The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC) recently launched their website One Journey, Together (https://indigenousvoice.church). It offers information and resources for Catholics to help them to better understand the upcoming referendum on the Voice to Parliament.
We invite all Catholics to inform themselves about Catholic Social Teaching (CST), and reflect on the following questions:
- How do Catholic Social Teachings shape your experience and expression of faith?
- Following Jesus’s commandment “to love one another”, how do you, your household and community show love for First Nations Australian people?
- How could the activities of truth-telling and agreement-making help address the inequity and other injustices experienced by First Nations Peoples in Australia?
- Miriam Rose Ungunmerr Baumann offers the concept of dadirri or deep listening as a practice that can help us along our journey of reconciliation. Reflect on the sounds and voices you are listening to. Do they resonate with CST principles? Are there other, different voices you are yet to hear?
- Stan Grant emphasises the need for compassion in our conversations about the Voice to Parliament. How will you demonstrate compassion in your interactions with others (including those with differing views) about the Voice and related matters of justice for First Nations Peoples?
The road to reconciliation is a long one, and our aboriginal sisters and brothers invite us to walk with them. To accept their offer is our choice, and we seek guidance from Christ, and his commandments to “love one another” (John 13:34). In doing so, we discover that love always leads us to justice and hope – to a new life.