On December 1, 2018, St Mary’s Catholic Parish, Erskineville, hosted a visit by a very unassuming Sr Patricia Fox snd (Sister of Sion). This event was organised by Action for Peace and Development in the Philippines and Migrante NSW. More than 40 people attended made up of religious people, parishioners and people from the Filipino community.

Reflection by Claude Mostowik msc on the Feast Day of Edmund Rice 2018

One description of Pope Francis’ papacy has been that of a ministry of gestures. Where John Paul II was a philosopher/poet and Benedict XVI the strict academician/theologian, Francis evangelises the culture and touches people’s hearts by the way of beauty where many have been captivated by stirring images of an approachable churchman — hugging children, kissing disfigured individuals, washing the feet of women and convicted persons on Holy Thursday – crucially outside St Peter’s. 

Listening to the news, it would seem that religion is more often used as a pretext for violence than peace. But, the Scriptures and our faith traditions contain a strong mandate for compassion and peace. Together they offer a radical reshaping of human relations if we accept them.

We gather today to seek to be together, to acknowledge, stand in solidarity with, give voice to, to cry out – in anguish, pain, frustration, anger and great sadness. We are here to lament. Lament is looking to the future and trying to find hope but it requires a truth telling where we need to speak the unspeakable and find words in traumatised numbness.  It demands that the truth be told; that it be heard and received. It is a catalyst to examine responsibility and complicity. Truth telling causes us to remain alert, to educate and help prevent new victimisation and finding ways for healing, offer restitution, promote restoration of those unjustly treated and work for justice. Pope Francis has said: ‘The thing the church needs more today is the ability to heal wounds…and you have to start from the ground up.’