KCP - Catholic Diocese of Broome

Every now and again you are privileged to be in the presence of a really good person. Such a person is without pretensions and emanates a feeling of moral uprightness. In an age of vulgar personality images and attendant spin-doctors such a person emerges as exceptional and outstanding.
I recently had the happy task to Chair the Launch of the Australian Bishops 2004 Social Justice Sunday Statement. The document was officially launched by Professor Marie Bashir, the Governor of New South Wales. Professor Bashir is the type of person you rarely meet in public life. She is truly outstanding and leaves you feeling grateful for having met her.
During the speech at the launch, Professor Bashir spoke courageously of the needs of those who suffer innocently and unjustly. Importantly, she pointed clearly to the possibilities for change and to her belief that things can be different for a world groaning under the burden of suffering and deprivation.
The litany of injustices that pervade our nation and our world can appear overwhelming at times. The proliferation of arms and armaments since the Second World War, combined with the politics of power and greed, has resulted in the needless deaths of millions of people, ninety percent of them non-combatants. The exploitation of Third World countries by First World nations has contributed to the death and suffering of millions more innocent people. Unfair trade agreements, crippling international debt, the destruction of forests and the accompanying destruction of soil are the hallmarks of greedy and careless economic colonialism.
In Australia, the growing problems of land degradation threaten vast areas of the continent. Tourism, that sacred cow of modern economic activity, increasingly overwhelms the pristine lands of many regions including the Kimberley. Fragile environments are broken apart by invasive tour buses and determined four wheel drive enthusiasts. Tracks become water courses, water courses are coated with sunblock lotion and other chemical pollutants while biological diversity is consumed by uncontrolled fires and unwarranted floods.
Deep down all of us know that the priorities we have set for our own pleasurable existence cannot continue.
As our politicians play out a version of "The Price is Right" on the national stage, eager as they are to buy our votes, people of goodness and generosity are aware that changes are needed to our consuming lifestyle if the human race is to live harmoniously and justly.
In her appeal for justice and peace, Professor Marie Bashir pointed to the gravity of conflict and other horrific events in our world, but her optimism that peace is possible is founded on her Christian belief. She said "The values of truth, justice, love and freedom, when made real in people's lives, are dimensions of the abundant peace that the Risen Christ brings to his followers and to the world".
If this creed could become a core belief of our nation, then the peace our society longs for would be more apparent. We could become what God desires for us all - fully human.