LIFE STORY: FR EDWARD McGRATH MSC

HAD the Great War not ended just weeks after he carried a wounded British officer from a bloody battlefield on the Western Front under heavy fire, Australian Catholic Priest Father Ted McGrath almost certainly would have become a national hero.

He was the the only Australian chaplain from the war to be nominated for the Commonwealth's highest award for valour, the Victoria Cross.

In the dying months of the war to end all wars, Captain McGrath, who stood over six feet tall and therefore made an easy target, was awarded the Military Cross (MC) for "conspicuous gallantry'.

"His coolness and devotion to duty were an inspiration to all ranks".

It was during a British counter-offensive behind the village of Bucquoy near the town of Lens on August 21, 1918, that Captain McGrath, of the Cheshire Regiment and formerly of Bungeet in northeast Victoria, an unarmed army chaplain, went forward repeatedly under heavy machine gun fire to rescue wounded men.

Half of the 600 troops involved in the action were killed or wounded.

A statistic that provides some context to the scale of the losses suffered during the battles of the Somme was that from 25 officers in the regiment who took part in the first day's fighting, just four remained alive two weeks later.

A month later, on September 28, the Cheshires were back in the thick of the action near the village of Beaucamp (Wailly-Beaucamp). Two days earlier, Father Ted had unpacked his portable altar kit and said mass on a temporary altar near a dressing station close to the front line for those about to go into battle.

In his book about Ted McGrath, A Lonely Road, author John Hosie recalls the story about how on the morning of the 28th, Captain McGrath saw an officer brought down with what appeared to be a shot to the stomach. "In another act of outstanding courage the chaplain went an incredible 300 yards out intro no-man's land, lifted him up and carried him back to safety on his shoulders," the book says.

For this act of valour, Father Ted was recommended for the Victoria Cross. The recommendation was made by three officers including the victim himself, Lieutenant C.I. Attewell, a machine gun section commander.
According to Hosie's book, one of the recommending officers, Dr Jeremiah Holland, wrote; "He undoubtedly saved the officer's life, owing to the very exposed position in which he lay and the severity of his abdominal wound. This chaplain has been in the forefront of every attack with the Cheshires since their first advance on August 21.

"The above is only one instance of his devotion to duty, and his readiness to sacrifice himself under the greatest risk and danger to his own life while seeking to bring comfort to others."

About 37,000 Military Crosses were awarded during the Great War. Some 3500 military chaplains served with Imperial forces during the war. It is known that about 121 of 750 Anglican ministers were awarded the MC, an unusually high proportion given their low numbers and the fact that they were officially non-combatants
Three British priests, Edward Mellish, William Addison and Theodore Hardy, were awarded the Victoria Cross during the four-year conflict.

Father McGrath was a controversial figure in the Catholic Church and after the war he was barred by the hierarchy from returning to Australia and his beloved Our Lady's Nurses of the Poor in Dudley Street Coogee - which he had established with Eileen O'Connor in 1913 - for another 23 years.

He was parish priest when he met the young woman and they were both determined to do something to help the poor of the district. Another priest had reported to the church bosses that Father Ted and Ms O'Connor had an inappropriate relationship and despite the charge being false, he was banished to the UK.

A room at the historic "Our Lady's Home" where the order is based, overlooking wedding cake island and the ocean, is set aside as a museum housing personal effects of both Father McGrath and Miss O'Connor who died in 1921 aged just 28 after a lifetime of illness and disability as a result of tuberculosis.

Known as the "brown nurses" due to their distinctive brown cloaks and bonnet, the sisters were devoted to helping Sydney's poorest with the motto, "for the poor and the poor only". Today the "brown nurses" is a team of registered nurses operate among the poor in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong.

Sister Margaret Birgan trained as a nurse at Brisbane's Mater Hospital before she joined Our Lady's Nurses for the Poor at the age of 17. Her vocation dates back to her childhood when as a 10-year-old girl she would visit so-called "shut ins" - people who never went out - around Brisbane.

She met Father Ted in 1965 when she went to Melbourne to study obstetric nursing. She talked to him about joining the Brown Nurses and he wrote to her and encouraged her to take the step.

"He was a gentle, beautiful soul," Sister Birgan says.
"He never said an ill word about anybody."

The founding father moved to Coogee in 1969 to spend his final years with his beloved sisters, including Sister Birgan, who nursed him until his death in 1977 at the age of 96 years.

Father Ted was born in Victoria and was a lifelong and fanatical supporter of the Carlton Football Club. In the museum at Coogee, close to the small box containing his Military Cross, there is a letter dated 1974 from then club president George Harris acknowledging his lifelong support. In the same glass case, next to his portable mass kit thus proving that footy is a religion, is a football signed by Carlton's 1974 team that included the legendary Alex Jesaulenko.

Such was Father Ted's standing that before he died he was visited by the man he had saved on the Somme. In his Victoria Cross recommendation Lieutenant Attewell had written that there was "no doubt that this heroic act of the Chaplain (McGrath) saved my life though at very great risk to his own".

Sister Birgan met Lieutenant Atewell and she said his reunion with Father McGrath was a "wonderful" occasion.
At the end of the Great War Father ted McGrath was 38 years old and he remained an exile from his country and his flock. It would be 22 years before he was allowed to return and a further 28 before he could return full-time to Coogee.

