Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB has written a letter upon the 15th anniversary of One in Christ, a landmark document in the Archdiocese of Perth about disability in the context of the Church. The Archbishop’s letter is printed in full, below.
In 1999, Archbishop Barry Hickey, my predecessor as Archbishop of Perth, issued a Pastoral Letter entitled One in Christ, in which he reflected on the place of people with disabilities in the life of the Church.
This year’s fifteenth anniversary of the publication of this Pastoral Letter provides us with an opportunity to recognise and thank God for all the progress which has been made in this area in our archdiocese, and of course to also thank those who have allowed God to work through them to try to ensure that everyone is made welcome in our parish and other communities.
The anniversary also provides us with the important opportunity to recognise that, in spite of the hard work and good will of so many people, much remains to be done.
We must keep recommitting ourselves to our ongoing efforts to implement the principles and practical requirements set out in One in Christ.
At the same time we must recognise that in this area of vital concern for the integrity of the Church we are being called to conversion of mind and heart, and all true conversion takes time.
The new vision laid out in the letter calls us to see with the eyes of Christ, to listen with the ears of Christ, and to respond with the heart of Christ.
We will need the Spirit’s gifts of compassion, of courage, of determination and of patience.
I was very struck with Archbishop Hickey’s reminder in his letter that “in a very real sense we are all disabled in one way or another”.
Those among us whose disability is perhaps more visible are a mirror in which we can all see ourselves reflected, if only we have eyes that are open and hearts that understand.
We all wish to belong, and to feel at home, in our faith communities. As far as possible we all deserve to have our own special circumstances recognised, acknowledged and embraced.
This is the goal towards which we must always be working.
The Pastoral Letter One in Christ reflects on an important theological principle which must be at the heart of inclusiveness for people with disabilities in our communities: that every human person is made in the image of God, is endowed with an extraordinary dignity by virtue of his or her humanity, and that every baptized person is a member of the Body of Christ.
We are all, therefore, intimately united with each other and mutually responsible for each other.
In answer to the question which Cain posed to God after he had killed his brother Abel – “Am I my brother’s keeper?” the answer of a Christian is always, “Of course I am!” Pope John Paul II once gave expression to this understanding when he said that the Church must be “a home and school of communion”.
Our communities must be places where communion, another word for which is “belonging”, really is at home.
To be at home means to be accepted, to be welcome, to be valued and to be understood.
When we don’t experience these realities in a Christian community we know instinctively that something is wrong – we feel we don’t belong.
The fifteenth anniversary of One in Christ provides every parish and every other Catholic community in our archdiocese an opportunity to assess how well they have implemented the principles, and of course, the practical steps, outlined in the Pastoral Letter.
I would encourage everyone to revisit the Pastoral Letter and recommit themselves to the task of working towards the full implementation of the proposals and guidelines contained within.
This will require an openness of heart, a recognition of our failures and a willingness to reconsider our priorities.
Most of all it will require of each of us a readiness to recognise that if our own local Christian community is to really be “a home and school of communion” we must each play our part with generosity, with courage and with determination.
As with everything else in the life of the Church the task of fully realizing the rights of people with disabilities to full inclusion in the pastoral, spiritual and sacramental life of the Church is one which we must be continually striving to achieve.
Much has been done: much more remains to be done. As Archbishop Hickey reminds us it is not enough to re-affirm the principles: we must seek “to understand better the issues surrounding disability and affirm in practical ways the dignity of all members of the Body of Christ”.
Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB
Archbishop of Perth