Catholic Religious Australia - "And you will be my witnesses"

pathways, September 2009

The Holy Spirit invites us, Bishops and Australian youth together, to step into a new future.

In the celebration of the Eucharist we recognise the depths of God's love, and especially are nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ graciously given to us. The final act of the Mass is to send us forth blessed by God to be the vehicles of divine blessing in the world. As agents of God's peace we are bound into the struggle for justice - to see, to judge and to act. We do not hide behind closed doors! Rather, standing alongside the youth of Australia we are all challenged to

go forth in the peace of the Holy Spirit
to love and serve the Lord.

Young people are at the heart of the 2009 Social Justice statement from the Australian Catholic Bishops, which will mark Social Justice Sunday on September 27.

In particular, the Bishops support young people's commitment to social justice and reassert the central theme of last year's World Youth Day: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses. (Acts 1:8)

The Bishops also remind all Catholics of Pope Benedict's challenge during the spectacular July WYD08 week:

What will you leave to the next generation? ... What legacy will you leave to young people yet to come? What difference will you make?

The statement is issued through the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, the social justice and human rights agency of the Church. The ACSJC chairman Bishop Christopher Saunders (Broome, pictured), said in a message accompanying the statement "Two threads run through this year's statement.

"The first is the legacy of World Youth Day 2008 and its theme, which tells of the power that the Holy Spirit confers on us and its continuing inspiration.

"The second thread is the consciousness of how many young people experience deprivation and prejudice in Australia and overseas.

"As the Statement points out, young people are among the strongest fighters in the cause of justice, but at the same time, they can be among the most vulnerable to injustice."

He said that reflections on World Youth Day presented a challenge not only for youth, but for all.

"It is the challenge to persevere in our calling, to remember that as Christians we are a new creation, part of a holy world in which God is not eclipsed or deemed irrelevant by a secularist ideology ... We are called to persevere in witnessing to the magnificence of God's love for us, to act justly in his name and to be agents of hope and peace."

He said the power the Spirit gave the power to change.

"As Catholics, we know that that power to change also gives us the responsibility to work for justice and to live and embody the message of the Gospel in everything we do in our lives."

Archbishop Philip Wilson (Adelaide), President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC), said in a letter of support for the statement: "We are encouraged to witness the commitment of young people to the faith and the passion they bring to their work for justice in the world.

"We know also that many young people can face situations of injustice that prevent them from taking up the challenge presented by the Holy Father. The Social Justice Sunday statement considers how we are all called to encourage, support and enable young people to meet this challenge."

A brief summary of the statement on the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council website says that the earliest Christians were young women and men who received the Holy Spirit, then went forth to spread the Good News and to care for the most vulnerable.

"Many young Australians, too, witness to the Gospel as 'ambassadors of hope', as the Pope called them, using their gifts in the service of justice," the website says. "Some young people, however, face injustices that prevent them taking up the challenge, leaving them disempowered, excluded and deprived of basic dignity."

The Bishops discuss four issues: the plight of Indigenous youth, those excluded from employment, the issue of mental health and the prevention of abuse. They also discuss two international concerns: the environment and global justice and development.

In preparation for the launch and subsequent use of the document, CLRI(NSW) Social Justice Committee held a seminar for congregational social justice coordinators and congregational members. It was facilitated by Suzette Clark RSC and Claude Mostowik MSC and held at the Good Samaritan Centre, Glebe Point (Sydney).

Sr Suzette said that the message of the statement would inspire people to have a "passion for the common good and care for the most vulnerable" and to "go forth to be Christ's witnesses".

The invitation was to develop a spirituality of justice and to "respond to the Spirit of justice that dwells within us".

an excerpt from the statement ...

Bearing the Cross

The Cross is a compelling symbol for justice. An instrument of death, through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ it marks the triumph of life. Though used for torture and punishment, it is a galvanising force for love and forgiveness. We saw how young Australians were transformed as they bore the World Youth Day Cross in pilgrimage across the nation.

We felt the power of Christ as young people stood with and under the Cross at some of the more confronting places on the landscape. United with the Cross was the Icon of Mary, reflecting her presence at Calvary. Accompanying both was a Message Stick, brought to Indigenous communities along the way.

Woomera, in central South Australia, is near the site where missile testing began in the 1950s. It was also the site of the immigration detention facility where asylum seekers, including children, were locked up, many for years, waiting for their claims to be heard and refugee status recognised.

At Woomera the Cross and Icon enabled words and rites to salve deepest pain and anguish. The young pilgrims walked in prayer to the cemetery that held too many graves of stillborn and newly-born babes, a stark reminder of the loss of innocent life when the earth is polluted and the soil poisoned. It was a wake-up to the hidden cost, for society, land and economy, of weaponry and warfare.

Set among the headstones and grave markers, the Icon of Mary and the infant Jesus prompted this group of young Christians to reflect on the sacred relationship between mother and child and the injustice that separates infants from mothers. The pilgrims reminded us that this violation of love and trust has happened in many places in Australia: the Stolen Generations, the detention of refugee families and the exile of Indigenous people from the land their mother.

The pilgrims' walk of prayer took them up a rise to the now abandoned detention centre. They were reminded that Jesus, too, mounted a hill and was abandoned on the Cross. Some young people had worked closely with asylum seekers, mere children, who had been held on this site. Even lying empty, the camp was an overwhelming presence that banished any complacency in hearts and minds about the need in Australia for constant vigilance about matters of justice.

Like these young pilgrims, we ask you to see injustice around you.

What is our response, as Christian witnesses, to a divided and fragmented world? How can we offer the hope of peace, healing and harmony to those 'stations' of conflict, suffering and tension through which you have chosen to march with the World Youth Day Cross?

How will you respond? We urge you to read the signs of the times and identify where there are other 'Woomeras' in Australia and around the world. Consider the plight of homeless and unemployed people, Indigenous communities, asylum seekers, the lonely and isolated in our own communities. How will we address not only the human need before us, but also be a force for change to institutions and policies that have contributed to their plight?

For young people of my generation, that detention centre came to represent all that was wrong with Australia at the time. And so it was so powerful, to look at it head on, to not look away, but then to raise that Cross and say, 'This is what we believe in. This is love and courage and freedom.' ... For us, as Australians, Woomera was where the rubber hit the road of our Christian commitment. It was where we were most called to front up to the hard things of our world, and then to see in the Cross a God that understands that suffering - and who dares us to hope, to dream and live differently.
Chantelle Ogilvie (one of the young people in the Children of Abraham panel at the CRA National Assembly)

And You Will Be My Witnesses: Young people and justice was launched nationally on Wednesday, September 16, in Sydney, at the Australian Catholic University, Strathfield, with Mass celebrated by Cardinal George Pell (Sydney) at 10.30 am and the launch at 11.30. Bishop Anthony Fisher OP (Auxiliary, Sydney - and organiser of WYD08) launched the statement.

Parishes, communities and groups are encouraged to celebrate Social Justice Sunday and to read and discuss the statement.

According to Sr Suzette, all Catholics and people of good will are invited to go "forth in the peace of the Holy Spirit to love and serve the Lord" with an expanded vision in a shared future.

And you will be my witness: Young people and justice can be ordered via a PDF form on the web. A brief summary is now available and the statement itself and other support materials will be available on the ACSJC website following the launch. The statement will also be on the ACBC website.