Holy victuals bitter sweet for Great Southern Land

Community ambivalence towards the Catholic Church as it staged World Youth Day Sydney 2008 was bereft of acknowledgment of the practical benefits of spirituality - not only to the Catholic faithful, but also in the political and economic context of the wider community.

One may think that the values of the Catholic Church are becoming increasingly singular, and removed from the values of Australian society by declining church attendances and inadequate priest numbers to sustain the Church. It was the New South Wales Government’s unprecedented policy intervention to stage WYD that was the catalyst for renewed interest in a stricter separation between church ideology, state and civic life.

However, the throngs of more than 400,000 jubilant faithful who turned out to hear holy teachings at WYD and the Federal Government's announcement, at the end of the WYD week, of Australia’s first resident ambassador to the Vatican, demonstrates the significance of not only the Catholic Church, but of religion, in shaping political and cultural views.

While these events are chapters within the history of Australia’s evolving relationship with religion, some Australians do not seem to appreciate the integration of these two worlds.

To understand the apparent disconnect between the importance in which Catholic faith is held, on the one hand, by the Australian government and over a quarter of Australia’s self-professed Catholics, and on the other, the strident opposition to the Catholic Church from some sectors, it is important to appreciate the interaction between Christian values at the national, institutional and individual levels of Australian society since European settlement.

Australians’ views on the role of religion in society vacillates between demanding a stricter separation of church ideology from public institutions to ensure the latter are religion free, and retaining structural separation of church and state while respecting expressions of spirituality within state institutions and civic life.

By the 19th century, the Church in Western societies had moved away from being an integral part of the bureaucratic machinery of state to become an important vocal non-government institution, among many voices competing to reach government policymakers and the wider society.

Today, Australia’s governments, at least publicly, recognise the public benefits in supporting a diversity of faiths (Christian and non-Christian) and philanthropic groups in nourishing civic values and providing a wide range of community services. The church-state relationship exists within the constitutional protections of freedom from discrimination on the basis of faith, and prohibiting the Commonwealth from establishing a religion.

The Catholic Church's prominence, its global outreach and its historical legacy offers a juicy, ripe target for opponents of both the institutional Church itself, and those opposed to Christianity and religion. The Catholic Church's societal standing has previously been tarnished by the shortcomings of its both its institutional ideals and its participants’ own misconduct. The revelations aired prior to WYD of the Church’s insular reaction to allegations, of sexual abuse, against Catholic members tarnished the Church’s reputation in the eyes of mainstream Australia. However, faith should not be discarded too hastily. The practical expressions of faith parallels the civic behaviours we aspire to in a democratic society, and share aspirations common to those pursuing greater protection for human rights, underpinning the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948.

Unprecedented Federal and NSW Government support for WYD, was estimated to be in excess of $100 million from cash and in-kind logistical services. Both governments gave these contributions without public discussion and seemingly without fully appreciating the community’s reservations towards publicly funding a Catholic religious festival.

Community reservations towards the integration of faith in society may be attributable, in part, to the broader secularisation society - as witnessed by the growing ambivalence towards the Church by nominal Catholics. Catholic Church leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI, have warned that Western mainstream Churches are moribund in times of liberalism and individualism rising. Some are concerned that the trend for a more liberal Church in line with prevailing social mores as seen in both the Catholic and Protestant traditions of Western Europe and North America, may paradoxically reduce the numbers of faithful.

A study of young Australians and their values on spirituality, The Spirit of Generation Y, found that the majority of young people would not challenge or constrain other people’s beliefs, beliefs are moral relatives, and are not necessary.

The proportion of the Australian population professing to be affiliated with a religion in the 2006 national census has declined since its peak in the 1960s. At the same time an equally significant social change is that among the one in four self-proclaimed Australian Catholics, or 5.1 million people, only 14 per cent regularly participate in religious activities.

Public perception of the Catholic Church, as with any organisation represented by the individuals sustaining it, can easily be prejudiced by a perceived lack of humility by any of its numerous spokespeople on an issue where the Church stands against values held by the wider Australian society. Paul Collins, a Catholic commentator on theology, warns against storm trooper politics adhering to a strict, black-letter interpretation of spiritual teachings, as is practised by the Catholic Sydney Archdiocese.

Paul Collins considers that the Church's prohibition against the ordination into the priesthood of women and married men is an artificial barrier that is stifling the Church. This position is widely supported by mainstream Australian Catholics, of which in 2007 nearly 17,000 Catholics from 120 of parishes signed a petition which was recently sent to Pope Benedict. A similar petition circulating among the Catholic parishes in England and Wales will be presented to the Conference of Bishops of England and Wales to be held in November this year.

The voice of religion exerts its moral influence on political systems and social justice issues. This influence is strongest in troubling times, as witnessed by religions’ ability to mobilise protest against repressive regimes. Spiritual teachings inspire the aspirations of political systems, inform institutions of corporate and social responsibility, and vitalise people's conscience and altruism.

The Australian Government’s announcement in July 2008 of its first resident ambassador to the Vatican, former Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fischer, and discussions between Pope Benedict and the Prime Minister and other political leaders during the WYD week, at least in part recognises the wide global reach that the Holy See can bring towards the issues of ecumenicalism and interfaith reconciliation, and peace (especially in light of the security climate of “religiously inspired” terrorism). The Holy See's insight is especially important for social policy topics as diverse as poverty reduction, third world development, international human rights and climate change.

The activities of ecclesiastical structures generate economic and social capital by weaving together our private worlds with the national framework created by government. The Catholic Church and its agencies, using a mix of funding from government and the parish purse, is the second-largest employer after the Federal government, one in four students across Australia has been educated in a Catholic school; the Catholic Church is a major provider of medical services through its network of hospitals and hospices. Religion and civic groups nourish our personal values and beliefs, whether through the activities of a church structure on unemployment, trade unions, or Amnesty International.

Spirituality enters into public debate via theological issues and informs social justice issues by drawing upon its grassroots experience in reducing poverty and discrimination, and improving health conditions. Examples of individuals who have surmounted the schism between spirituality and modern culture include prominent community leaders such as the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, an Anglican; Tony Abbott, a Catholic, ex-seminarian Opposition spokesman on families, the community services, indigenous affairs and the voluntary sector; and the former Governor-General and High Court judge William Deane, a Catholic.

Silent in the furore over WYD preparations was the notion whether WYD might represent an opportunity to introduce into the Church voices from young people belonging in the present-day society, to help bridge the seemingly riven faces between Catholicism and popular culture, and shift the Church into revisiting its position on issues such as contraception, sexuality and ordination of women and married men as priests.

Just before the WYD celebrations, the Federal Court overturned far-reaching rules passed in New South Wales designed to suppress conduct annoying to WYD participants. The wider question left unanswered in the uproar over the New South Wales provisions, included whether the Catholic Church can ethically stand against granting reproductive rights to women from the poorest nations of the world.

The throngs of joyous young pilgrims from all locales flocking to WYD events, was a living example of local and international religious pilgrims mingling happily with non-religious Sydneysiders, some united in humanness, and perhaps a few, learning from their neighbours. The scrutiny on religion that WYD engendered, at times belying resentment and singularity, threw into the spotlight issues far beyond that of faith.

Catholicism, in addition to its historical legacies and current role in engaging with mainstream culture in providing community services, remains interwoven into the fabric of Australia; it exerts a pervasive influence in Australia’s political, economic and cultural economy.