Father Bob

Undercover

Last Saturday morning, I drove to the next parish where there’s a recently, beautifully renovated church/Shrine in honour of Mary, known “in house” as Our Lady.

The twin parishes of Middle Park and Port Melbourne have been there for 100 years plus. The Carmelite Order of Priests has faithfully staffed both places for over a century. My parish, South Melbourne, was mother to both parishes.

So what? Well, last Saturday the Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel played host to a couple of sacred artefacts known as the Cross and Icon.

This Cross became popular during the previous Pope’s World Youth Day celebrations. This Icon is of Mary and is in the Byzantine style, i.e. more Orthodox than Roman.

They both appeared in Middle Park after a trip from Sale, eastern Victoria, and took pride of place in the beautifully lit and decorated Shrine.

A Sudanese choir sang spiritual songs from an improvised stage. Light refreshments were available in the street which had been conveniently blocked off by local council officers.

I don’t think that precaution was taken in case the assembled Catholics on a quiet Saturday morning, in a very quiet Middle Park street, could break out and try to convert the locals to catholicism.

I presume it was in case the good citizens of the respectable neighbourhood would run over with their high cylinder, turbo driven, four wheel driven vehicles, the 200 visiting caltholic pilgrims.

After a couple of hours of social and devotional fellowship, about 30 of the 200 grabbed the Cross and Icon and carried them in procession from Middle Park along the Beach Road for about a mile before reaching Station Pier.

There is “parked” the ferry, Spirit of Tasmania, which would carry the Cross, Icon and escort to Devonport, Tasmania, of course.

My spies tell me the Archbishop Denis Hart, Melbourne, met the entourage at Station Pier and wished it well.

I had vamoosed from the Shrine earlier, to do Parish and domestic chores but showed up again an hour or so later to check all was well. It’s not often that devotional pilgrimages are seen in that bayside, happy suburb.

The annual Grand Prix racing cars event causes mayhem in the same scenic area.

The beach road is often closed to through traffic by hundreds running or biking in marathons to raise awareness and funds for pressing health issues.

That little group of pilgrims quietly reminded the locals that there’s more to life than meets the eye. Men, women and children, a multicultural group, proudly, not arrogantly, carried the big heavy Cross and slightly more carrier friendly Icon, in full view of the bemused, never hostile, weekend bayside tourists.

By the way, I’d just turn up on Church occasions like the Cross and Icon. I dress down rather than up. I want to show respect for the energies lay people put into devotional exercises designed, usually, by clerics.

I have my reservations about projects like Cross and Icon because I’m a “pinko leftist” Vatican2 man.

We clerics of the 1950’s/1960’s were trained and deployed to hand our systemic Catholicism back to the original owners – lay people.

We were also trained and commissioned demolition experts. Some of us cleaned churches and shrines of marble altars and plaster statues to create space for lay people to install their “unknown god”, aka Jesus of Nazareth.

We challenged lay people to take the place occupied over many centuries by Cross and Icon. Be living crosses and icons. Church $’s, we said, should buy food for the poor and excluded first and if any $’s are left, buy a cross or an icon for the church building. 

Were we wrong? Powerful factions within Catholicism say we were and exclude us “pinko leftists” from any further leadership roles within systemic catholicism

That suits me. I can be an undercover catholic like Jesus is an undercover God!

R.J.M.

Putting ourselves "out there"

Should I go into a monastery now I’m 74 and never have anything to say on TV or radio?

I got a call late one night last week from “concerned of Werribee”. He’d just seen me on TV pontificating on Gordon Ramsey’s coarse language – you know the Brit chef who swears a lot during his cooking show.

“A Current Affair” had rung earlier to tee up an interview. A South Australian church official had advised a ban on the Ramsey show. I didn’t know about it. No matter. You don’t have to know much but you have to settle on a quick “grab” favourable to the cause, do no harm, do a little good.

