Columbans endorse the letter from Australia’s Faith Leaders

It recognises that we can be a better society by walking alongside with our First Nations people and enabling them to take their rightful place at the table - Photo:canva.comIt recognises that we can be a better society by walking alongside with our First Nations people and enabling them to take their rightful place at the table - Photo:canva.com

St Columban’s Mission Society endorses the letter from Australia’s Faith Leaders to federal parliamentarians calling on politicians to cooperate across political divides in support of the upcoming Voice referendum.

St Columban’s Mission Society endorses the letter from Australia’s Faith Leaders to federal parliamentarians calling on politicians to cooperate across political divides in support of the upcoming Voice referendum as reported in Catholic Outlook: News from the Parramatta diocese, 23 February 2023 (see related link below).

Catholic Outlook writes: The influential alliance of nine national organisations, representing diverse Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Buddhist and Jewish communities, has thrown its collective weight behind the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Their letter (see link below) builds on the joint resolution released by the group in May last year, which urged bipartisan action on the Voice referendum.

This open letter follows the Plenary Council and Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference endorsement of the Uluru statement from the Heart in 2021 which was informed by the words of St John Paul II to First Nations People during his trip to Alice Springs in 1986: “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.”

During his homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (29 January 2023), Bishop Vincent Long, commenting on the Referendum, said: “the Catholic Church, at its synodal gathering called the Plenary Council, endorsed the Uluru Statement and the Voice to Parliament as part of our mission to shape a more just and compassionate society. It recognises that we can be a better society by walking alongside with our First Nations people and enabling them to take their rightful place at the table.”

Columban Fr Kevin O’Neill is a member of the Peace, Ecology and Justice Office at the Columban Mission Centre, Essendon.

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