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In this edition:
| Pope Francis asks all of us to walk together, with the most vulnerable, with Jesus
| Dr Trudy Dantis: "I see God's guiding and comforting presence every step of the way."
| 7th ACMRO National Conference 2024
| Fr Peter O'Neill SSC, Thank you and Best Wishes
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In this new video, Pope Francis asks all of us to walk TOGETHER, with the most vulnerable, with Jesus, on the occasion of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2024 (WDMR). God walks with His people!
In his message for the WDMR, the Holy Father reminds us that all of us, God’s people, are migrants on this earth, on our way to the “true homeland”, the Kingdom of Heaven. Migrants are a contemporary icon of this people on a journey, of the Church on a journey, and at the same time, it is in them and in all our vulnerable brothers and sisters that we can encounter the Lord who walks with us.
As Fr. Fabio Baggio, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD), suggests in the video, the idea is to walk a piece of the road together, with our community, parish, and diocese, also involving all the inhabitants of the "existential peripheries" that Pope Francis encourages us to welcome. To this end, the DPIHD is preparing support material for these initiatives that can take the form of meditative walks, moments of reflection in stages, prayer vigils. The important thing is not to leave anyone behind.
This article is drawn from the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD).
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In this video, Trudy Dantis, the Director of the National Centre For Pastoral Research of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, reflects on the message of Pope Francis for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2024: “God walks with His people.”
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About 90 people reflected on the theme of “Welcoming Migrant Workers to Australia: gift and responsibility” at the ACMRO conference on 18 and 19 July at the Australian Catholic University campus in Melbourne. People came from Broome in the west to Fiji in the east, and from Tasmania in the south to Queensland in the north. In attendance were seasonal workers, people from Catholic dioceses, congregations and groups, the Uniting Church, the Australian government, and non-government organisations. The diversity of origins among attendees was juxtaposed by the unity of purpose: how can we all build bridges to better connect migrant workers to Australian communities?
The conference was organised by the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugees Office (ACMRO) in partnership with ACRATH, a Catholic NGO founded by Catholic sisters to address exploitation and modern slavery, and the ACBC’s Office for Justice, Ecology and Peace (OJEP).
The conference program was built around a daily keynote, three panel engagements, and time for dialogue, both informal and synodal.
Several presenters asked conference attendees the question, Why do we pay attention to this issue? And together, we thought through our Christian commitment to working for justice. The conference prayer reminded attendees of Deuteronomy 10:19: “You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Keynote presenter on day two, Rev. James Shri Bhagwan from the Pacific Council of Churches in Fiji, reminded attendees of Psalm 137: “How can we sing the Lord’s song while in a strange land?” And in the conference song, ACMRO staffer Don Gomez sang the refrain, “Together on a journey.”
A very exciting and challenging aspect of the conference was the presence of 11 seasonal workers, all from Timor Leste. While communication was sometimes difficult because conference English can be hard work, the connection and shared understandings were profound. Archbishop Christopher Prowse, the Archbishop of Canberra & Goulburn and Chair of the Bishops Commission for Evangelisation and Laity (BECLM), in his very moving presentation, engaged with a seasonal worker to share the worker’s story. The worker and his wife had a baby, and the very next day the worker left for his nine-month seasonal worker assignment in Australia. The worker’s baby is now four months old and gurgled to conference attendees via social media as we walked together to the conference mass. The baby’s father explained that he came to Australia to work for his family. Another worker explained how little he understood of his pre-departure briefing. And other worker explained the reality of their broccoli picking, with fewer hours of work than they wanted, and working in icy conditions.
The conference dinner followed the conference mass at the Catholic Leadership Centre. The dinner provided all attendees with an opportunity to share with each other in table groups. The keynote presentation at the dinner was delivered by NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Dr James Cockayne. James asked the attendees to think of guest communities of workers over the past centuries in Australia. James shared four de-identified stories of overseas workers in Australia. The stories challenged attendees to consider the gritty realities of people facing modern slavery in Australia when the systems go wrong and when people lose their voice. James said this is where pastoral care is provided. It could be provided by church groups. But the government makes choices to provide or not to provide. James issued five challenges to attendees:
1. Organise
2. Recruit the public - humanise seasonal workers
3. Call for system level change - worker justice visa must apply to all
4. Engage big business: purchasing is always a moral act
5. Act local
Some insights shared by conference participants across the two days include:
• I was inspired by the calls to link arms, to build a community of mutual respect, learning from each other
• I was struck by the fact that so much had changed since the new Australian government brought the seasonal worker programs together into PALMS, the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme, administered directly by the government.
• I heard challenges of disengaged workers, of medical insurance cover especially for young women who become pregnant, of the delivery of minimum hours, and especially of how seasonal workers can understand their rights as workers in Australia when contracts are communicated in complex written language and in content-overloaded worker briefings.
• I loved the sharings about local Australian communities building bridges of trust and inclusion: I loved the photos showing warm clothes drives, shared liturgies, shared food and music and sport, English language classes. I was especially moved by the photos showing mutual respectful acknowledgement of deaths and anniversaries.
Fr Khalid Marogi, ACMRO Director and gentle insight-filled guide to the conference, concluded the two days of work with a further logical question – where to from here? After the input and the time for dialogue, each attendee left the conference with clear options for next steps in bridge building.
Christine Carolan, ACRATH EO, 19 July 2024
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The Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office (ACMRO) and the Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans (ACRATH) Parish and Stakeholders Providing Pastoral Care for Seasonal Workers Network would like to express their gratitude to Fr Peter O'Neill SSC, for his contributions over the past three years as a core team member of the network. Fr Peter brought valuable experience from his 26 years of pastoral work supporting migrant workers both abroad and, in the last five years, as a member of ACRATH, focusing on providing pastoral care for seasonal workers in Australia. Since January 2019, Fr Peter has been serving as ACRATH's representative on the Australian Government's Seasonal Workers Programme Advisory Committee.
Fr Peter was recently elected as the new Vicar of the Columban Society for a six-year term. In this role, he is a member of the Columban General Council, based in Hong Kong.
Fr Peter, go well, and we wish you all the best in your new ministry.
Please click here to watch Fr Peter's video presentation at the 7th ACMRO National Conference in July 2024.
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