Speeches 1986 - Sydney (Australia), 26 November 1986
Dear Friends,
1. I thank you for the way you have endorsed the kind words of welcome addressed to me, and I trust you can see that I am very happy to be here with you. You may know that I, too, was a worker for some years in a quarry and in a factory. These were important and useful years in my life. I am grateful for having had that opportunity to reflect deeply on the meaning and dignity of human work in its relationship to the individual, the family, the nation, and the whole social order. Those years allowed one to share in a specific way in God’s creative activity and to experience work in the light of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ.
One of my reasons for coming here is to tell you, and all the workers of Australia, how much I admire faithfulness and dedication to ordinary work. Australia is a great country because working people like yourselves go about their tasks day after day with both cheerfulness and seriousness, earning their bread by the sweat of their brow, producing goods and services for their fellow citizens, and thus gradually bringing to perfection a world that was created by a good and loving God.
2. No doubt many of you have reflected from time to time that Jesus Christ himself, although the Son of God, chose to be an ordinary worker for most of his earthly life, toiling away as a carpenter in Nazareth. There is no shortage of lessons to be learned from the life of Jesus the Worker. It is only right, then, that his Church should bring his message into the working world and to workers. In the past, the Church has consistently opposed ways of thinking which would reduce workers to mere " things " that could be relegated to unemployment and redundancy if the economics of industrial development seemed to demand it. The students among you can consult the writings of my predecessors – going back to Leo XIII almost a hundred years ago – who treated at length topics such as the rights of workers, ownership, property, working hours, just wages and workers’ associations.
Perhaps you have heard that five years ago I, too, wrote an Encyclical Letter on Human Work. My aim was to cast new light on the whole area of human work, an important subject where there are always fresh hopes but also fresh fears and dangers.
3. Among the many new elements that affect human work I wish to mention today the rapid development of technology. There is an aspect of this we can admire: in technology we can see ourselves as more than ever "subduing the earth" and gaining dominion over it. Technology itself is the work of human hands and human minds, and it enables us to produce other beautiful and useful things. This is admirable if the human person is clearly the master. But in large factories or on extended worksites, the number, size and complexity of the machines used can make the worker seem merely a part of the machine, just another cog in the whole process of production.
Many machines these days require operators with specialized training. But after being trained for a highly skilled job, the worker may suddenly discover that a new invention has made his machine obsolete and uneconomical. He may be too old to be trained a second time, or perhaps the firm employing him may go out of business. The result is that whole industries can be dislocated7 and individuals and families reduced to poverty, suffering and despair.
Despite the complexity of the problem we cannot give up. All the resources of human inventiveness and good will must be brought to bear, in order to help solve the social problems of our day connected with work. It is important to have clear ideas of the principles and priorities to be followed. In this context I wish to proclaim again my own profound conviction " that human work is a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question, if we try to see the question really from the point of view of man’s good".
4. People need to work, not just to earn money for the necessities of life, but also to fulfil their calling to share in the creative activity of God. The human satisfaction that comes from work well done shows how profoundly the Creator has inscribed the law of work in the heart of man.
The goods of the world belong to the whole human family. Normally a person will need to work in order to have a necessary share of these good things. In the early Christian community, Saint Paul insisted that willingness to work was a condition for being able to eat: "If a man will not work, let him not eat". In special situations, society can and must assist those who are in need and cannot work. Yet even in these special circumstances, people still have a desire for personal fulfilment, and this can be achieved only through some form or other of worthwhile human activity.
Thus those who are forced to retire early, as well as those who are still young and strong but cannot find work, may experience profound discouragement and feel that they are useless. These feelings may lead some to seek consolation in alcohol, drugs and other forms of behaviour harmful to themselves and to society.
We all need to feel that we are truly productive and useful members of our community. It is our right. And since the pace of technological change is likely to increase, it is vital for us to face all the serious problems that affect the well-being of workers.
5. No one has a simple and easy solution to all the problems connected with human work. But I offer for your consideration two basic principles. First, it is always the human person who is the purpose of work. It must be said over and over again that work is for man, not man for work. Man is indeed "the true purpose of the whole process of production". Every consideration of the value of work must begin with man, and every solution proposed to the problems of the social order must recognize the primacy of the human person over things. Secondly, the task of finding solution cannot be entrusted to any single group in society: people cannot look solely to governments as if they alone can End solutions; nor to big business, nor to small enterprises, nor to union officials, nor to individuals in the work force. All individuals and all groups must be concerned with both the problems and their solutions.
