NATIONAL Reconciliation Week goes to the heart of what God calls Australia to be, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge said at the 8am livestreamed Mass from St Stephen’s Cathedral on May 26.
Archbishop Coleridge prayed on National Sorry Day – the eve of National Reconciliation Week – for the Indigenous peoples of Australia and entrusted them to the mercy and justice of God and to Australia’s patron Mary Help of Christians, whose feast was the day before.
“Yesterday we entrusted Australia to Mary Help of Christians patron of this land; on this National Sorry Day, we might pray in a very special way for our Indigenous peoples to whom a vast injustice has been done – about that there can be no doubt,” Archbishop Coleridge said.
“And until the wound of that vast injustice is healed – and it’s far from healed – but until it is healed there will always be a running sore at the heart of this nation and Australia will not be the land which it can be and which God calls it to be.
“So we pray today for the Indigenous peoples of Australia and entrust them not only to Mary Help of Christians, mother of the Indigenous, but also to the mercy and the justice of God.”
National Sorry Day acknowledges and remembers the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forcibly removed from their families and communities.
Brisbane Catholic schools undertake activities to raise awareness for National Reconciliation Week and so do many parishes, like Bracken Ridge parish’s celebration of Mabo Day on June 3.