Father McGrath's great-nephew Tim Holland from East Melbourne describes him as a knockabout bloke who could not bear to see something wrong and not do something about it. A practical priest rather than a zealot.
"He was a very positive guy and he was a strong supporter of all religions," Mr Holland says.
"He was a bit of a bull at a gate and he was definitely no politician."

His great-uncle never discussed his war service, or indeed the war at all, and he rarely mentioned his half-century banishment from Australia by Church authorities.

"When he was 96 he did say to me that he would never forget it, 'Imagine that people could say those things about me,' he said."

Tim's father James Holland wrote to Opposition Leader Arthur Calwell in 1954 in a bid to have an inquiry launched into Father Ted's VC nomination. He received no reply and Tim, who attended a packed centenary mass for Our Lady's Nurses for the Poor at St Marys Cathedral in Sydney last week, has vowed to reopen the case with British authorities.

"To know the man and to read his citations brings a lump to my throat," he says.

"I am immensely proud to be from the same gene pool as him."

POPE FRANCIS ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER: SOME EXAMPLES

Ways of the new evanglisation

REFLECTIONS OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY

[FROM THE MSC JUSTICE OFFICE MAILOUT]

‘Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.’

Susan B. Anthony, American social reformer who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to social equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17. Born: February 15, 1820, Died March 13, 1906

‘Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these.’ Susan B. Anthony

‘Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘I think the girl who is able to earn her own living and pay her own way should be as happy as anybody on earth. The sense of independence and security is very sweet.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘Forget conventionalisms; forget what the world thinks of you stepping out of your place; think your best thoughts, speak your best words, work your best works, looking to your own conscience for approval.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘I was born a heretic. I always distrusted people who know so much about what God wants them to do to their fellows.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.’
Susan B. Anthony

, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences...’

Susan B. Anthony

‘There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.... Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less’

Susan B. Anthony

‘Our Job is not to make young women grateful. It is to make them ungrateful so they keep going. Gratitude never radicalized anybody’

Susan B. Anthony

‘Every woman should have a purse of her own.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘There shall never be another season of silence until women have the same rights men have on this green earth.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God’

Susan B. Anthony

‘It would be ridiculous to talk of male and female atmospheres, male and female springs or rains, male and female sunshine.... how much more ridiculous is it in relation to mind, to soul, to thought, where there is as undeniably no such thing as sex, to talk of male and female education and of male and female schools. [written with Elizabeth Cady Stanton]’

Susan B. Anthony

‘I pray every single moment of my life; not on my knees but with my work. My prayer is to lift women to equality with men. Work and worship are one with me.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘The one distinct feature of our Association has been the right of the individual opinion for every member. We have been beset at every step with the cry that somebody was injuring the cause by the expression of some sentiments that differed with those held by the majority of mankind. The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God. I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘When a man says to me, 'Let us work together in the great cause you have undertaken, and let me be your companion and aid, for I admire you more than I have ever admired any other woman,' then I shall say, 'I am yours truly'; but he must ask me to be his equal, not his slave.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘The true republic: men, their rights and nothing more: women, their rights and nothing less.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel.’

Susan B. Anthony

‘...the women of this nation in 1876, have greater cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution than the men of 1776.’

Susan B. Anthony

From the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council

Bishop Christopher Saunders (Photo by Australian Catholic Directory)

Putting People First: The call for an economy of social inclusion

Pope Francis has renewed the call of the Church to make the dignity of the human person the central focus of national and global economies. His Apostolic Exhortation of November 2013 comments on economies in which ‘masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized’ and criticises free market competition, which has left many without work, without opportunity and on the fringes of society.

Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.[1]

Clearly Pope Francis doesn’t agree with the saying that ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’, which has been used to describe the benefits of economic growth. Nor do a growing number of economists and policy experts who recognise that the outstanding performance of the economy can have very unequal outcomes.[2] Two decades of economic growth in Australia have seen the size of our economy double and income per capita increase by 50 per cent.[3] Despite this growth, many of us will know somebody for whom the system has failed.

Think of the older worker made redundant by technology and becoming ‘long-term unemployed’; a son or daughter completing their training but frustrated in the search for a job; a single mother trying to make ends meet on the Newstart Allowance; a household with work but still below the poverty line. The list could go on. Economic growth alone has not worked. As a nation, we need to consider those who have been excluded from the benefits of growth and devise a system of ‘inclusive growth’ that is more equitable in spreading wealth and opportunity.

 The need for jobs providing fair wages and conditions

Australia faces a crisis in the income and conditions of its low-paid workers. Over many years, the Australian Catholic Commission for Employment Relations (ACCER) has represented the interests of the one-sixth of the workforce who have little bargaining power and rely on the minimum wage and the wages safety net. Minimum wages are failing to keep pace with the Australian standard of living.

Since the turn of the century, average weekly ordinary time earnings increased by 80 per cent, while the minimum increased by only 55 per cent. If the minimum wage had kept pace, it would be almost $100 more than the current $622.20.[4] Not only has the safety net failed to keep pace with the standard of living, but as a result, increasing numbers of working families are falling into poverty. The ACCER has drawn on data from the 2011 national Census which showed that 13.5 per cent of the 106,223 couple parent families with two children were living in poverty. The number of these families with at least one full time breadwinner was 55,020 – meaning over 110,000 children were in poverty even though a parent was in full time work.[5]

Australia has just recorded an annual wages growth of only 2.6 per cent – the lowest since records started in 1997.[6] Over the past year prices have increased by 2.9 per cent.[7] Yet some are still calling for real minimum wages to be cut even more in order to increase jobs growth. It is not only the wages safety net that is at risk. Major inquiries are being initiated into workplace law and the possibility of changes to penalty rates and conditions, unfair dismissal and bargaining flexibility. It is unskilled and low paid workers with little or no bargaining power who remain in a precarious position when it comes to defending basic entitlements.