6. The Church is profoundly convinced that "the rights of the human person are the key element in the whole of the social moral order". She has long recognized the right of workers to form associations. The purpose of such associations is to promote social justice by defending the vital interests of workers and by contributing to the common good. It is important for the members to play an active and responsible role in these associations. Hence you must make sure that the leaders of your workers’ associations really have at heart all the material and human needs of the members. They must also remember that the solution to any dispute must be fair to all sides, must serve the common good of society, and must take into account the economic and social situation of the country. Only if the economy as a whole is healthy will it be possible to make sufficient work available for workers, especially the young.
7. People are realizing more and more clearly that what happens in one part of the world has effects elsewhere. Worldwide problems demand worldwide solutions through the solidarity of all. No country can isolate itself from the common challenge. Union leaders and leaders of employer associations, as well as government agencies, need to work together in order to face the wide range of challenges. Every partner in this common endeavour should act on the conviction that everyone has a basic right to work in order to have a fair share of the world’s goods. It must also be stressed that all the partners have a duty to work for solutions that respect the dignity of the individual and the common good of society. Economic problems cannot be separated from the ethical and social aspects of life in society.
8. On the national and local level industrial relations also require a spirit of understanding and cooperation rather than one of opposition and conflict. In all disputes, a just and peaceful solution will be possible only if all parties are, and remain, ready to talk. Always keep open the lines of communication, and remember that if disputes are not solved quickly, it is above all the weak and need who suffer.
Fortunately for Australia, your most cherished traditions place great value on equality and mutual support, especially in difficult times. The word "mate" has rich and positive connotations in your language. I pray that this tradition of solidarity will always flourish among you and will never be looked upon as old-fashioned.
Australia also has a long and proud tradition of settling industri,21 disputes and promoting cooperation by its almost unique system of arbitration and conciliation. Over the years this system has helped to defend the right of workers and promote their well-being, while at the same time taking into account the needs and the future of the whole community.
9. I make a special appeal to you workers to be always honest in your collaboration with others. I appeal to you to be especially conscious of all those in need, to give them practical help and to offer them your solidarity. I have been told that you have an organization for promoting development in poorer countries. For this I congratulate you, and I thank you. But you must be active too in helping the needy in your own midst, who include the unemployed, many young people, Aboriginal people, the sick, the disabled, the refugees and the new settlers.
10. I began by making reference to the new question and problems, fears and dangers that surround us because of the development and rapid use of the new technology. This technology is part of the accumulated wealth of the human family and a part of it belongs to you too. It is to be judged by the help it gives you in your work and lives. Always remember that the worker is always more important than both profits and machines.
Dear friends, workers of Australia: it is up to you to make use of the new technology and press on with the task of building a society of justice and fraternal love – a society that extends well beyond the boundaries of Australia. It is God himself who strengthens your arms, enlightens your minds and purifies your hearts for this great work.
Those of you who believe in Jesus Christ and accept his Gospel as the blueprint of your lives know that work has an even deeper meaning when it is seen in its relationship to the Lord’s Cross an.1 Resurrection. United with Christ in baptism, you are called to share through your work in Christ’s mission of salvation and service to humanity. When offered to God in union with the work of Christ, your own work takes on an even greater value and higher dignity. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who during his earthly life belonged so fully to the "working world", looks for ever with love on human work.
And for all of you in this vast land, whatever may be your religious convictions or the nature of your work, I pray that you may experience the uplifting and exhilarating awareness of working with the Creator in perfecting his design and plan for the world. All of this is part of the dignity of human work, the dignity of man, and the dignity of each and every worker in Australia!
And with the passing of each day may God give you an ever greater awareness of this dignity, and may he fill your lives and your homes with his peace and his joy.
Dear brother Bishops,
1. The moment has finally come for this meeting, to which I have been looking forward with a sense of expectation and joy. "For – to use an expression of Saint Paul – God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus".
