Prayer

Prayer

This week, the Pope is in Canada to ask for forgiveness from Indigenous Canadians for the terrible ways Christian missionaries and mission schools treated First Nations people, particularly children, for hundreds of years.

In Australia, we know all too well this story. Indigenous Australians were treated in most un-Christian ways. Western Victoria was home to many missions, where Aboriginal Victorians were removed from their country, culture, language, religion, and family.

In his first encyclical, Laudato 'si, Pope Francis writes:

"It is essential to show special care for indigenous communities and their cultural traditions... For them, land is not a commodity but rather a gift from God and from their ancestors who rest there, a sacred space with which they need to interact if they are to maintain their identity and values. When they remain on their land, they themselves care for it best. Nevertheless, in various parts of the world, pressure is being put on them to abandon their homelands to make room for agricultural or mining projects which are undertaken without regard for the degradation of nature and culture"

Let us pray (as Francis asks not just Catholics to, but all people of good will) that we will be more compassionate and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Let's strive to walk with them, listen to them, open our hearts to them, on our own reconciliation journeys.