion. We are made in God’s image, eachdeeply loved by God, and that is finally the source ofour human dignity. Because each of us is infinitelyprecious, no one may be treated as a thing or used toachieve some grand goal. When we welcome thestranger, we welcome Christ.

How can the baptised claim to welcome Christ if theyclose the door to the foreigner who comes knocking?"If anyone has the world's goods and sees hisbrothers or sisters in need, yet closes his heartagainst them, how does God’s love abide in him?" (1.Jn.3.17. Pope John Paul II, Message for WorldMigration Day 2000, No 5)

Because all human beings are equal in God’s sight, itis wrong to discriminate against people on the basisof nationality, race or religion. Discriminationcorrodes their self-respect and corrupts the humanityof those who discriminate. Ultimately it weakens thesociety which tolerates discrimination byencouraging a climate of insecurity and selfishness.We can see this in societies that practised anti-Semitism, apartheid or "ethnic cleansing". There,people found it difficult to look others in the face orto see them as equal and free before God. They couldnot imagine, or they ignored, what it meant forpeople to be deprived of home, land and livelihoodbecause of their religion or the colour of their skin.

The gift of diversity

Culture, language, religion and nationality areimportant to us because they are the building blocksof our identity and self-confidence. They shape ourrelationships to one another and our world. Ourlanguage and culture give us eyes with which to seeour world, words and silences with which tocelebrate it with other people, and the words andrituals that open a path to God. Our culture,language and religion are not like clothes that we canchange when we travel. They are like the skin thatenables us to go confidently into our world; they arenot possessions, but part of our self. To expect peopleto give up their own culture when they enter ours islike asking them to amputate a limb.

Respect for persons demands respect for theircultures. What makes us different from one another iswhat most enriches us as human beings and makespossible deep relationships between us. Ourdifferences reflect the variety and inexhaustiblebeauty of God. If multiculturalism implies that weshould not only support immigrants as individualsbut should also regard their culture as an enrichment,it simply states what ought to be obvious.

Churches nourish the spiritual and cultural life ofimmigrants and help them feel at home in theiradopted land. Because our relationship to God lies atthe heart of who we are as persons, it is vital for us tobe able to pray in our own ways and to hear theWord of God in our own language. The churches thatreceive immigrants make a cultural space wherepeople can pray together out of the richness of theirown culture.

This has been true in Australia, too. Manyimmigrants at first seek strength and comfort in theirethnic church community to help them cope with theshock of their new life. As time passes, they alsobegin to put down roots in the local church andparishes. The two communities and two cultures knit



❛In his stories and actions, Jesus meets strangers, looks into their faces, engages themin conversation and reveals a God who loves all human beings.❜

together slowly, sometimes over generations, like abranch grafted on to a tree. For the Australian church,the challenge is to welcome them as new branchesbearing fruit.

Respect for other beliefs

If our Christian faith lies at the heart of who we are,that is true also for those of other religions. Towelcome them as persons, we must respect theirconscience and their religious beliefs. This is notalways easy. Historically, religious differences haveoften spurred wars, waged by Christians as well asby others. But one of the most significant documentsof Vatican II, the Declaration on Religious Freedom,insisted that we must respect the right of all personsto choose and to exercise their own religion, becauseGod draws each of us in the depths of our own heart.While God’s final saving Word is spoken in JesusChrist, the ways through which God calls people are

many and mysterious, including their religioustraditions. So, respecting the faith and religious viewsof other people is not asserting that all religions areequally good; it is respecting the mystery of God’slove.

Our encounter requires that we strive to discern andwelcome whatever is good and holy in one another,so that together we can acknowledge, preserve andpromote the spiritual and moral truths which aloneguarantee the world's future.(Pope John Paul II, Meeting with Religious Leaders,November 7, 1999, New Delhi, India)

Respect for those of other religions has come underpressure, particularly after terrorist attacks made inthe name of Islam and a climate of anxiety aboutterrorism. It has been all too easy to identify Islamwith terrorism, and to project our fears about securityon to Australian Islamic communities and asylumseekers who have fled from tyranny. It is also easy forpopulist politicians and commentators to feedprejudice against Islamic immigrants by referring to

an alleged link between asylum seekers andterrorists, and by claiming that Islam and Australianvalues are incompatible. In weighing these charges,we should remember that Christians were once theobject of similar attacks in the Roman Empire, aswere Irish Catholics by their Australian critics.