There exists between us a bond which expresses in a personal and collegial way the communion – the koinonia – that characterizes the entire life of the Church. In this bond of grace and love I greet each one of you, and in you I greet each particular Church in this land. At this point of my pilgrimage I wish to thank you most sincerely for your invitation and for all the work you have done in preparing this visit, especially for the spiritual preparation undertaken in each diocese. I pray that through God’s grace there will be abundant fruits in Christian living.
With gratitude to you for your generous and dedicated service of God’s People in Australia, and for your solicitude for the whole Body of the Church throughout the world, I share your joys and concerns in the task that the Lord has entrusted to each one of you. In you I embrace the priests, the men and women religious, the Catholic laity, the young, the old, the sick, the poor and all those who look to the Church for that word of life and law of love which lead to salvation in Jesus Christ.
2. Indeed it is to the Church that we too, "successors of the Apostles... sent to continue throughout the ages the work of Christ", must look if we are to understand the true meaning of our episcopal ministry. Ours is a mission of service to the ecclesial community and to the world, in which the Church like a pilgrim in a foreign land proclaims the Death and Resurrection of the Lord until he comes. The form and content of the service are determined by the unchanging nature and mission conferred on the Church by her divine Founder, the blessed Son of God who, at the moment of his Ascension addressed his Apostles, and therefore all of us, with these words: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them... and teaching them... and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age".
The New Covenant between God and man established in Christ’s blood is proclaimed and made present in the community built on the Rock that is Peter and upon the foundation of the Apostles. Together in the College of Bishops we share the ministry of fostering the unity of God’s people in faith and charity. Together we are accountable to Christ for this responsibility of ours. In the communion of the Church the role of the bishop, as also the specific role of the Successor of Peter, is defined by the command and the power which Christ gave the Apostles and their successors to teach all nations, to sanctify them in the truth and to give them a shepherd’s care.
3. Today I have this opportunity to speak to all of you about our common hopes and concerns. My first desire is to join you in thanking our heavenly Father for the Church in Australia. To God above all are due the vitality of your local Churches and the fidelity of your people.
"We give thanks to you, O God,
we give thanks;
we call on your name and recount your wondrous deeds".
You have been called to be bishops of the Church in Australia at a very special time for the ecclesial community. The Second Vatican Council has been an extraordinary grace for the Church in Australia and throughout the world. You are witnesses of the forces of renewal which the Holy Spirit has raised up among your people through the teaching and through the very experience of the Council. You are witnesses of the deeper awareness that the faithful have of belonging to a living community of faith and charity which requires an active and responsible sharing of all the baptized in her life and mission. Together with a renewal of ecclesial structures there is a deeper spiritual and theological understanding of the mystery of the Church, which is a mystery of grace and redemption for humanity.
The mistakes which have also accompanied the post-conciliar time of development in the universal Church are also known to us all. To the extent that there is any degree of culpability in these mistakes, this should be acknowledged and be a reason for repentance. In any event such mistakes call us to humility and ever greater vigilance; they can be helpful in protecting us from complacency and any temptation to neo-triumphalism. Yet there is nothing that can nullify the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that was poured out on his beloved Church through the Second Vatican Council. The recent Extraordinary Synod of Bishops has rightly underscored therefore the need for a new application of the Council to the urgent spiritual needs of our times.
4. Your own pastoral experience shows how quickly unbelief and moral indifference can make inroads into a society built on Christian traditions. While on the one hand you can verify a ferment of new energies and commitment on the part of many groups and persons within your local Churches, you have also been able to individualize the signs of a levelling out of Catholic life on the part of some to the point where they accept a completely secular outlook as the norm of judgement and behaviour. I refer among other aspects to the incidence of divorce and abortion and to the documented fall in religious practice. You yourselves have spoken to me about all these things.
Among the priorities of a renewed endeavour of evangelization there has to be a return to the sense of the sacred, to an awareness of the centrality of God in the whole of human experience. The proximity of the second centenary of the Church’s presence in this continent constitutes a challenge and a grace-filled opportunity for genuine renewal within the Church and for a new approach to the growing number of people without any religious affiliation. In this latter context, initiatives such as the Catholic Enquiry Office deserve warm support and encouragement. As bishops you realize that "unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain; unless the Lord watches over the city the watchman stays awake in vain".
