The first inclination was to form a social justice group, but Fr Paddy questioned why efforts should be directed towards a small group rather than to the whole parish. He also pointed out that having a ‘group’ meant having more meetings, and people soon tire of these. A small steering group met for a while, and one of the main things that was decided was that our efforts would be directed towards the whole parish, and only use material from the ACBC [Australian Catholic Bishops’ Commission], be it in the form of press releases, social justice statements, pastoral letters with social justice content, Australian Catholic Social Justice Council’s [ACSJC] publications such as the quarterly Justice Trends Bulletin, Social Justice Series Papers such as the latest No 63 ‘Towards a More Just World’. 

Our on-going prayer for our social justice mission in our new Parish of Manly Freshwater is – Lord, we pray that the parishioners of our Parish will use the information we pass on to them to become better informed on the stance taken by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference [ACBC] in matters of social justice, development, ecology and peace, both locally and overseas, and so become more aware of Catholic Social Teaching. Lord Hear Us. Lord Hear Our Prayer.  

Another action in keeping with our awareness-creating efforts was to work with the parishioners to raise funds in 2004 and 2005 to assist the Northern Beaches Refugee Sanctuary to bring refugee families from Sudan and Sierra Leone.  

The Group observed that social justice groups who concentrate on ‘issues’, is that are so many ‘issues’ and ‘issues-based groups’ ‘out there’ that the task of keeping abreast of, and in some way being active in, them, can easily result in ‘burn-out’ of those involved.  

We are fortunate in the Church in Australia to have such an effective voice in the Bishops’ own ACSJC, and it behoves us to use it. Social Justice is embraced in Catholic Social Teaching coming out of many of the great papal encyclicals, documents of Vatican II, and is detailed in all of its aspects in the Compendium of The Social Doctrine of the Church. The educative process we have been following in Harbord/Freshwater brings before our parishioners why Catholic Social Teaching is such an important plank in a living and strong Catholic Faith, and not just an ‘optional extra’.  

The Dignity of the Human Person, The Common Good, Subsidiarity, Solidarity, are ‘of the essence’ of our Faith. Understanding them and accepting them draws us closer to Jesus who lived them, and suffered and died for them, for us. Social Justice matters can strike at our own station in life, our own affluence [as covered in ‘A Rich Young Nation – The Challenge of Affluence and Poverty in Australia’] and can make us feel uncomfortable, but we ‘have ears to hear’ and we must listen and live what the Church is saying to us in its Social Teaching.  

We are blessed that we have some parishioners who do gather a few times a year to be a part of our Personal Discovery Sessions in which we read and discuss important items such as a relevant document from Vatican II also documents from bishops, such as the annual social justice Sunday statement, or a Catholic Social Justice Series Booklet.

Please contact the Parish Office for more information on (02) 9977 5822 or email manlyfreshwaterparish@dbb.org.au.