Unfortunately, the national debate on jobs growth has focused on this kind of low-wage flexibility. There has been little consideration of how we can invest in Australia’s workforce by developing skills that will make current and prospective workers more competitive in jobs that promise innovation, advanced production and better wages and conditions. A particular area of concern has been the strategy of recruiting increasing numbers of migrant workers to fill skills gaps in the economy. In the year to September 2013, the number of migrants on the 457 working visa grew by 12 per cent from 98,610 to 110,280. This increase was much higher than the 0.8 per cent growth in Australian employment.[8] While there will always be a place for skilled migrant workers in Australia, the dramatic increase in such arrangements gives an indication that our nation has not invested enough in the development of the domestic workforce.[9]

The need for income support underpinned by real job creation

It may seem strange to suggest that Australia is experiencing a job crisis when the official unemployment rate is at six per cent. However, this official rate conceals the dire circumstances of particular groups who are excluded from the labour market. Youth unemployment has risen sharply to 12.4 per cent, but is as high as 20 per cent in particularly disadvantaged regional and urban communities. Young people make up almost 40 per cent of all people who are unemployed. Their prospects are damaged by early exclusion from the market and a lack of basic experience and skills development.[10] Levels of long-term unemployment are also high at around 20 per cent, with people reporting the main barriers to employment are the low number of vacancies, too many applicants for available jobs and insufficient experience.[11]

People who are unemployed and dependent on income support are the most at risk of poverty and deep social exclusion.[12] The low payment rate of the Newstart and related Allowances as well as the lack of available jobs are immediate barriers to labour market participation. Consider also that over the past year the number of Newstart Allowance recipients increased by 6.4 per cent to 727,000. Among the 45,000 or more to come onto the Allowance are single parents shifted from Parenting Payment and people who no longer qualify for the Disability Support Pension since the introduction of tougher impairment tables.[13] Also competing with these jobseekers are just over half of the 817,000 underemployed part time workers who are actively seeking jobs providing more hours of work.[14]

What Australia faces is not a ‘welfare crisis’ but a ‘jobs crisis’. Reframing the debate to consider the failure of the market to create adequate employment would result in a new approach. Australia would invest more in training and skills development and move beyond the current emphasis on job search driven by tough compliance and penalty regimes. Instead of keeping Allowance payments low, we would increase them to lift people out of poverty and assist in their transition to work. The flagship of labour market policy would be a government-led job creation strategy, not a work-for-the-dole programme.

The call for an age of social inclusion

Australians are being warned that the so called ‘age of entitlement’ is over. It is regrettable that, throughout the two decades of economic growth, there has been so little discussion of our society’s obligations to those who have been left behind and excluded from the mainstream. These people do have entitlements!

Over thirty years ago, Pope John Paul II foresaw great changes in the world of work, and identified two fundamental entitlements. The first was the coordination of the economy to ensure ‘suitable employment for all who are capable of it’. The second was to make ‘unemployment benefits … [or] suitable grants indispensable for the subsistence of unemployed workers and their families’.[15] These are the foundations for social justice and inclusive growth.

We need an economy that is animated by a concern for dignity of workers and their families. As one commentator succinctly puts it: ‘unlike land and capital, labour is the only factor of production that comes with a human being attached’.[16] In cooperation with all sectors of business, unions, and the community, Government has a responsibility to ensure workers and their families are put first in the nation’s economic system. It should take the lead in:

• creating jobs for vulnerable workers which are secure, adequately paid and relevant to the needs of business and local communities
• supporting industrial and infrastructure development that increases opportunities for local employment
• increasing investment in research and development and lifting national training standards
• assisting employers by reducing oncosts – for example through wage subsidies or tax rebates on employment-related costs
• agreeing on a way of measuring poverty and social exclusion and applying it when setting minimum wages and social security payments.

We need a competitive and productive national economy. But we cannot leave it to the market alone. There is a responsibility on government to ensure all people can make their contribution to the productivity of our nation and reap the benefits of growth. In a modern society, how can we create employment – decent employment – for all who are capable of it? As Pope Francis says:

Growth in justice requires more than economic growth, while presupposing such growth: it requires decisions, programmes, mechanisms and processes specifically geared to a better distribution of income, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of the poor which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality.[17]

Most Rev. Christopher Saunders, DD

Bishop of Broome

Chairman, Australian Catholic Social Justice Council

Notes

[1] Pope Francis (2013), Evangelii Gaudium (‘The Joy of the Gospel’), Apostolic Exhortation, Art. 53–54.

[2] See: Paul Smyth & John Buchanan (Eds) (2013), Inclusive Growth in Australia: Social policy as economic investment, Allen & Unwin; Brian Lawrence (Ed) (2014), Working Australia, 2014: wages, families and poverty, ACCER (http://www.accer.asn.au/working-australia-2014/); Christine Lagarde (2014), Innovation, Technology and the 21^st Century Global Economy, IMF address to Stanford University (http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2014/022514.htm).