5. This means that in her service to society, the Church in Australia must not overlook the capital importance of the universal call to holiness which, as the Council reminds us, "the Lord Jesus, the divine Teacher and Model of all perfection, preached... to all his disciples, regardless of their situation". Such holiness of life requires listening to the word of God, a prayerful response from a converted heart, a joyful sharing in the life of the ecclesial community, obedience to Christ’s commandments and a willing service of those in spiritual and material need. Elements of a Catholic spirituality which deserve to be acknowledged are appreciation of the life of grace, prayerful meditation on the Scriptures, faith-filled devotion centred on the Eucharist, and a proper use of the Sacrament of Penance. I would urge you to do everything possible to implement in your local Churches the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Reconciliatio et Paenitentia". We know that the Sacrament of Penance is greatly needed in the Church today and that its use must be revived. We know too that this revival depends above all. after God’s grace, on the zeal and the fidelity of the bishops of the Church.
6. In a special way bishops are servants of the faith through their teaching office. In communion with the Successor of Peter it is their role to make clear the content of the faith as "teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach to the people committed to them the faith they must believe and put into practice". This is a sacred trust which requires evangelical vigilance and courage. It is extremely important that the Deposit of Faith be transmitted in its purity and entirety to future generations. The young especially cannot be expected to adhere wholeheartedly to the Gospel message unless it is presented in a clear and certain way. They recognize that the faith of the Church is a matter not merely of general attitudes to life. It is a matter of the divinely revealed word of God.
The Catholic School system, of which the Church in Australia is rightly proud, was and is a response to the Church’s right and duty to provide an integral human religious and moral education. The sacrifices which the hierarchy, the members of religious congregations and Australian Catholic parents have been willing to make in this cause clearly stand to indicate the conviction of the value of such education for the transmission of the faith, and for the application of the Christian message to the realities of life in society. I wish to commend you and all in Australia who are striving to continue this tradition in the face of increasing difficulties. I gladly take note of the excellent work being done by the Catholic Teachers Colleges, and of the profound commitment of Australian men and women religious and members of the laity to Catholic education and to the extensive Confraternity of Christian Doctrine programmes. Your leadership in this field, both individually and through the organs of the Bishops’ Conference, is a precious service to the Church’s vitality.
7. The complex question of catechesis has caused you great concern in the past decades, and is of concern as well to many Catholic parents in Australia. This is a problem which affects large sectors of the Church, as witnessed by the attention given the matter in the recent Extraordinary Synod of Bishops. As teachers of the faith in this post-conciliar period we must do everything possible to ensure that in both content and method our catechesis effectively presents the life-giving word of God. This was clearly expressed by Pope John XXIII on the opening day of the Second Vatican Council when he stated: "The greatest concern of the Ecumenical Council is this; that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be more effectively guarded and taught".
Much of a positive nature has been acquired in these years in the field of catechetical methods. The recent Synod nevertheless felt the need to call for the provision of sure guidelines, especially in relation to content. Initial steps are being taken to prepare a "catechism or compendium of all Catholic doctrine regarding both faith and morals" to serve as "a point of reference for the catechisms or compendiums that are prepared in the various regions". I thank you as of now for the interest and cooperation you will give to this important ecclesial endeavour, and I express the hope that together with the whole Church you will recognize its value for preserving the authenticity of the Christian message through all ages until the Lord comes again.
8. In your service to the faith and holiness of the portion of God’s people entrusted to you, you fully recognize how important it is to give special attention to the spiritual and human needs of your priests and of the religious who so closely and generously collaborate with you in the apostolate. As true spiritual fathers – and, at the same time, with brotherly concern for all – you are always ready to listen, to understand, to encourage, forgive, correct, inspire. You know the joys and difficulties of such a task, and how important it is for the well-being of the Church in your land! Appropriate programmes of continuing formation for priests and religious will meet genuine needs of the Church.
Another aspect which I wish to commend to your special care is that of promoting the proper conditions in which vocations to the priesthood and to the religious life can develop. Much depends on the Christian formation received in the home and parish. Much also depends on the witness of priests and religious who show by the joy in their hearts that the call to follow Christ in a special vocation is a most fulfilling ideal. Above all. much depends on the prayer of the entire Christian community, for we have the explicit command of Christ to "pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest ".
