Liturgies

Wednesday, June 1st 2016

Sanctuary; A compassionate illegal response.

By Terry Fitzpatrick
I am not sure how many of you would remember your first brush with the law. Or if any at all. I remember mine. I was about four and half years old and I had a cheeky mate Jimmy who was of the same age and of Greek origin, who lived next door. We shared one another’s back yards, his yard was mine, and mine was his. We shared a tree house which was in his yard. It had several layers or platforms, and it took me some time to get the courage to get to the top layer, but never really felt comfortable there and hence my problems with heights today. One very cold winters day in Toowoomba, and it can get pretty cold there for anyone of you who may have braved a trip up the mountain range may confirm. We decided to light a small fire in the large allotment next to Jimmy’s house. (as you do)   The fire quickly got out of control with the strong gusty Westerly wind that blew the fire onto the adjacent dry grass paddock and up a large Camphor Laurel tree. Despite our best four year old attempts to put the fire out it managed to beat us and when the sound of the fire engines were heard in the distance we escaped to a safe retreat under Jimmy’s house. Knowing we could be in trouble, we stayed under the house for some time during which time the fire had been extinguished. When the work of firefighting was complete the chief fireman decided to begin his inquires about the starting of the fire at Jimmy’s house. We stayed as quiet as church mice not daring to make a sound while the fireman quizzed Jimmy’s Greek mother. To which she replied, “I know a nothing. I dona not a speak a English”, which she repeated over and over to the frustrated inquiring fireman. This meant he left the front stairs and the house none the wiser. Jimmy and I knew very well she could speak English, and I have always wondered how much Jimmy’s mother really knew about the origins of the fire and in her feigning English literacy was she really protecting her precious little Jimmy and that ‘bloody little trouble maker’ next door. Many Australians could soon be in trouble with the Law if they decide to offer the hundreds of vulnerable asylum seekers to this country SANCTUARY, a safe place. In February of this year many Australian Churches, Mosques, and the premiers of five states offered Sanctuary to the 267 Refugees facing deportation to Nauru. Those who offer sanctuary argue that the policy that allows women and children to be sent to Nauru is unjust. They believe that it involves doing harm to vulnerable human beings who have done no wrong in order to send signals to other would-be asylum seekers. It uses people as a means to an end, which is never just. In reawakening an old concept they are reminding the Federal Government what refugee law was for in the first place. During the month of February seas of protesters stood in public spaces holding banners, placards and candles, pleading for a show of humanity. I know many of you from St Marys in Exile were at several of these gatherings. Recently someone had contacted me and wanted to know about the Sanctuary movement that was started in November of 1995 for the 1400 East Timorese refugees who were to be deported back to East Timor or Portugal. Does anyone remember standing with linked arms around the old St Marys Church in 1995 with the FREE EAST TIMOR banner flying in the background? At the time with the movement for Sanctuary gaining such momentum the Australian government delayed processing the East Timorese request for asylum for 10 years, during which time the Indonesian economy collapsed and East Timor gained Independence, but not without struggle. It meant that we did not have to offer Sanctuary, although throughout the ten years the offer was always there. Last weekend we celebrated the 14th anniversary of East Timor gaining its Independence from Indonesia. In researching my response I found something written twenty five years ago by the Josephine Sisters which could easily apply to today’s situation. They wrote, “The hypocrisy of both the Labor and Liberal governments is clearly set out… The tragedy of the whole situation is not only the fate of refugees seeking asylum here, but the Australia we are portraying to the rest of the world and to our children and their future; a country without honour, compassion, fairness, integrity or justice. It is we, the people, who must take responsibility and stand up and say; “Enough”. By our silence we are colluding with the government in its unjust and dishonourable deeds” The Sanctuary Movement is about people saying that this government does not speak for me, and I am prepared to break an unjust law to offer protection to some of the most vulnerable people in the world today.  