[3] Rosalie McLachlan, Geoff Gilfillan & Jenny Gordon (2013), Deep and Persistent Disadvantage in Australia, Productivity Commission Staff Working Paper, Australian Government, p. 127.

[4] ACCER (2014), Submission to the Annual Wage Review 2013-14, March 2014, p. 15.

[5] ACCER (2014), p. 32.

[6] Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2014), Wages Price Index, Australia, Dec 2013. Cat. 6345.0.

[7] ABS (2014), Consumer Price Index, Australia, Mar 2014. Cat. 6401.0

[8] CFMEU National (2013), CFMEU Analysis of 457 Visa Trends, Report No 1, p. 10.

[9] AM with Chris Uhlmann (2014), Pressure to lift migrant intake, January 13, http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3924322.htm.

[10]Brotherhood of St Laurence (2014), Australian Youth Unemployment 2014: Snapshot, My Chance, Our Future Youth Unemployment Campaign, pp. 4–5.

[11] ABS (2014), Job Search Experience, Australia, July 2013. Cat. 6222.0.

[12] McLachlan, Gilfillan & Gordon (2013), pp. 11–12.

[13] Australia Council of Social Service (2014), Social Security Trends Snapshot – April 2014, p. 2.

[14] ABS (2014), Underemployed Workers, Australia, September 2013. Cat. 6265.0.

[15] Pope John Paul II (1981), Laborem Exercens (‘On Human Work’), Encyclical Letter, Art. 18–19.

[16] Ian Verrender (2014), Workers not the culprit of productivity slide, The DRUM, ABC, March 10, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-10/verrender-workers-not-the-culprit-of-productivity-slide/5309036

[17] Pope Francis (2013), Art. 204.

Remember, too, the forgotten war
Editorial The Age April 25, 2014

Today, Anzac Day, commemorates those Australian and New Zealanders who fell 99 years ago at a muddy beach in a cove at Gallipoli, described as 'a small constrained area surrounded by the sea and steep terrain'. More than 620 Australians died on the first day of this protracted campaign against the Turks. By December, more than 8000 Australians were killed.......

Although the Gallipoli centenary falls in 2015, this Anzac Day effectively defines the beginning of an arc of commemoration that will stretch over four years, until the centenary of the Armistice, on November 11, 2018. During this time, we will have cause to honour all those who have fought in all foreign fields.

But what of those who have fought and perished on our own soil? Should this also be a time to begin to broaden our consciousness to account for the protracted series of colonial conflicts within our borders; bloody and unnecessary conflicts that form a significant part of Australia's own bellicose and, indeed, shameful, past?
........ Although the exact number of Aborigines killed between 1788 and the early years of the 20th century is not yet known, Mr (Henry) Reynolds says research over the past 10 years indicates a sharply revised increase from a 1981 estimate of 20,000 deaths to more than 30,000 deaths..........

Mr Reynolds .......... reasons, it was understood this was 'a kind of warfare similar to conflict fought in other parts of the empire'. If this is so, doesn't it follow that this forgotten war should be worthy of remembrance, and accorded the same national prominence? Certainly, it is an essential chapter, rather than a footnote, in history........

........Today, as we respect the fallen of Gallipoli and begin to deepen our understanding of the bitter battles of Fromelles and the Somme and other theatres of war, it is also time to give thought to what happened long before in Queen Victoria's name. In doing so, we would be more in line with our close friends across the Tasman, where the New Zealand Wars (formerly the Maori Wars) now comprise an integral part of that nation's story.

This is not to sully the memory of Australian Diggers, but to add to it by presenting a complete record of war, abroad and at home.

FR JOHN McGRATH

NIMPUNGI MANTINI
Goodbye my friend

by   Sr Anne Gardiner

THE burial ceremonies of the Tiwi people of Melville and Bathurst Islands, based on thePukamuni of the mythical man Purukupali, are by far, the most important events in their ceremonial life.

"These ceremonies, which allow, the Tiwi full expression for their grief, provide at the same time, a complete cultural outlet for their philosophical beliefs, their music, their art, their dancing. No-one, watching these primitive rituals, could fail to be impressed by the obvious pleasure experienced by both the participants and the onlookers." Thus wrote Charles Pearcy Mountford years ago in his study of the Tiwi. (1954)

I begin my tribute to this humble M.S.C. giant, by introducing my readers to the fact that the "Pukamuni" ceremony, the death ceremony, is by far the most important event in their present life as it was in the past.

To work with these people one has to be filled with three gifts:

1. Love of God and neighbour.
2. A great sense of justice.
3. A never failing sense of humour'

And Father John McGrath M.S.C. held all three.

Born in Parkes, the twin son of John and Mary McGrath, he was the 11th child in a family of fourteen.

Upon deciding to become a missionary at an early age he wrote to the then superior at The Sacred Heart Monastery, Kensington, N.S.W. He used to smile as he related the fact that his letter wasn't answered for almost a year, a challenge, to see if he would apply again.

And apply he did. In 1927 he was sent, as a priest, to Bathurst Island, where he worked untiringly until April 1948. Thus he became known as the "Apostle of the Tiwis".

Because of his great love of God and sense of justice to his fellow human travellers he set about learning the language so as to be better able to help these people. He was the man who radioed Darwin about the Japanese flying into Darwin in 1942, a warning that went unheeded. He was the man who stayed with his flock during those turbulent war years.