This, together with the appropriate formation of candidates to the priesthood and religious life according to the directives of the Council and the guidelines issued by the Holy See in the years since then, will ensure the necessary conditions for cooperating with the gifts which the Holy Spirit abundantly pours out on your local Churches.
9. I have just now met representatives of the men and women religious of this country. I was indeed happy to be able to acknowledge publicly the extraordinary contribution of religious to the Church’s life in Australia in the past and today too. They have been active and close collaborators of the hierarchy, especially in the fields of education and health care, as also in other pastoral and social services, and in the effort to build a social order based on justice, love and peace. On their behalf I speak to you, the bishops, of the encouragement and special pastoral service which you are in a position to give them, with the aim, above all else, of strengthening them in the specific charism of their religious consecration. Your relationship with them requires esteem and respect for the life and spirit of each Institute, and a willingness on your part to be personally close to each community. I realize that in Australia the relations between bishops and religious are particularly cordial and beneficial. I wish to encourage you to continue in that policy. All are called to work together to build up the local Church in union and harmony, each according to the gift received.
10. One area of our solicitude for God’s people which concerns us deeply as pastors is that which refers to family life, and human life issues. There is no need to repeat here what you well know as experienced pastors of your people: that the family as an institution needs the concerted pastoral and loving care of the Church. I have been encouraged on learning the extent of your interest in this matter and on being informed of the many practical and effective pastoral programmes which are in use here in Australia. The Christian concept of marriage and the family is being opposed by a new secular, pragmatic and individualistic outlook which has gained standing in the area of legislation and which has a certain " approval" in the realm of public opinion. The Church’s views on marriage, family life, and life issues in general, far from being a manmade doctrine or a partisan position, are bearers of a saving truth for society and for individuals. It is necessary to make the Church’s position known in all its truth and value, in honest dialogue with the forces present in your cultural world. In the dialogue between faith and culture the rightful role of competent members of the laity needs to be encouraged and respected, and they themselves need to feel the guidance and support of their pastors.
In the defence of life and in promoting Natural Family Planning you will know how to elicit the cordial and mutual collaboration of the various groups and organizations involved in these areas. With respect for the legitimate multiplicity of approaches and natural methods, it is your task to promote a collaboration that will help to offset any confusion or hesitation regarding the challenges to be faced.
In the particular area of advances in biogenetics the Holy See, as you know, is preparing an official document, after extensive consultation, in the first place with the world’s bishops’ conferences. It is my hope that before long this document will be available and that it will constitue a sure point of reference for the entire ecclesial community, and indeed for all those who in Australia and elsewhere are involved and its ethical implications. This too is an area in which it is important for bishops not to neglect the specific teaching authority which is theirs according to their consecration and mission, always in the bonds of unity, charity and peace with the Bishop of Rome.
11. There are so many other themes of which I might speak in order to rejoice with you in considering the growth of God’s kingdom in your midst. More than anything else my purpose here has been to encourage you in our common apostolic faith and in the communion that unites us, thus fulfilling the ministry which Christ entrusted to Peter.
A bishop’s task is certainly not a light one. He has been invested with a grave responsibility. But our trust is in Jesus Christ, "the chief Shepherd" of the Church. In him we have the strength and courage to remain faithful until the day of judgement. In your episcopal ministry you are never alone. United with each other and with the Roman Pontiff in collegial union and love, you share a common calling. The sense of harmony and collaboration you have achieved within your Bishop’s Conference constitutes a "holy union of energies in the service of the common good of the Churches". I know that you will always be able to count on each other’s prayers and fraternal support, and I assure you of my own desire to be always at your service. In accordance with Christ’s will for the good of his Church I ask all of your people to remain united with you their pastors, "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace". On my part I am grateful for your fidelity to the Holy See and that of your people, and I pray that this visit too will strengthen the bonds between us in the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church.
In my prayer I entrust you to the loving protection of Mary, Mother of the Church. May she intercede for you and for the needs of the Churches over which you preside and which you serve.
And with her help may we ourselves stand fast in the holiness and truth of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls.
Dear Friends,
Dear Tasmanians,
1. My visit to Australia is a constant discovery and rediscovery of a unique and fascinating land. And today I have the pleasure of being in Tasmania, an especially beautiful and historical part of the nation. To all of the people of this State I offer my heartfelt greetings. And I give thanks to our heavenly Father who has enabled me, the latest in the line of the Successors of Peter, to make this visit to the People of God in the Archdiocese of Hobart.
