Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB has this week issued a Pastoral Letter encouraging the Perth Catholic community in light of the COVID19 lockdown and Perth bushfires.
Announced on Sunday 31 January shortly after noon, the Perth metropolitan, Peel and South-West regions went into a five-day lockdown, following an outbreak of COVID-19 at a local hotel. The outbreak investigation has been dubbed “case 903”.
A new set of directives were issued across the Archdiocese later that day, with Churches and Mass Centres forced to temporarily close immediately, which meant many Sunday evening Masses were cancelled and subsequent events halted.
The restrictions, effective from 6pm, Sunday 31 January, 2021 until 6pm Friday, 5 February 2021, mean that people cannot leave Perth, Peel or the South West, with no visitors allowed in homes unless caring for a vulnerable person or in an emergency; no visitors to hospitals or residential aged care and/or disability facilities; no weddings permitted; and funerals limited to 10 people.
As at Wednesday 3 February, the WA Department of Health reported no new cases, with the State’s total remaining at 904.
On Monday, fire authorities commenced battling a massive bushfire threatening lives and homes in the Perth Hills area.
Exhausted firefighters have worked for the past few days, doing their best to save homes – including those of several Archdiocesan staff – under threat from the bushfire.
With gusty winds making conditions extremely dangerous overnight Wednesday 3 February, the number of properties now lost in a massive bushfire raging in Perth’s north-east has risen to 81.
Announcing the news at a media conference Thursday 4 February, WA Premier Mark McGowan said the devastation from the fire, now in its fourth day, was “almost too much to comprehend”.
Mr McGowan said there had been some good news, with the Shady Hills estate that was under threat saved overnight, but that it had been a “bleak couple of days”.
He said the threat from the fire was far from over, and firefighters would continue to face volatile conditions today.
In his first Pastoral Letter for 2021, Archbishop Costelloe emphasised that isolation and social distancing, important though they are in controlling the spread of the virus, will always run counter to our deepest instincts.
“It is not good for the man to be alone” says God in the story of creation in Genesis, “I will make him a helper as his partner”,” Archbishop Costelloe explained.
“That we are made for others, and only find our true meaning and purpose in our relationship with others, is absolutely foundational to our Christian understanding of what it is to be human.”
Ultimately this is what it means to believe that we are made in the image and likeness of God, Archbishop Costelloe said.
“It is in this image that we are made: we can only truly be ourselves when we are caught up in giving ourselves away in love to others.”
The challenge, and opportunity, of the present lockdown, continued Archbishop Costelloe, is that it offers us a chance to put into practice this basic truth of our identity.
“We will be who and what God created us to be when, in the face of suffering, of confusion, and of fear, we look beyond ourselves to the needs of others and do what we can to respond to those needs,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
“As we grapple with the ongoing repercussions of the bushfires, and particularly of the present lockdown, and as we continue to make personal sacrifices for the welfare of our wider community and society, it will at times feel like the “dying” of which Jesus speaks,” Archbishop Costelloe highlighted.
“But he has promised us that our sacrifices will produce good fruit – and the Lord is always faithful to his promises”
Archbishop Costelloe concluded his letter by saying that we are a people of hope and of trusting faith.
“We are a people who believe in the power of prayer and in the power of love in action
“Because of the lockdown we are largely confined to our homes and our opportunities for showing our love in practical ways may be limited, though they will certainly still be there.
“Our opportunities to unite ourselves in prayer with our suffering brothers and sisters, on the other hand, may be greatly enhanced.
“Let us pray for each other, and for all those in need at this time, with constancy and trusting faith.
“Let us ask the Lord to provide us with opportunities to show the sincerity of our prayer by reaching out to others in any way we can,” he said.