But it is not McGrath, the forgotten, war-time personage, that I wish to pay this tribute to, but McGrath, priest of God, friend of the Tiwis of North Australia.

News of his death reached us early on the morning of l4th September. The Tiwis, realising that he was an old man knew that this day must come. But when it did come a silence fell upon the town. Their friend, their spiritual Father, who because he had loved much, and because he was so spiritually sensitive had slipped away without a final "nimpungi", goodbye, early one morning in 1948. Tiwis knew they must bring him back for a fitting farewell.

Graciously both His Lordship Bishop O'Loughlin and Sacred Heart Fathers' Provincial Superior Father Frank Quirk gave permission for his body to be burried with the people he loved.

The next two days were spent in story-telling of the memories they held so dear. Huge crowds of women frequented the school yard to arrange appropriate hymns for the Requiem Mass. As is their usual custom, nothing sacred or profane ever comes to a conclusion without argument. And arguments we had, always friendly, yet each wanting her own way in selection of hymns, burial-site etc.

By Saturday, burial day, all was in readiness. The yard was beautifully prepared to receive the body. All vehicles headed for the airport. As the plane flew over their fine sense of humour came out in Faith of Our Fathers lustily sung. I say sense of humour for they chuckled "when he taught us that hymn our fathers were pagans."

Escorting the earthly remains were Bishop O'Loughlin, Fathers Malcolm Fyfe, Tony Bolt, Martin Wilson, Brother Gerry Bourke, Alan White, Sisters Laurencia, Anastasia and Marietta. The body was received and blessed by Father John Savage amid the crying of the older Tiwi people.

The procession to the township could only be described as prayerful. For the vibrancy of the Tiwi people make them a very boisterous race. But today their friend was coming home and deep reverence was shown.

All had been arranged. The sons of the older people carried the coffin. The "girls" (now middle-aged women) whom Father McGrath had stayed with in the bush during the war years sat around his coffin. His "altar boys" sat on the other side. Every man, woman child and dog was present at the Requiem. As the Bishop and Priests entered the tent, "Requiem Aeternam" was taken up.

The Bishop chose Matthew's account of "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren you do to me". It made one realize just how well Father McGrath loved his God and because of this love his keen sense of justice came out in all his dealings with his people. His third great gift "his sense of humour", must surely have reached its heavenly triumph when at the time for the Offertory Dance and Procession we had quite a discussion on how it should be done. Meanwhile the Bishop graciously awaited their decision.

As the Mass ended Father John Savage, M.S.C., announced that there was a tape - Fr McGrath's own message to the Tiwi people for June 11th 1982, 71st Anniversary of Bishop Gsell's arrival. If you have been caught up in a surging crowd, perhaps walked the Sydney Harbour Bridge on its 50th Anniversary, you may appreciate something if the crowd that pressed forward in a prayerful silence to hear the feeble, yet powerful voice of their Father giving them his final message. Robust men, the youth of today, those grown old, pressed forward in an alarming silence as they listened to him. Nimpungi yiloti kapi Heaven: "Good-bye until we meet forever in Heaven".

And then peak-hour traffic to the final resting place. Here again the reverence due to such a friend was truly given. No mechanical monster such as a front end loader was to be used to fill this final resting place. No! Each son of the older women took his turn to shovel the red soil of Nguiu on to their "grandfather". I say grandfather for relationships are a very strong binding force on Bathurst Island. The grand-daughters made their own song of grateful farewell to this man.

My own memories of this humble giant are many. My last one is that on 26th April this year, the day I returned to work here, he, an old man. of eighty-nine celebrated Mass at 6 a.m. for me and gave me his priestly blessing.

"Nimpungi Mantini yiloti". Goodbye my friend until we meet in Heaven.

TIWI ISLANDS AND THE CHURCH: COMPASS PROGRAM, ABC RADIO NATIONAL 6th APRIL 2014

Fr Tan Nguyen MSC

This is the transcript of the Compass program, broadcast April 6th 2014. It can still be watched on ABC I-view or on the Compass website, Past Programs. It is a fine documentary and a positive picture of the relationship between the Tiwi people and the church, starting with Bishop Gsell MSC, with 2014 and Tan Nguyen MSC

Summary

The extraordinary 100 year old story of the relationship between the Catholic Church and Tiwi Islanders ...

For thousands of years the Tiwi believed they were the only people on Earth until the arrival of white settlers. Then, in 1911 a lone priest came ashore to establish a mission on Bathurst Island, 80 km north of Darwin. Father Francis Xavier Gsell evangelised by example, helping build a school and church. A turbulent century of change followed but despite many challenges the relationship between the church and the Tiwi has survived. Today, Father Tan is the priest in charge. How a Vietnamese born refugee came to be ministering to the Tiwi, is a story just as extraordinary as that of the first Catholic missionary who arrived over a 100 years ago ... Compass tells their remarkable stories.

Story

Geraldine Doogue
Hello and thanks for joining me for the enduring and very Australian story of a church and a people.

Set on the Tiwi Islands in Australia's remote north, it's a story that began more than a century ago with the arrival of the first missionary. And it continues to this day in a way that's possibly unique in the world.

Geraldine Doogue , Narration

It's 6.30am and dawn has barely broken as Father Tan Van Nguyen prepares to celebrate mass.

