SW News:

Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP of Sydney in Australia has asked Catholics to commit to acknowledge and heal relations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as part of the Sydney Archdiocese's Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). 

“You are part of Australia and Australia is part of you. And until you make your gift to her life and until others happily receive it, the Church in Australia will not fully be the Church that Jesus desires her to be,” St. John Paul II famously said in Alice Springs in 1986. Archbishop Fisher cited this quote in his introduction to the proposal. 

“We have made considerable progress in our lifetimes towards achieving these goals, but there is still more work to be done, according to Archbishop Fisher. This plan aims to put us on that track,” he said. 

The RAP was introduced at the Polding Centre by Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Meagher, Executive Officer of Sydney's Aboriginal Catholic Ministry Lisa Buxton, and Archdiocesan Justice and Peace Promoter Fr Peter Smith. 

Fr. Smith said that while the RAP was the outcome of a long process, it was an opportunity, not a task. “I believe that reconciliation is our stock in trade as Catholics. It’s what we do, and what we are good at. It always seems to me that the first point I have to deal with in reconciliation is reconciling myself and my own heart. Reconciliation requires a change of heart,” he said. 

More than 135,000 indigenous Catholics live in Australia, out of a total of 813,000, according to the National Centre for Pastoral Research's most recent social profile of the Catholic community. This represents around 16% of the population. 

They are the Catholic population's youngest and fastest-growing segment, according to Fr. Smith. Additionally, the greater Sydney region was home to almost 90,000 indigenous Australians as of the 2021 census. "We often think of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as being those who live in rural and remote areas of our country, but the reverse is quite true," he said.