austraLasia #2206

'Count them in', John replies

MELBOURNE: 24th July 2008 -- Even if you have not read The Tablet columnist Kania's recent analysis of the faith situation in Australia you will pick up its gist from the following letter signed simply 'John Papworth'.  John is in fact the vice provincial of the Australia-Pacific province, and he gently rebukes the analysis in his letter published in the most recent edition of The Tablet.

"Andrew Thomas Kania ("Count them in, count them out", 12 July) is clearly a long way from the reality of the World Youth Day experience on the streets of Sydney. His potted account of the Irish influence as the first 'sowers' of the seeds of faith in the colonies that later formed Australia is interesting. But his casting 'of the Church and politics as easy bedfellows' is an opinion widely touted by those whose view of the Church is too closely tied up with an institutional view.
    The lamenting of the absence of young people of various age groups from the institutional Church is similarly a terribly narrow interpretation of research data. The Church of the young, as in colonial days, is out on the streets. Just as the irish nuns and brothers devoted themselves as true servants to the needs of struggling families, providing education and health care, so also are the young out there today in their thousands.  Not just whooping it up during WYD but faithful to their regular rosters of duty in soup kitchens, nursing homes, refugee tutoring centres and dozens of other similar examples of generous service, the young are a living Church witnessing to loving service".
John Papworth
jpapworth@salesians.org.au

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Title: australasia 2206
Subject and key words: EAO Provinces AUL WYD, youth
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2206