It's a service he conducts several times a week, no matter how many, or few, turn up.

As the interior suggests - this is no ordinary church.

Father Tan is the priest in charge of the Tiwi Islands, near Darwin in Australia's remote north.

This community of 2 500 people has a rich and proud past, and a unique relationship with the Catholic Church.

Father Tan Nguyen, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart
We are lucky in a sense that the church encourage to combine our culture and the Catholic faith, how that blend together. And it works quite well.

This is Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb. The Lord be with you.

Narration
How Father Tan - a Vietnamese born refugee -came to be ministering to the Tiwi, is a story just as extraordinary as that of the first Catholic missionary who arrived here more than 100 years ago ...

Archive Footage from Islands of Australia "The Only People 1973)
"Cut off from the mainland of Australia for some twenty to thirty thousand years they became isolated from the mainland to a point where they call themselves the Tiwi, meaning the only people"

Narration
The Tiwi Islands lie 80 kilometres north of Darwin in the Arafura Sea, off Australia's northern coastline.

Melville is the largest island, but Bathurst – The smaller and more populated – is where the first Catholic mission was established more than a century ago.

Father Francis Xavier Gsell was born in Alsace on the French-German border, and as a young man, joined the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

After postings in Papua New Guinea and Darwin, Gsell set his sights on Bathurst Island, - arriving in 1911.

Anne Gardiner, Retired Nun, Bathurst Island
And he was noticed by two elderly Aboriginal men and they wondered what this strange man was who was walking up and down with a book, reading a book which he was saying his prayers. And they watched him, they watched him build a house. And then they started to make contact with him.

Narration
Gsell had little support or money and lived, in those early days, somewhat 'nervously', but was apparently 'sincere, kind and determined'.

He learnt the Tiwi language, and provided medical care.

Anne Gardiner
Many people damn the missionaries for coming in and just baptising people, but he did not start that way. He started fixing up their ailments and making sure that he got to understand them.

Narration
Sister Anne Gardiner actually met Bishop Gsell, as he became, in Sydney 60 years ago, on her way to her new posting on the Tiwi Islands.

Anne Gardiner
He was a physically big man. He had a very strong voice. He had a very white beard and he had penetrating eyes.

And I asked him what will I do? I'm going to Bathurst Island. And he looked down through his beard and looked deep into me and said two words, 'Love them'.

Narration
Gsell's effort to introduce Christianity to the Tiwi people is documented in Bathurst Island's museum.

Anne Gardiner
It hasn't been a difficult process because they are very spiritual people. They have their own spirits. So therefore they understand that the Great Creator also is a spiritual person.

And then you look around and they take what symbols they have and what meaning for their symbol and then, if we feel, yes, that fits in, that's how we put it into Christianity.

What we're looking at here is the creation story and their creation person was a woman, a female. And when you read it in English it's very much like the Genesis story.

Narration
Father Gsell evangelised by example, helping build a store, school and a church.

With 18 months food gardens were planted and living quarters erected.

Soon the church sent reinforcements -
priests and nuns.

Anne Gardiner
They lived the life with them. They weren't above them, they worked with them and I think that's the very important thing when you're with indigenous people.

That you become part of them and don't expect them to become part of us.

Narration
Unlike some missionaries, Father Gsell left many sacred traditions alone.

Among them the Pukumani burial ceremony.

The Tiwi are famous for their sacred poles
used in traditional funeral rituals.

Today they stand alongside Christian crosses, evidence of the coming together of the two belief systems.

Marius Puruntatameri, Pirlangimpi Community Melville Island
We believe that when people die their spirit goes to their traditional land. But it doesn't go immediately.

It goes after the Pukumani ceremony is performed. That's one of the reasons why a Pukumani ceremony is performed, to move the spirit of the person from one place to his country.

Narration
But one traditional practice Gsell wouldn't ignore.It involved young girls and much older men. And in 1921 he devised a unique method of circumventing it, in keeping with tribal law.

Barbara Tippolay, Sister Handmaidens of Our Lord
In the old days the young girls were promised to old men and when the missionaries came Bishop Gsell stopped it in a way by buying them or paying the old people tobacco and axes in order to get a girl to go to school. And then to give her the freedom to choose who she wants.

Narration
Over time the Tiwi would bring their daughters to Gsell for the Sisters to teach and care for.

He was called "The Bishop with 150 Wives" which became the title of his autobiography published in the 1950s .

After morning mass, Father Tan's day starts in earnest ... Working alongside Father Tan is Patrick, a trainee priest, soon to be ordained.

Today they're calling on people too sick or infirm to go to church. Most older Tiwi islanders would have attended Mass as children.

Father Tan
The Lord be with you. Today Jesus reminds us to bring Healing and Grace into our world. And ask for healing and grace on you, eh, and God to bless you. Let us pray. Our father who art in heaven ...

Woman
He come. Talk to me, pray over me. Make me good.

Patrick Mara, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart
Part of this is like a healing ministry. A gentle touch, holding their hand. It brings comfort to people. It just brings a sense of peace and tranquility, and, yes, a passing on of gentleness of spirit.

Father Tan
May the Lord Jesus Christ who went about doing good work, healing the sick, grant that you have good health and be enriched by His Blessing.