I am very happy to be with you, the young people of the Willson Training Centre. You are here to improve your skills so that you may be better equipped to find work. I encourage you with all my heart. I greet the staff of Centacare, which for over a quarter of a century has been providing services for family and social needs, particularly, in recent years, in relation to the problem of unemployment. I am aware of the important assistance given by the Government and the whole community for the running of this Centre. I sincerely trust that your efforts will be rewarded and your hopes fulfilled.
2. The nature of this Centre leads me directly to the theme of our meeting today: the very serious question of unemployment, or rather the situation of the men and women who are suffering the effects of unemployment.
It is precisely as a human problem, a problem affecting the life and dignity of human beings, a problem with a decidedly ethical and moral character, that the Church approaches the question of unemployment. The Church has a mission of service to the whole human family. It is above all a religious and moral mission, linked to the Redemption of the human race through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Church knows that the call to accept the Redemption reaches human beings in the actual circumstances of everyday life. And man’s eternal destiny is closely connected with all the elements that affect human freedom, human rights and human advancement. Work – or the lack of work – is one such element – a most important one.
3. Unemployment is the privation of all the values that work represents and! contributes to individuals, families and society. Work is a right and a duty. Elsewhere I have said that: "man must work, both because the Creator has commanded it and because of his own humanity, which requires work in order to be maintained and developed. Man must work out of regard for others, especially his own family, but also for the society to which he belongs, the country of which he is a citizen, and the whole human family of which he is a member, since he is the heir to the work of generations and at the same time a sharer in building the future of those who will come after him. All this constitutes the moral obligation of work".
When we speak of the moral obligation to work, we mean that everyone has the duty to share in some real way in the great task of "humanizing" the universe, that is, of making the world a more hospitable place and a better instrument of personal and social development. It is also true that "work is a good thing for man – a good thing for his humanity – because through work man not only transform nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfilment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes ‘more a human being’ ".
The sweat and toil which work necessarily involves in the present condition of the human race mean that the Christian can share in the work that Christ came to do. Christ saved the word by suffering and dying on the Cross. By enduring the toil of work in union with Christ, the Son of God, man collaborates with him for the redemption of humanity. He shows that he is a true disciple of Christ by carrying the cross of work every day in the activity that he is called upon to perform.
4. Work has other implications. It is an important condition of family life, since the family needs the means of subsistence, the money which is usually earned through the work of one or more of its members. In fact the family is a community made possible by work, and at the same time it is the first school of work, within the home, for every person.
Today, the presence of women and mothers in almost every sector of the working world is a fact that has to be considered. They should be able to exercise their gifts and abilities in various forms of employment, but at the same time due respect must be given to their obligations and aspirations. Work should be so structured that women do not have to bargain for their advancement at the expense of their own dignity or at the expense of their role inside the family.
The mother’s role needs to be socially re-evaluated. Her tasks in the home require a great commitment, they demand much time and love. Children need care, love and affection. This attention must be given if children are to develop into secure, responsible persons, with moral, religious and psychological maturity. While the responsibility for family development rests on both mother and father, still very much depends on the specific mother/child relationship.
Society can take credit when it enables mothers to devote time to their children and bring them up in accordance with their progressive needs. The freedom of women as mothers must be clearly protected, so that they are free from psychological or any other form of discrimination, especially by comparison with women without family obligations. Mothers must not be financially penalized by the very society which they serve in a most exalted and necessary way.
5. A further point I wish to make concerns the disabled. They are citizens with full rights, and they should be helped to have a real share in the life of society. It would be radically unworthy of man, and a denial of our common humanity, to deny disabled people access to the full life of the community in accordance with their possibilities and potential. To do so would be to practise a serious form of discrimination. Here is a clear case in which work, in the objective sense, should be subordinated to the dignity of man, to the person who works and not to economic advantage.
6. Since the Second World War, Australia has shown great generosity in opening its doors to immigrants from other countries and to refugees seeking a new homeland. In return, these new Australians have contributed their own culture and working skills towards the development and enrichment of their new land. It is important that, in the matter of working rights, those who began their working lives in other lands should not be put at a disadvantage in comparison with other workers. This matter too calls for generosity on the part of Australian society. The value of work should not be measured by differences of nationality, sex, religion or race.
