Mission & Justice

Irfan Yusuf; 25/7/08

When it comes to sensitivity toward victims of sexual abuse and assault, Australian religious leaders could learn a thing or two from Pope Benedict. As could some allegedly conservative commentators and political leaders of all persuasions. In the past two years, two prominent Australian religious leaders have seemed to cast aspersions on sexual assault victims and their families — former Mufti Sheik Hilaly and Catholic Bishop Anthony Fisher. Hilaly used a Ramadan address in 2006 to suggest that some women ask to be raped by displaying themselves like ‘uncovered meat’. He said this before a few hundred people in a Sydney mosque in Arabic, a language spoken by a minority of Australian Muslims. His remarks only came to general attention once translated into English and reported in the media.

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Published: July 24, 2008

Over 500 Papua New Guinea WYD pilgrims were stranded in Sydney yesterday with another 400 Solomon Islanders arriving unexpectedly in Brisbane after their flights home were cancelled. The Courier-Mail reports that 200 World Youth Day pilgrims were to sleep on sporting fields in the rain last night after being stranded in Brisbane trying to get home. A Brisbane spokeswoman said 400 Solomon Islanders had arrived unexpectedly in Brisbane since the week-long Catholic international gathering ended in Sydney on Sunday. Some had been provided with emergency accommodation at Australian Catholic University, Banyo, and Marist College, Rosalie.

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23/7/08

I fully support the aims of World Youth Day and I applaud the Catholic Church for undertaking it here. But would someone remind Pope Benedict and Cardinal George Pell that it was a youth event? Attending Sunday’s papal Mass at Randwick, I felt as though I had stepped back in time 40 or 50 years when I heard Gregorian chanting, the Lord’s Prayer in Latin and hymns that I remember from primary school (and they were old-fashioned then). It was not a Mass for young people, and nor was the opening Mass at Barangaroo. I found it a disappointing finish to an amazing week. As a mother of two teenagers, my fear is that the Catholic Church still has a long way to go towards engaging young people in its life. Annette Spooner; Forestville

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Frank Brenan 22/7/08

It is very gratifying that Pope Benedict took the opportunity of his World Youth Day visit to apologise to the victims of sexual abuse by clergy and other church personnel. He ended his visit by celebrating mass with some victims, having already made his own courageous decision to say sorry for the pain and suffering endured. His apology was heartfelt and included a clear directive to the local church to extend compassion, care and justice to the victims. During his visit, some persons expressed dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church’s protocol Towards Healing, which sets out the principles and procedures for the Church response to complaints of abuse against Church personnel. Father Chris Riley went so far as to label it ‘a joke’, with the perpetrators being the only winners.

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Linda Morris; 21/7/08

At the end of yesterday’s papal Mass the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, expressed the hope that the seed planted in the Great South Land would “please God, yield a hundredfold harvest”. The show is over. Now comes the hardest part for the church of Australia: capitalising on the goodwill and fervour of the event’s outpouring of religiosity, and stemming the tide of Catholics leaving the church. There will be pressure on it to justify the expense and resources spent on the festivities through tangible signs of renewal in the church, notably more Catholics in the pews and more seminarians. As the driving force to secure World Youth Day, Pell wanted its images of unashamed religious devotion to challenge Australian’s more private “loungeroom” faith.

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By Katelyn John; 18/6/08

Sydney bashing victim Lauren Huxley has described being blessed by the Pope as a huge honour and a “once in a lifetime opportunity”. Just metres from the courtroom where Robert Black Farmer was last month sentenced to 24 years’ jail for her attempted murder, Ms Huxley and nine other Sydney youths today met Pope Benedict XVI during a ceremony for disadvantaged youths at Darlinghurst’s Church of the Sacred Heart. Dressed in a grey dress and black coat and supported by her father’s arm around her waist, Ms Huxley exchanged a few words with Pope Benedict and received a blessing. After the ceremony, Ms Huxley told reporters meeting the pontiff had been an “unbelievable” experience.

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Stephen Lunn; 18/7/08

Pope Benedict XVI should not be praising Kevin Rudd for his “courageous” apology to the indigenous Stolen Generations when he hasn’t been prepared to say sorry to victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests. Victims’ support group Broken Rites yesterday expressed disappointment the Pope had so far failed to make a meaningful public apology to abuse victims during World Youth Day celebrations after earlier suggesting he would. The group’s spokeswoman, Chris MacIsaac, said the pontiff had an ideal opportunity while in Australia to say sorry to hundreds of abuse victims in a similar vein to Mr Rudd’s apology to indigenous Australians taken from their families, but even if he expressed regret, it is likely to be carefully crafted. “The victims need an apology made with emotion, one that convinces them deep down the Catholic Church hierarchy understands how sexual abuse affected their lives,” Ms MacIsaac said. “Mr Rudd did that for the Stolen Generation, there were victims present on the day, and he also made it clear it was a only a starting point to the healing, which is something the Pope could also consider saying.

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Carmel Pilcher; 18/2/08; Josephite Sister Carmel Pilcher is Director of Liturgy in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. She coordinated liturgies for the previous papal visit, for the Beatification of Mary MacKillop in 1995.

I recently heard a playwright comment that a stage play with a strong, clear structure gives the actors a greater scope for creativity and spontaneity. As a long time student of the Eucharist I made an immediate connection. The structure of the Catholic Mass is well established and easily identifiable. The ritual structure requires creativity to invite the worshipping community to encounter the holy and live the truth of the gospel. We thought long and hard about this when we prepared the papal Mass for the beatification of Mary MacKillop in January 1995. We hoped the ritual would call people to live the way of Mary, but first we had to name the values that Mary embodied. We were careful to ensure that the liturgy reflected inclusivity and favoured the poor and oppressed. The first and last words of the mass were spoken by Aboriginal Australians. Those who received communion from the Pope were the little ones of our society, rather than corporate sponsors. Ministers of the word reflected the multicultural richness of our nation with a diversity of language, gesture and costume.  ut I am left with two major concerns. For the first I will repeat a question posed to us by the then papal master of ceremonies, Archbishop Piero Marini: ‘How does this liturgy reflect your Australian culture?’ He went on to add: ‘If we wanted a Roman Mass we would have held it in Rome.’ The organisers did not attempt to integrate Australian elements into the mass, but rather made these extraneous to the ritual structure. Secondly more attention needed to be given to the key principle of the liturgical reform — the full participation of all at worship: clergy and also the lay faithful.
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18/2/08

Geelong priest Fr Kevin Dillon yesterday called on priests to stop trivialising sexual abuse allegations while Sydney’s Fr Chris Riley says that the Church’s Towards Healing process is a joke and should be scrapped. Fr Chris Riley, who heads Youth Off The Streets, a Sydney welfare service that assists homeless, drug addicted and abused young people, said the Towards Healing program hurt the Church’s credibility and meant victims often did not have their day in court, reports say. He told the Nine Network that any family confronted with sexual abuse should go straight to the police and have the matter dealt with in court.

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Letters: The Sydney Morning Herald: 17/7/08

George Pell’s admonishment to young pilgrims to struggle against their “fat, relentless egos” would perhaps have made more sense coming from someone without a public relations officer, someone who so obviously enjoys the trappings of office, including an insistence on being called “Your Eminence” (”An appeal on struggle to the lone lost sheep”, July 16). Perhaps a rereading of Matthew 7:3 might be in order (”Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”): Sunil Badami; Rozelle

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