Father Tan
In my training for priesthood I was attracted to people who are on fringe of society. So I've been working with homeless for six years in Sydney and with that I started to learn more about the human strength and weaknesses.

God bless you

Woman
God bless you, Father. Thank you for coming

Father Tan
And that reflected for me what my journey is about, how I discover God.

Narration
Father Tan's own life journey had a difficult start. He was born in Vietnam and grew up during the war.

Archive Footage
The villagers are frightened. They have no way of knowing they are not the target.

Narration
Afterwards, he was among the tens of thousands of refugees who fled to Australia, arriving when he was just a boy.

Father Tan, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart
And we as a family left Vietnam on a boat at the end of 1980 and been picked up by the German oil tanker on our fifth day at sea.

I think it did change me because when I reflect back on my life I'm thinking what god planned for my life and all that in the past have some influence on that.

Narration
In 1936 Father Gsell left the Tiwi islands, to become Bishop of Darwin.

By then some 450 Islanders had been baptised. And building had begun on Bathurst Island's iconic wooden church.

Despite its isolation, the Mission would play a memorable role in World War Two.

In 1942 Japanese warplanes flew over Bathurst Island, strafing the church ... The mission radioed Darwin about the fleet of enemy bombers heading its way.

But the warning went unheeded. By day's end hundreds were dead.
Darwin, its harbour, warships and airfields were all destroyed, in the first and worst ever attack on Australian soil.

Narration
The Tiwi have immortalized the devastating attack in a ceremonial dance – The Bombing of Darwin dance.

The Catholic Church here played its part in another modern day tragedy. In 1940 a mission was built on Melville Island for so-called 'half-caste' children.

Barbara Tippolay, Sister Handmaidens of Our Lord
That was the government policy, putting all – I don't like to say the word - the half-caste people together in a different place. Why? I don't know. They must have thought it was the best thing for the children. But they broke up a lot of families.

Narration
The youngsters were taken from aboriginal families from all over Australia, to live on the mission at Garden Point.

Barbara Tippolay
Yes I was one of them. But I found my family afterwards.

Narration
Sister Barbara was taken from her family on Bathurst Island.

Barbara Tippolay
For me I was here with my people. We had school and everything but the people were here. That Stolen Generation, it's very painful because not knowing their families and being taken away.

Narration
Sister Barbara, a Tiwi Islander, has been a missionary nun for over 50 years.

Barbara Tippolay
Well, I don't see any conflict being a Religious and a Tiwi. I think it's wonderful.

Freely you have chosen to take another to become a Religious and have that deep, that faith of my ancestors is still there and it makes it more rich when the Christianity is blended in together.

I don't think you can separate the two. You're one person.

Narration
By war's end, a newcomer had arrived on Bathurst Island ... one who'd help make the Tiwi famous.

Brother John Pye, a shy and unassuming school teacher, introduced the young men to Aussie Rules football ... to stop them spear fighting.

Archive Footage, Brother John Pye
They're made for it. Nobody can go in after the ball like they can. They're so sprightly; they get in every grand final and every big occasion in Darwin.

Narration
The Tiwi Islanders have produced many AFL heroes. David Kantilla was the first player to go South.

Later, Michael Long who captained Essendon. And Maurice Rioli who kicked 80 goals for Richmond in the 1980s.

The post-war years saw the Mission flourish.

More houses were built. They grew peanuts, established a forestry and logging business, and a sawmill.

The women excelled in dressmaking, winning prizes at the Darwin Show.

The islanders grew their own fruit and vegetables, and were virtually self-sufficient.

It was around this time that Sister Anne arrived.

A nun and teacher, she was just 22.

Anne Gardiner, Retired Nun
When I first came I got off a plane on the 23 November 1953 and I was met by four sisters and all these beautiful children.

And the school was underneath the old church and a dirt floor, long benches, that was all we had. And I taught there from '53 til '57 when the first schoolrooms were built.

Eustace Tipiloura
We used to have a slate and the chalk. That's where we started.

Narration
Eustace in fact wouldn't be here today if it weren't for the Mission.

Eustace Tipiloura
I'm a twin, the twin they used to kill one. I was the only bloke, they were going to kill me. Thanks for the nuns they said no you can't do that or we'll have to, so they did

Anne Gardiner
This is the women's section, shoe department as you can see...

Narration
The classroom that Sister Ann first taught in
is today an Op Shop.

Anne Gardiner
Sheets, towels, etc here. And then you come to the children's across there and the Men's department is up here.

Shopper
Get this sheet. Buy it for my family.

Anne Gardiner
Now it has become something for the Tiwi people because the clothing is very expensive for them to buy.

SINGING - We are going, we are going, we are going for freedom...

Narration
The 1967 Referendum saw big changes for Australia's indigenous people.

Segregation was discouraged. As was discrimination. Assimilation and integration actively promoted.

SINGING - Yes, yes, yes for freedom...

The Mission's role was changing.

Archive footage - A Big Country "The First Territorians" 1969
Generally speaking we're educating the aboriginal people to our way of life, to our society with a view to them becoming part of us completely without any sort of training and so forth.

Priest, Archive footage - A Big Country "The First Territorians" 1969
And, as missionaries, of course, we do this mainly through religion and bringing to them through our religion the basic way of living as we know it in our modern civilisation.

Narration
There was a feeling of optimism for the future as this documentary of the time attests.