To say that what this government is doing in our name in off shore detention centres away from the prying eyes of the media is criminal and inhumane. Peter Brown, a member of our community wrote in the latest ST MARYS MATTERS, “For many years we all knew the Soviet Union kept thousands of people in detention without trial of release date, and we rejoiced when someone climbed the Berlin wall to freedom. How things have changed. Now Australia keeps hundreds of people in detention without trial, and like the Soviet Union, has laws preventing people reporting what goes on in the camps. People have set themselves alight, but the media downplay it, and the public are apparently not shocked at all. Political figures who are horrified by the turn of events are persecuted or ridiculed. So the refugees have inadvertently made one more person homeless. I don’t recognise the country I grew up in any more. Where did that land of freedom, mateship and the fair go disappear to? I can’t find it any more. I feel like I am living in a foreign country.” In Eva Orner’s ground-breaking new documentary Chasing Asylum we witness interviewees like social workers, aid volunteers and ex-facility managers- and many whose identities had to be obscured- share film footage that they clandestinely recorded within the camps. Seeing the conditions first hand is devastating, tin hangers in desolate heat, poor sanitation spreading disease and infection, and a suffocating hopelessness that lead to severe mental health issues, sexual abuse of children and many suicides. In the documentary’s shaky film footage we see a young man tell an unseen interviewer of abandoning his dreams, a young woman how she wants to die before her upcoming birthday. Scrawled above a phone box we see a desperate plea; KILL US. Trapped in offshore detention facilities, many refugee struggle to understand where they are or how long they’ll remain there. This limbo is just another brutality, “Day one is the same as day 20, is the same as day 100.” Says Mark Isaacs a young interviewee who was sent by the Salvation Army to assist refugees offshore. In Alex Gibney’s Oscar winning documentary TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (2007) on which Eva Orner was a producer, such uncertainty is described by Guantanamo Bay guards as a torture technique. Enforced secrecy also means Australians don’t know exactly what’s happening, Journalists still aren’t allowed into the camps. Under the whistle blowers legislation of the 2015 Border Force Act, staff are threatened with Jail for reporting human rights abuses. Refugees settled in Australia are released under the proviso that they won’t talk to the media. That is why it is incumbent on us to continue to find out what is going on to the best of our ability, however difficult that might be due to the distressing nature of what is occurring. The Government and the Labor opposition want us to turn a blind eye and ignore what is happening in these detention camps. They want us to believe that everything is fine and that they are doing the right thing. The Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea in declaring on the 26th April that the detention of refugees and asylum seekers on Manus island as illegal and called for the closure of these facilities. This should be sign enough that Australia is doing the wrong thing and that these centres should be shut. Traditionally in Catholic parishes this Sunday the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and blood of Christ is celebrated and where the Real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is Acknowledged and honored. The invitation this Sunday is to see and recognize this Real presence in the distressing disguise of those asylum seekers who have come by boat and been turned way to experience indefinite detention in these hell holes of Manus and Nauru. Will this Real Presence be recognized, and in the words of Jesus “what you do to the least of these my sisters and brothers you do to me.” Will we as a so called Christian nation see the divine presence in these exiled people? And will we take the few pieces of Bread and Fish, mentioned in today’s Gospel, the seemingly insignificant actions that we can undertake in changing this dreadful situation that is occurring in our name? Will we take these actions and allow them to be multiplied so that a tsunami of change may sweep this country and our decisions as a nation be based upon compassion and not fear? I would like to finish with a poem written by Margaret Clifford a member of our community who is launching her book of poetry this weekend entitled ‘ Stitched Pages’ . Her poem which is called COMPASSION invites us into another way of responding. To be Compassionate Is to be Fully awake Attuned to who we are   To be Compassionate Is to allow Our sense of separateness To crumble   To be Compassionate Is to stand beside And help lever rocks So that justice can trickle in   To be Compassionate Is to be a mid-wife For there is no other way God can be born.