By Fr Robert Cross
On regular trips to Geraldton, dear to my heart as the place of my birth, I often say to travelling companions – about 200kms from the city – “This is where my melancholia sets in”, going on to relate to them the decline of once thriving country towns and their communities.
On a visit to Geraldton, Northampton and Mullewa two weeks ago, I asked the parish priest of Mullewa how many people went to Mass on a Sunday. He said an average of 25 – this in a place that only 30 years ago would have had around 100 attending Mass on a Sunday.
In a former parish of mine, Northampton, I believe the Sunday Mass attendance averages about 30 compared to about 130 when I left the parish in 1992.
My melancholia worsens still when I reflect on the recent closure of major educational facilities in the vicinity of Geraldton, namely, the Pallotine Mission and the Christian Brothers Agricultural School in Tardun (Tardun is located between Morawa and Mullewa in the mid-west).
After leaving Geraldton last week pondering on the future of the Catholic Church in our country regions and admiring the priests and religious who devote their lives to the remnant people of the country in these difficult times, I was astounded to hear of yet another imminent closure of a Catholic education institution that serves the Geraldton Diocese, this time Geraldton’s Catholic boarding facility that serves the farming and pastoral families of the whole diocese and beyond, currently caring for 85 boarders.
Where will my former country parishioners send their sons and daughters now if the Nagle College boarding facilities in Geraldton are closed?
Where once parents could drive the short distance from their farms to visit their children and take them out for a meal or simply watch them play sport, now this won’t be possible because they will be forced to send their children to a Perth Catholic boarding facility or, if this is beyond their means, they will be forced to withdraw them altogether from the Catholic system and send them to Government-operated boarding hostels in Geraldton.
What is going on in the country and why are our Catholic education leaders taking us the way of government and the private sector by closing down the services the Church provides in these areas?
In country areas, schools are much more than places of education; they are places of community and memory.
Nobody doubts that one of the primary reasons for the decline of services in the country is the “Cancer of the Bush”, that is the fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) and drive-in, drive-out (DIDO) workers.
Another major contributing factor is farmers not being paid a fair and equitable price for the commodities they produce.
Today the average farming family in Australia has a debt of $800,000. Many are selling before being forced to sell up and walk away with nothing.
The FIFO report published by the Federal Parliament last week called for a champion to come forward for rural communities to stop the cancer that is eating away at their existence.
To my mind, the Catholic Church in rural Australia and its leaders should be numbered among those who will champion their cause and give voice for country people and their communities.
While not pretending in any way to be a champion, I cannot remain silent on this latest blow to Geraldton and the people I once served and hope to serve again in the future.
I know my voice is but one, but I also know it sings in chorus with many others. I pray these voices will receive the hearing they deserve and the decision to close the Nagle Catholic boarding facility will be quickly reversed.
In concluding, I would like to make an interesting observation in regard to the recently published Federal Government Report on fly-in and fly-out workers.
There were only two Catholic organisations in the whole of Australia who made a submission, both from the Geraldton Diocese, namely, Centacare in Geraldton and a lone teacher and three students from St Luke’s College in Karratha. Congratulations to them!
Regretfully, there was no submission listed from any Catholic education authority in Western Australia or, for that matter, the rest of Australia, nor from any Catholic diocese.
On the other hand, there were submissions from the “Perth Sisters and Brothers of the Order of Perpetual Indulgence” and the “Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association”.
Where are our Catholic Champions who will stand up and run the hard yards for our parents and children who live in the bush?