7. In a sense, unemployment is a modern phenomenon. Demographic and technological changes have produced a situation in which there is not sufficient work for all those capable of it. It is a worldwide phenomenon. It is particularly serious in the Third World countries which have not yet reached an adequate stage of economic development and in which there are large numbers of young people looking for work. But it is almost as bad in many industrialized nations, for very complex reasons which it is not possible to analyse here.
In Australia too the pain of unemployment is suffered by many of you and your fellow citizens, and not just the young, but also by men and women who are bread winners for their families. Even when social services help to provide the bare necessities of life, being unemployed cuts into their dignity as persons and seriously curtails their chances and opportunities in life.
Unemployment brings many evils to a community and to a nation. It causes economic and social inequality. It can cause such stress to the family and society that there follows a real breakdown of the institutions that should ensure human advancement. Those who have work may forget those who do not.
The problem calls for cooperation in planning and positive action by all agencies. Government departments, large companies and small businesses, employers’ federations, unions and their alliances – all of these have a crucial part to play in finding solutions. The media too can provide positive support and information by promoting programmes for the unemployed. Justice demands a concerted effort by everyone. Christ’s commandment of love urges all Christians to together on behalf of the unemployed.
8. Retraining programmes are already under way in this country. Governments and private organizations sponsoring them are to be congratulated. Such programmes are of special importance since they acknowledge the needs of the young upon whom the future social, economic and family life of the nation will depend.
But the needs of the older unemployed must not be overlooked. There are indications that in recent years the numbers of unemployed
have increased as well as the average duration of unemployment. This means that many people can be excluded from the labour market for almost their whole working lives with little hope of regaining regular employment.
Some statistics present a bleak picture for thousands of people who would be only too happy to work. Powerful efforts must be made to find new means of meeting this situation so that older workers’ skills may be re-used, or new skills taught to them. Most of all they need the practical help that will rekindle their enthusiasm and motivation to be engaged in creative work.
In programmes of training and retraining, it is important to follow the principle of self-help. This policy safeguards the individual’s dignity. All are encouraged to use their abilities to the full, and to realize that their unemployed status is not a matter of personal failure.
9. Above all. efforts must be made to create new jobs. This is a most difficult point. We all recognize that the creation of new work in our modern society has become a most complex matter. Very often it is no longer merely a matter of local or even national willingness and capability. It requires a re-ordering and adjustment of economic structures and priorities on a global level.
The Church does not have technical solutions to offer, nor the means to resolve such problems. But in her service to humanity she has a most important task: to remind those involved at every level of economic activity that unemployment cannot be treated solely as an issue of economics. Unemployment is a human problem of vast dimension.
The Church can and does offer a social teaching. It is based on the inviolable dignity of every human person. Work is seen as collaboration with the Creator and as a condition of the self-development which is the right of every individual. The Church seeks to motivate and educate so that qualified and faith-inspired Christians will help to find solutions to the urgent problem of unemployment.
Sometimes the local Churches are in a position to start or collaborate in concrete programmes of service to the unemployed.
Centacare, the Catholic Church’s Family Agency in the Archdiocese of Hobart, which established and administers Willson Training Centre, is a praiseworthy example of this kind of endeavour. Other worthy forms of service elsewhere also deserve great support.
10. Young people of this Centre, friends of Tasmania and of all Australia: in your efforts to combat unemployment and to find work, know that the Church is with you. She understands your aspirations, and she appeals on your behalf and on behalf of all the unemployed to the conscience of the world. The Church appeals for a new vision of work centred on the value and dignity of the human person. She appeals for a re-ordering of the economic order, so that it will truly serve the integral well-being of the human family.
To all of you – the staff at Centacare and the Willson Training Centre, and you young people training for work – to the unemployed, to all who are seeking solutions to the problem of unemployment in Australia, to those serving the needs of individuals and families suffering from unemployment – to all of you I offer my encouragement. Do not lose heart! The Church will work with you and for you. And she will continue to call for the solidarity of all in this matter that so closely touches your lives. He assured of my prayers and support. In the name of Jesus Christ I invoke upon you strength and courage.
Speeches 1986 - Sydney (Australia), 26 November 1986