Human Faces of Toowoomba Conflict, Eureka Street, May 2, 2011

Human Faces of Toowoomba Conflict

Eureka Street
May 2, 2011

http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=26113

Bishop Bill Morris' (pictured) announcement that he had tendered his early retirement under Roman pressure aroused deep grief in Toowoomba. It will certainly arouse debate in and outside the Catholic Church. It is ironical that action taken to preserve unity in the church should so strain unity of hearts and minds.

In these first days of controversy, it may be helpful first to reflect on the impact that the action has on the people most affected by it.

When feelings run high the persons at the centre always suffer a loss of their individual identity. They become tin soldiers dressed in the livery that military strategists wish to assign them. They become rebels, heroes, authority figures, emperors, inquisitors, and are praised or blamed accordingly.

This is the nature of things. But from a Catholic perspective the process should always be accepted only under protest. At the heart of the Catholic view of the world is the central importance of persons. The approach to work, for example, begins with the assertion that work is for the development of the persons involved in it. They are not to be treated as costs or machines. For the same reason reflection on the economy is always begins with the human relationships involved, not with an abstract consideration of profitability. In the Catholic view, too, the treatment of asylum seekers and prisoners must respect their humanity. They are people with faces. They are not objects, not problems.

So it is right to begin reflection on the events in Toowoomba by focusing, not on the rights and wrongs involved and on the larger issues, but on the people and what these events mean for them. Reflection on the central issues will follow. At the centre, of course, is Bishop Morris. In his years of responsibility for the Toowoomba church he has earned a reputation as a deeply pastoral man with a care for the people of his church and an exceptional ability to listen and respond to them. His informal style and his honesty, which alienated a few in his church, endeared him to most. News of his retirement prompted tears.

In addressing the scandals of sexual abuse and their mishandling that have plagued the Australian Catholic Church, as elsewhere, he was also exemplary. He acted decisively in cases of complaint, and was among the first bishops to accept legal liability for abuse, so sparing the complainants the burden of legal processes. He has been a model for the wider church.

His letter of resignation was of a piece with his leadership of the Toowoomba church. He began with anecdotes of his involvement in the church and gratitude for the people whom he had been able to serve. He narrated the events that led to his early retirement simply and honestly, made it clear that he regarded the process as unsatisfactory, and that he saw his retirement as a way both of preserving communion with the universal church and of preserving his integrity.

Clearly, his retirement under these circumstances will come with a personal cost. He has lost the opportunity to serve people whom he cares for. If other people make him the hero in a sad story, it is insignificant recompense for his loss. Indeed it will only magnify the loss if he becomes the object and not the catalyst of religious conversation.

The personal cost to the Toowoomba Catholic community will also be high. The Bishop is a personal focus of unity in the church. His removal will leave many alienated from the Catholic Church. No doubt there will be passionately held and opposed opinions among Toowoomba Catholics about the matter. They will have to deal with suspicion and resentments without a trusted centre. They will feel their loss, ucomprehending and a sense of powerlessness. Bishop Morris' successor will have a hard road. It is always so.

We should spare a thought for the other Australian Bishops. The forced resignation of Bishop Morris can only deepen the public perception that they are branch managers of a large international corporation. If they break ranks and say anything critical about what has happened in Toowoomba, they will be accused of encouraging and exacerbating division. If they say nothing, they will be seen to abandon one of their own out of timidity and compliance. The affair will make even more difficult the continuing task they have of dealing with sexual abuse and its aftermath, and the immediate task of carrying through the new translation of the liturgy. It is not easy to be a bishop.

And finally, the Pope and his advisers are also persons. They have responsibility for encouraging the unity in faith of the universal Catholic Church. It cannot be a responsibility worn lightly.

In the Christian tradition prayer for the church has a firm place. It is often criticised as a cop-out, a resigned failure to change what should be changed. But when you focus on the faces of those involved in actions like this, where else would you begin?