It is also unfair to identify terrorism with Islam,many of whose leaders have been proponents ofpeace. That many terrorists invoke Islam to justifytheir violence should not discredit the religion. If itdid, the Catholic or Protestant churches would bediscredited by the paramilitaries in Northern Irelandwho fly sectarian flags, and Christianity itself wouldhave been discredited by the rogue Crusaders whoransacked Constantinople and committed atrocitiesin the Holy Land. What these groups did, however,had nothing to do with the life, example, teaching orpresence of Jesus Christ in the church.

What can we do?

The first step: Acquaintance

What can we do as adult members of ourneighbourhood, in our workplace, in our communityto welcome those different from ourselves? Welcomebegins when we look into the faces and learn thenames of those who are different from us. If we arealone in a foreign place, the most precious gift we canreceive is the friendly interest that a local takes in us.When we meet people who look or sound "foreign",we have a choice: we can pass by with our headsdown, or we can meet their eyes and, if the occasionarises, converse with them. Of course, this can behard to do because we are afraid and do not knowwhat to say. But we can never welcome strangersunless we go outside our own comfort zone. Whenwe are interested in people, it becomes natural toaccompany them, and then to welcome them into ourhomes and churches.



❛The detentionfor prolongedperiods of people,includingchildren, behindbarbed wirefences in themost inhospitableparts ofAustralia is apowerful symbolof Australianexclusion.❜

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Parishes

To help strangers find a welcome in our parishes,simple things are often the most important. Visitorsto a parish feel welcome if someone greets them; theyoften feel excluded if no one notices them, althoughmany parishes offer generous hospitality to migrantcommunities and their chaplains. Some parishes havestatues of various national patrons and celebrate theirfeast days, and welcome the musical gifts and thehymns of different ethnic groups. It is also commonfor parishes to celebrate a day for all nations. Givenanti-Islamic feeling today, we should find ways tomake contact with local Muslim groups. Smallovertures like these suggest that our diverselanguages and cultures are a gift, not a problem.

Catholic schools

Catholic schools are a treasure for learning thewelcome that faith requires. Young people canconfront the prejudices of society there, and learn tofind in their differences a source of richness. Manyprimary schools welcome students of 50 or 60nationalities and diverse religions, includingBuddhists and Muslims. When they are encouragedfrom time to time to pray publicly in their ownlanguages and to explain with pride their nativecustoms, they all come to appreciate the richness indiversity.

After the anti-Islamic anger that followed September11, 2001, some schools invited students from Muslimschools to speak with their own students. Suchactions also confront any prejudices that parents mayhave. Some schools have had to resist pressure toexclude children of an Indigenous or Muslimbackground. They have been the conscience of thecommunity, at times changing local attitudes.

Local communities

At a time when the majority of Australians appearunwelcoming to asylum seekers and immigrantgroups, it is essential to change these attitudes at thegrass roots. Some people join groups that hear theexperience of asylum seekers and offer them practicalsupport. In country areas, groups invite refugees tomeet local people and hold meetings to dispel themyths about asylum seekers and Islamic culture. Inthe cities, other groups tutor asylum seekers and theirchildren, and help provide housing and medicalattention for people excluded from the entitlementsof ordinary Australians. Others hold prayer vigils toensure that those detained under harsh conditions arenot forgotten.

Many of these activities are organised by churchgroups, usually on an ecumenical basis. This kind ofcooperation in making Australia a more welcomingsociety also leads us towards the full unity whichChrist wants for his church.