Archive footage – Islands of Australia "The Only People" 1973
Since then they have worked together with the mission fathers improving their village in many ways. Modern vehicles, tools and materials have become available. This meant an increase in jobs for them. Everybody works.

Narration
The mission was thriving: It had a priest, three brothers, 5 sisters and 3 lay missionaries

But times were changing. It was the era of Land Rights and self-determination.

Anne Gardiner
And when they asked for self-determination, yes. The people here they said we'll give it a go, go alone. But leave the sisters in the school, in the clinic.

So we felt that we were invited to stay. And so that's why we stayed. Had we been told to go we would have gone.

Narration
In 1975, 15 Tiwi Islanders joined an aboriginal pilgrimage to Rome to meet the Pope.

Three years later in 1978 ownership of the islands was handed back to the Tiwi to manage their own communities.

Federal money poured in. But, over the next decade or so, drinking, unemployment and welfare dependency began creating problems.

Narration
Then a bombshell struck at the heart of the mission itself.

Reporter , Archive footage – The 7:30 Report
For more than 80 years the church has been a powerful force on Bathurst Island.

Although details are sketchy it's alleged that around 50 children between eight and fourteen years of age have been sexually abused.

A former Christian Brothers school principal is now being investigated by police.

Narration
The Tiwi's difficulties climaxed in a devastating suicide epidemic of young men and boys which peaked in 2005.

Reporter, News Archive Footage
The deaths of 5 young Tiwis last year has led to a great deal of soul searching ...

Narration
Alcohol, drug abuse and gambling were blamed ... there were also calls for the church to pull out of the schools.

Teacher in Class
Remember this one?

Narration
The Tiwi voted to keep the church on and today the primary school is an integral part of the community.

Ian Marmont, Principal
If you get one of these it means you have been doing really good things all term. So you should be very proud of yourself because we are all very proud of you.

I think it's the greatest gift we can give the children is to give them a good education.

... a tee-shirt, a cap ..
I think it's absolutely vital. That's what we try and stress to the children. Come to school every day.

Get a good education and it gives you lots of options as to what you do with your life and where you go in your life.

Narration
Father Tan and Sister Anne are both regular visitors and active helpers at the school...

Anne Gardiner
I try to support them in every way that I can. I support them in their religious instruction.

Whenever I am invited I go to the school. I'm always around where children are to listen to their stories.

Anne Gardiner
The Catholic Church is here because the Catholic Church is not a building. The Catholic Church is people.

Tiwi People
Sing evening Mass.

Narration
For more than 100 years the Catholic Mission has journeyed with the Tiwi.

Together they've adapted to challenging times and to each other ...

Today Father Tan has a new goal, to conduct mass in Tiwi and English.

Father Tan
And for the last few years I'm learning Tiwi and also I've been part of a Mass we sing in Tiwi and celebrate in Tiwi in the Mass.

Anne Gardiner
The church is alive and well here. And there's a great relationship between Tiwi and the Religious who've worked here.

And their love, their support and above all their forgiveness for any of our stupidities is something that we cherish.

Marius Puruntatameri
There's a lot of energy in having both the religious, the Christianity and our Tiwi spirituality.

We just come to accept both. They both go hand in hand. It's wonderful.

POEM AND LETTER FROM MANUS ISLAND

Letter and poem from Manus Island Detention Camp with request that it be included in Palm Sunday Rallies this Weekend - 11/04/2014

I am writing from Manus Island Detention Camp.

We left our homes because of a variety of reasons. We found Australia thinking this would be a place of shelter. We had different reasons for stepping into this very dangerous and so suffering journey. But all of us suffered from a common pain, which was lack of freedom.

We didn't come to Australia to take from you.
Australia didn't confirm us and banished us to a so far island in the middle of the ocean. After about 9 months traveling on land, by car, plane, boat, and ship we have been banished and faced being wildly attacked. This led to the killing of one man, Reza Barati, and the injuring of more than 150 asylum seekers. Some of them even lost parts of their bodies.

We have borne many kinds of disrespect. We are in a very bad mentally sick and physical health situation now. The fungus illness is epidemic here in camp and many of us are suffering from that. We are stuck in limbo in here. This experience is unexplainable through words. We can not go back and we cannot go on. Now, after about 9 months, everything in us has become dull and everything is meaningless.

Now we watch the broken pieces of our heart and souls on the ground. We don't know if these broken pieces are all we will ever see. We don't know whether these terrible days and nights will come to the end or not?

Read full article http://riserefugee.org/post/82338911881/letter-and-poem-from-manus-island-detention-camp-with

A CALL TO PALMS

Palm Sunday Activities around other parts of the country.

For people in the Illawarra who are unable to get to Sydney you may be interested in going to Jamberoo Abbey. Details of rallies and marches in other Australian cities below:

Marches and Rallies in other cities courtesy of Senator Sarah Hanson-Young

ADELAIDE

Sun 13 April 2pm - Parliament House, North Terrace, Adelaide.

CANBERRA

Sun 13 April 1pm - Garema Place, Canberra City

MELBOURNE

Sun 13 April 2pm - State Library, 328 Swanston St, Melbourne

PERTH

Sun 13 April 1pm - St George's Cathedral, 38 St Georges Terrace, Perth

SYDNEY

Sun 13 April 1pm - Hyde Park North, Elizabeth St, Sydney

BRISBANE

Sat 12 April 1pm - King George Square, Roma St, Brisbane