March 25, 2014 His Holiness Pope Francis Vatican City State 00120 Italy Dear Holy Father, I want to express my personal appreciation, and the appreciation of many people that I am in contact with here in Sydney Australia, of your kind words yet powerful challenges to the Church and all people who will listen to respond to the cry of people who are poor, marginalised and people seeking refuge from danger. Your words have struck many of us as particularly relevant in Australia as we continue to have cruel and harsh policies toward people who seek asylum in our country. No doubt you have been made aware of the harsh policy based on political expediency which is shamefully cruel to children, women and men alike irrespective of the places they come from. Particularly disturbing is that the majority of Australians have come support such policies and desire even harsher treatment because of the negative publicity that has been provided by the Government, the previous Government and some sections of the media. These negative perceptions are also due to the fact that people seeking asylum have in the past been kept in detention centres in very remote and inaccessible places. More recently they are kept in foreign countries in appalling conditions, for example Manus Island (Papua New Guinea) and Nauru. I am sure if Australians were able to see the faces of these people through the barbed and razor wire they would respond differently and with more compassion. We cannot see their faces! The Government has declared these as permanent detention centres from which no asylum seeker – even if found to be a refugee - will ever be settled in Australia. They must be accepted by a third country if they are ever to leave. It is also disturbing that these policies are promoted by political leaders who are practicing Catholics and of other Christian denominations. I might add that a number of the ministers in the government, including the Prime Minister and the present leader of the Opposition, proudly wear their Jesuit schooling as a banner. A further concern is the silence from much of our church leadership. If they are speaking out, it is not being heard. I live in the Archdiocese of Sydney where the just retired archbishop has not been known to speak out on asylum seekers and refugees. He is also known for his very close relationship with our current Prime Minister. I know that the word ‘asylum seeker’ arouses sympathy in people in other parts of the world, but in Australia the word conjures up feelings of antipathy with name-calling such as ‘illegals’, ‘only economic migrants’ and ‘criminals’. Your visit to Lampedusa gave much heart to people who are concerned about the ill-treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia who attempt to travel to Australia by boat. Desperate people who have tried to enter Australia have been turned back, some have also been ill-treated by our military personnel, and many from Sri Lanka have been, without proper processing, have been repatriated to Sri Lanka which is still a country with a bad human rights record, which our government chooses to ignore. These people are being sent back to danger. Australia’s contribution to the number of asylum seekers and refugees is minimal and embarrassing. The poorest countries of the world are bearing the greatest burden when they themselves can least afford to. Papua New Guinea and Nauru are profiting from this from the disastrous situation of these people. The Federal Government has declared that no asylum seeker who arrives by boat, regardless of circumstances, will be spared from being sent to Manus Island and Nauru. This includes pregnant women, unaccompanied minors, children and people with disabilities. Many people are suffering from psychological problems because of the uncertainty of their situation and the sense of hopelessness they experience. Asylum seekers, including pregnant women, are living in tents in the tropical heat. Medical facilities for pregnant women on Nauru and Manus Island are inadequate. Facilities for children to play are virtually non-existence. Recently, a number of doctors co-authored a 92 page letter to the Immigration Minister about his decisions that are seriously impacting on the patients on Christmas Island (Australian island close to Indonesia) on which I have served for a short period of time in 2012). The manufactured fear in the minds of many Australians is that we are being overrun by asylum seekers who come by boat. Given, the worldwide tragedy of people forced to flee in fear of their lives, the problem for us miniscule and the fear out of proportion. Holy Father, Australia is a wealthy, first world country. The amount that Australia is spending at the moment per annum to detain asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru far exceeds the total budget of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees spending on refugees worldwide. Holy Father, as I said earlier, many people took heart in the serious challenge you provided on Lampedusa and highlighted the generosity of the people of the island. I implore you to continue to speak out and challenge Church leaders and other leaders, religious and political, to be more compassionate for poor, vulnerable and helpless people. As a Missionary of the Sacred Heart, the spirituality of the congregation is based on the love in the heart of Jesus made manifest in our world. Our call is to be the heart of God in the world – a spirituality which resonates with many people. We look forward to that spirituality made concrete in the lives of Australians but we need our leaders to be challenged and lead in this area. Till now we are being called to be moral ‘midgets’ in closing our eyes to needs of the ‘other’. I am also President of Pax Christi Australia and the question of peace with justice is also very much at the heart of our organisation. Holy Father, thank you for your inspiration, your challenges in so many ways, and I urge you to continue to challenge our leaders in Australia to be more welcoming to the stranger, as is our gospel mandate. Once again thank you for the hope you give us With every best wish, In peace Father Claude Mostowik msc (Father) Claude Mostowik msc
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 02:16:25 +0000
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