Australian public life

Many aspects of Australian life are built on exclusion.To change them, the first steps are to be critical ofarguments put for excluding people, and toencourage public conversation. When the wordracism is used, conversation usually dies. Thosearguing for policies of exclusion are called racists,while those who rebut their arguments are accused ofcalling them racists. When we listen to the opinionsof politicians, columnists and radio talk-show hosts,we must ask whether their ideas and the ways theyexpress them encourage us to be more or lesswelcoming. Unsupported remarks – for example, thatasylum seekers and Muslim immigrants may be



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terrorists or may harbour disease – are wrong andencourage fear and exclusion. Teachers in schoolsnear immigration detention centres have remarkedhow the attitude of local townspeople hardened aftersuch remarks. We should therefore be critical of suchspeech because it is destructive. But reasonedconversation about the delicate issues of immigrationand community harmony should be encouraged. Weshould be concerned above all that Australian policybe morally based: that it respect the human dignity ofimmigrants and asylum seekers and recognise theclaim that the needy have on the privileged.

Church groups can and must help define what isacceptable political behaviour. In times of insecurity,politicians are always tempted to find scapegoatsagainst whom to direct community anger.Immigrants, Indigenous Australians and refugees areeasy targets. When we believe that politicians areattacking vulnerable groups for electoral gain, ashas happened at times in recent years, we mustshow our concern at such unacceptable behaviour.

Finally, we should also recognise the broader issuesthat lead a society to be welcoming or excluding.When we are anxious and insecure, we are likely tosee other people as hostile and to exclude them.Today, many people are anxious about such issues asnational security, economic inequality, the effects ofcompetition, and the struggle for community. Theiranxieties encourage a tendency to make scapegoats ofgroups seen as competitors for jobs or scarceresources.

We must therefore reflect on what kind of Australia

will be a welcoming country and will nurture awelcoming attitude in our children. Will it be anisolationist, suspicious and aggressive Australia, or afair-minded nation characterised by its sense ofjustice and its generous heart?

May Christians, in the love of Christ, set an exampleof openness and generosity towards our fellowinhabitants of every race and background.



❛We mustrespect theright of allpersons tochoose and toexercise theirown religion,because Goddraws each ofus in thedepths of ourown heart.❜

❛We must therefore reflect on what kind of Australia will be a welcoming country andwill nurture a welcoming attitude in our children.❜

Yoga

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Life World Peace

Forum,Sydney,March 2003

Catholic Welfare AustraliaThe national network of Catholic Social Welfare Agencies – servingdisadvantaged Australians – regardless of race or creed for over 60 years.

Your gift will assist those most in needYou will receive our personal acknowledgement and donations over $2 are tax deductible

1300 138 070www.catholicwelfare.com.au

Please send your gift: M/C, B/C, Visa, Cheque

Card no: Expiry Date: Signature:

Name: Address:

To: Catholic Welfare Australia, PO Box 326, CURTIN ACT 2605We also warmly welcome requests for further information

Caritas Australia works in partnership with marginalised communities throughout the world and within Australia to alleviate poverty and inequality. Regardless of race, gender or creed, Caritas Australia is committed to promoting human dignityand helping the most disadvantaged members of our global family realise a better future.

To make a bequest or to donate, please call 1800 024 413 www.caritas.org.au

Australian Catholic Social Justice Council

Become an ACSJC SubscriberThe ACSJC subscription service includes

• Justice Trends – quarterly newsletter addressing current Australian and world political issues• Catholic Social Justice Series – offering theological and social thought• Position Papers and Discussion Guides – addressing critical social justice issues• Social Justice Sunday Statement – the Australian Catholic Bishops’ annual Justice Statement• Prayer Card and Ten Steps Leaflet • Social Justice Calendar • Ecumenical Resource Kit

Cost $25 a year (inc GST)

For further information contact the ACSJC Secretariat: 19 MacKenzie Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060Ph: (02) 9956 5811 Fax: (02) 9954 0056 Email: [email protected]

We live in a time of national and international divisiveness and bitterness,often based on racial and religious differences.

The Social Justice Sunday Statement 2003 presents positive and helpfuladvice based on the stories and actions of Jesus, who meets strangers, looks

into their faces, engages them in conversation and reveals a God who loves allhuman beings.

a generous heart in the love of christ

Documents