Catholic Diocese of Broome

Retaining the obvious Catholicity of our schools, hospitals, universities and residential colleges is a pressing challenge for the Church in all parts of Australia. We need to be saying clearly who we are and what we believe.

This problem was highlighted recently by the much publicised decision to remove a crucifix from the wall of a regional Catholic hospital at the request of a patient. One can see how such consideration could be just as easily extended to other institutions so that statues of the Sacred Heart, icons of the Blessed Trinity, a marble relief of the Virgin Mary or even a crib scene at Christmas might also disappear in a flurry of accommodating good intentions. Identifying ourselves, our homes and our institutions as evidently Catholic is an essential witness to our beliefs. Blending the identifiable Catholic icons with the secular, diminishing their presence by placing them in some obscure corner or removing them altogether are unspoken public statements that what these icons represent may be easily dispensed with.

Hence I am alarmed but not surprised when I see a beautiful statue of Mary crowded out by a collection of ordinary drawings representative of somebody’s first attempt at art. No matter what we might think about a statue of Buddha, seeing one at an airport being used as a drinking-straw dispenser, as I did recently, says a great deal about the parlous lack of respect many people have for the sacred in Australia today.

In our institutions, the problem of identity may be well addressed by a confirmed understanding of ‘mission’ and a formation of the Catholic leadership group that heads each institution. A definition of ‘mission’, that embraces more than the colourless and undefined term ‘Catholic ethos’; is a good beginning. An appreciation that this mission must extend beyond secular utilitarian purposes is essential. Any thought that Catholic values and Catholic beliefs are no different from any other values or beliefs is clearly erroneous. At the core of our endeavours is the conviction that it is Christ and the love of Christ that urges us, compels us, to serve the needs of our people and our nation.

To say that any trend to seriously minimize this conviction is representative of a crisis of faith is not an exaggeration but a statement of fact best dealt with openly, carefully, lovingly and deliberately.

Furthering Catholic devotions and practices in Catholic homes has to be the subject of a pastoral strategy that recognizes the in-roads of the secular into the broader Australian society. However, what is needed at the heart of our apostolic activity is not a fundamentalist approach that condemns the world but a Catholic evangelization that blesses it as the creation of God. The work we do in families and through institutions is God’s work and nothing less than sacred. In this context the task of restoring and emphasising our Catholic identity calls out for a unity of purpose and an imaginative prayerful response. There is no time to waste.