The last few years in Australian society have been demanding and confronting times for Catholic clergy. The revulsion and odium of priestly sexual abuse has not diminished and in substantive form has taken hold in the public imagination as a distinctive characteristic now associated with Catholicism.
The sad, new reality sees many priests avoiding children in their schools or as altar servers and displaying a reluctance to wear clerical attire in public, noting the intermittent yet growing public abuse and comment. Another, perhaps not unrelated challenge concerns the liberty of the Church freely to teach what she believes and to express these convictions in public forums. A recent complaint to the Tasmanian Antidiscrimination Commission concerns the Tasmanian Archbishop's right to produce and disseminate information, within his own schools, regarding the nature of Catholic marriage. Whilst this complaint does arise from the loony fringe of society, the more serious aspect concerns the increasing willingness to use legal mechanisms to muzzle free speech and legitimate debate.
The Church also has been seriously distracted in recent years, perhaps from an insecurity surrounding its relevance, perusing with excessive attention causes not shared by the majority of Australians, such as increasingly open borders and high refugee intakes. Sydney's Archbishop Fisher's recent call for an increase in Syrian refugees, but with a particular preference for persecuted Christians, was a welcome balance in this debate. It remains to be seen if government is prepared to act in such a way. Nevertheless, it is not hard to feel that the Church has been oblivious to many of the core social issues confronting Australian life, even those with a particular Catholic heritage or concern. Many Australians are right to discern something unsound within our political and social fabric. Of most obvious concern is the huge debt we have accumulated over the past decade. Whilst this is not in the American or European stratosphere, net foreign debt standing at $976 billion represents 60% of Australian GDP. The indifference of both sides of politics to rising debt and budget deficits, coupled with a falling trade deficit in 2015, sees Australia consistently living beyond its means.
This is a fundamental Catholic issue, which goes to the heart of our understanding of community and responsibility to future generations. Even if other Australians are exclusively imbedded in the concerns of the present, Catholics are called to envision a society beyond ourselves. Catholics cannot continue to remain indifferent to a public debt that allows the current generation to live at the expense of those too young to vote or yet unborn. In these inter-generational transfers Australians are witnessing an erosion of our societal contract which notes that Western Society has a responsibility to treasure the heritage left to us but also to ensure that our children and grandchildren will enjoy this same heritage.
If Catholicism does not speak earnestly about the high cost of home ownership for the young or a national youth unemployment rate of 13%, then we can hardly expect young Australians fully to take their place in civil society. We are already witnessing the great reluctance of young Australians to join churches or religious institutions. This is mirrored in their avoidance of sporting clubs, political parties, professional associations, in art or educational organisations or even charitable and humanitarian groups.
Something is certainly broken when volunteerism for the young is desperately low, where sporting groups cannot find players or coaches. Certainly Google and Facebook have a role to play and yet even here online communities in western society show large measures of indifference and lack of passion. Australian society is under substantial stress when so many of its citizens, particularly the young, are unable to identify with any organisation apart from a government that is constantly called upon to provide security from "the cradle to the grave".
The Catholic Church is one of the few Australian organisations with a core interest in freedom, in modifying government and in highlighting choice and human flourishing. It's time she spoke again for such fundamentals.
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