Australia badly needs renewal of family, marriage: Hickey

By Anthony Barich
Australia badly needs the renewal of marriage and family life that family-based ministry Couples For Christ aims to strengthen, Archbishop Barry Hickey told the movement’s 12th Australia Pacific closing Mass at Trinity College in Perth on 11 July.

“In Australia, what is so painfully obvious is the collapse of marriage. It’s like a plague,” he said. The fact that his Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton also celebrated the opening Mass of the conference on 9 June spoke to how critical Couples for Christ’s ministry is to the life of the Church and the world, he added.
Too often, he said, marriage is no longer considered a life-long commitment but a phase in life, which is symptomatic of a world full of ego, individualism and self-centredness, rather than the other-centred self-giving that marriage requires.
This trend is even more alarming, he said, as this mentality affects society’s youth, while children are considered a burden rather than a gift. The mission of Couples for Christ, therefore – which he said impressed him greatly – is critical in proclaiming that marriage is more than a contract, but that it is holy, it is for life, it is open to life, it is about love, and that it has Christ at its centre.
To foster this central notion of Christian life, the Archbishop urged the over 350 participants at the conference from around the Asia Pacific region to teach Moses’ commandment – to love God with all one’s mind, soul and strength, and to love others as themselves – to their children and to recite it daily.
“Let us take Scripture literally: we must teach our own children that we are to love God with all our mind, soul and strength, whatever age they are, because if God isn’t put first in our lives then we go down the wrong path in life,’ he said.
He said it is critical that Catholics witness this commandment everywhere – in the office, social or sporting environments, to act it out and speak about it, and to promote in parishes this “Good News” about love, marriage and children.
Citing a statistic he recently discovered that there are more children being taken from their parent (parents are often single these days) than ever before; the Archbishop said that children suffer because of this. “Foster parents do the best they can, but they can’t always make up for the hurt done by what happened to their original parents, which was beyond their control,” he said.
He also encouraged the participants to help those preparing for marriage, to help them realise it is not just about marriage but living a Christian ideal, “so they can be generous and love their spouses as Christ loves us”.
He also stressed the importance of ministering to and loving divorcees, as “we don’t know the circumstances of their lives”.
He urged the conference participants to thank God for giving them the understanding of Christian love and marriage.
This knowledge comes with an obligation to live the faith, he said.
The Gospel of the day – Christ’s Good Samaritan parable – speaks profoundly of the fact that religion must not, like the Levite and priests or the story, be so steeped in laws that it is removed from reality. This religion, he said, missed the fact that worship of God needs to be made personal by being applied to daily life. “Our religion must be centred on Jesus so it changes us,” he said. “With Him, we must offer what we have to those in need.”
The proclamation of Couples for Christ’s ministry, he said, is the same as what Christ preached in the Synagogue, that the lame walk, the blind see – “the Good News that is personal to us, so that our spiritual blindness may be cured too”. This proclamation imposes the obligation and privilege on Catholics to serve others who are disabled both spiritually and physically,” he said.