Archbishop of Sydney

Aboriginal Mass

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
1 May 2005

Since my last Mass here in the Cathedral on Easter Sunday, we have experienced the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI.

In this sermon I want to begin by asking you all to pray for and support the new Pope.  I am sure you will because the office of the papacy is vital to the life of the Catholic Church.

The election of Pope Benedict XVI is a clear affirmation of Catholic identity.  As I claimed to the press on a couple of occasions the Cardinals were always going to elect a Catholic!  The choice also reflects a general endorsement of the policies of John Paul II.

Like the previous pope, Pope Benedict grew up during World War II, but he was, reluctantly and unwillingly, on the other side.  His election as a German by the Cardinals is a clear sign that the Second World War is finally over and that we can turn over that terrible page of history.

There are other differences from John Paul II.  Pope Benedict has less experience running a diocese (he was Archbishop of Munich), but he has spent more than 20 years in the Roman Curia and is much better known at the start of his pontificate than John Paul II was.  As a new Pope he is twenty years older than his predecessor was and he will not travel as much overseas.

Time will tell what will happen in this next pontificate, but the proponents of radical doctrinal change have no reason for optimism in Pope Benedict XVI.  Please God this will mean that we shall be able to get on with the difficult task of practising what we preach, handing this on to the next generation and offering the person and message of Christ in a comprehensible and attractive manner to the non-Catholics around us.

I repeat that the new Holy Father deserves our prayers and support.  I am sure he will be much loved by Catholics throughout the world as they come to know him.

In 1986 Pope John Paul II, visited Australia and one of his most important addresses was given at Alice Springs to the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders on November 29.  Tonight we are starting a year long preparation for the twentieth anniversary of this significant event.  Like Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict will certainly continue to emphasise the importance of social justice and plead for the human rights of disadvantaged groups such as the aborigines.

Pope John Paul II acknowledged the ancient aboriginal occupancy over many thousands of years of this our continent, “the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit”.  He said then that aboriginal culture “which shows the lasting genius and dignity of your race must not be allowed to disappear”.  Share these gifts, he urged, with each other and teach them to your children.  In this he repeated the words spoken by Pope Paul VI on his visit to Australia in 1970.

Through the aboriginal closeness to the land you touched the sacredness of man’s relationship with God.  The silence of the bush taught a quietness of soul, so that you touched the world of God’s Spirit, he said.

The Pope spoke of the similarity of the legends of the Dreamtime and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He also acknowledged the reality of the bad effects, the suffering and separation for aboriginal people which followed the arrival of the Europeans here more than 200 years ago.  He urged endurance which brings patience, which in turn helps to identify the way ahead and gives courage for the journey.

He acknowledged too the goodness of all those who loved and cared for the indigenous people and especially the heroic contribution of many missionaries, whatever their human frailty and occasional mistakes.  Their great contribution was to proclaim Jesus Christ and establish His Church among the indigenous communities.

He acknowledged the contribution of men such as Archbishop Polding, the first Archbishop of Sydney, who rejected the theory that Australia was a “terra nullius” which belonged to no body and called for a fair and equitable recognition of aboriginal land rights.  He said that a just and proper settlement still lies unachieved.

The then Holy Father invited all aboriginal people to become, through and through, Aboriginal Christians, so that the spirit of the Gospel penetrates their communities and renews their personal lives.  In doing this the aboriginal peoples will come to realise more and more their great human and Christian dignity.

Very importantly Pope John Paul II pointed out that the Church in Australia will not be fully the Church that Jesus wants her to be until the indigenous people have made their contribution to her life and this contribution has been joyfully received.

He concluded that the hour has come for the indigenous people to take on new courage and new hope; to fashion and build a new heart.

Since then the situation has changed in many ways, some of them for the better, some of them not so good.  The challenge remains as it always was, fundamentally a spiritual challenge, a call to answer to the best and highest in the aboriginal traditions.  And, as always, spiritual challenges cannot be met by money alone, nor are they conquered by a spirit of dependency.

Those of us who are not aborigines in the Australian Catholic community promise to support you and your leaders in your struggle to build a good life for your people and close the sad chapter of wrong doing and exploitation through building a better Australia of harmony, family strength, peace and prosperity.  This is our prayer and hope.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.