AUSTRALIA’S Catholic bishops have followed the recommendation of their key Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisers by endorsing the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference made the decision as it met online for its biannual meeting earlier this month.
It follows endorsement of the Uluru Statement by the bishops’ president Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge on September 24, during a gathering for First Nations leaders at the Santa Teresa Spirituality Centre in Ormiston.
“… I call on all people of goodwill and good intention to support the journey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by endorsing the Uluru Statement From the Heart and putting it into action in every way possible,” Archbishop Coleridge said.
The bishops’ consideration of the matter was informed by the words of St John Paul II, who, in a visit to Alice Springs in 1986, told indigenous peoples: “Your culture, which shows the lasting genius and dignity of your race, must not be allowed to disappear … Your songs, your stories, your paintings, your dances, your languages, must never be lost.”
Bishop Columba Macbeth-Green, chair of the Bishops Commission for Relations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, said the Bishops Conference had been awaiting guidance on the Statement from the Heart.
“We are very grateful for the reflections of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council in helping shape our thinking on this important subject,” Bishop Macbeth-Green, who is Bishop of the Diocese of Wilcannia-Forbes, said.
“That Council recently endorsed the Statement from the Heart, and we have listened carefully to their reasons for doing so.
“We also heard from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of the Plenary Council at our recent assembly of their desire for the Church in Australia to follow NATSICC’s lead.”
The Plenary Council’s agenda called for the Church to “honour and acknowledge the continuing deep spiritual relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to this country and commit ourselves to the ongoing journey of reconciliation”.
Among the key recommendations of the Uluru Statement are the establishment of a First Nations “Voice” to the Australian Parliament and a commission to supervise a process of “truth-telling” between governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Bishop Macbeth-Green said the bishops acknowledged there remain diverse views within Indigenous communities on the Uluru Statement, but the principles of reconciliation and walking together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders fit well in the Catholic understanding.
“Sadly, we within the Church have not always lived up to our Gospel calling in our engagement with our Indigenous brother and sisters,” he said.
“The endorsement of the Uluru Statement is another step in our journey of addressing those shortcomings, but it will be an ongoing journey with First Peoples.
“Part of that will see us listening to the stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, rather than a tendency to talk about them. That is the model we seek to emulate with the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council, and that has brought us to this point.”
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