I decided before the TV crew arrived, to make the point that coarse language is a matter of manners, not morals – in most cases, that is.

I used a Latin proverb to sum up the point – “de gustibus non est disputandum” or “in matters of taste, there’s nothing to argue about”.

We all have likes and dislikes. You can’t order someone to like this or that.

You don’t have to use coarse language yourself or encourage it to be able to live with it.

The bloke who rang me said he was ashamed to be in the same church as me. “You’ve exceeded your use by date. Retire or go to Tasmania!”

That shook me. Maybe he thought because there’s “devils” in Tasmania it must be Hell. Anyway just to share with you a day in the life of an inner urban parish priest.

People say “Why do you do it?” Some are convinced I’m an egotist at best, a narcissist at worst. They say “showing off”, I say “putting in”.

I like people to know that Catholicism is a broad church. Most disputes among catholics are about matters of taste, not morals.

What the celebrant wears to Mass, how many bows to make before receiving communion, whether to talk among ourselves before the service begins or to observe a reverend silence to get in the mood – these are all recently revived matters of taste. There’s no good or bad in them.

Church bosses may well, from their acknowledged elevated vantage point, advise us, rank and file, on disciplinary matters. That’s part of their job. And they must alert the general membership to the clear and present public danger generated by the moral viruses of affluence, abortion, lousy prison and illegal migrant detention systems, just to name a few.

But even in these indisputably serious matters, there must be a new language, a better “style” of discussion, so all members of this hard fought for pluralised society can share, with respect, different, even opposite views without risking social disharmony.

Church people should be actively engaged in building civil society, without fear or favour. We should put a substantial amount of regional and local church resources, including real estate and parish personnel, at the service of the neighbourhood.

Putting ourselves “out there” would be a good practical way of saying sorry to the alleged tens of thousands of victims of abuse by catholic officials over seventy years. (This figure is quoted in the press 8/5/08. Would Australian Catholic HQ check that figure for us rank and filers?  It’s us who’ll cop the flack up to the Pope’s visit and afterwards!)

Like Daniel Grollo and his developers, local churches, synagogues and mosques could offset whatever socially toxic imprint they have left in a neighbourhood by providing goods and services for the local poor e.g. food distribution outlets, safe houses for abused women and children, 24/7 one stop “shops” for troubled teenagers – all without “convert to our religion” small print clauses.

The local synagogue, mosque or church could pilot such a breath taking initiative until a cluster of like minded partners got their act together.

I guess that what this parish and this foundation are doing as a coalition of the willing continuing a 150 year old tradition of service to the poor, deserving and undeserving. Not “showing off” but “putting in”.

RJM

Offset the toxic footprint

Joe Caddy, Catholic Priest colleague, Chaplain to Victorian Prisons, was brave enough to write in a Melbourne paper that prisons are not for rehabilitation but for breeding criminals.

I agree.  You probably agree.  Where does that leave us?  Nowhere I suspect.

That’s the trouble with good ideas. They need not just one good person but dozens to agitate for change and to keep at it for years, maybe even a lifetime.

Is that persistence possible these days? Just as the abolition of slavery took many young people their whole lives to achieve, so will the reform of our prison system.

Indeed, I don’t intend to do more here than raise the question.  I feel the need because I’ve known many people who’ve ended up in prison. I’ve watched as they’ve struggled to recommence living “outside” without much constructive support. So, they go in and out for years.

There’s one bloke I met when I first arrived in South Melbourne Parish.  He was 16 then.  He disappeared into the juvenile justice system.  He came out, then disappeared into the adult system.

He kept feeding the revolving door for 30 years. I’ve seen him only every few years, whenever he’s “out”.

He’s now spent far more time in than out.  He can’t survive out.  He’s almost 50 years but still 16 at heart and an untamed 16 at that.

Joe Caddy’s right. Prison is a waste of time and resources in terms of results. Unfortunately while retributive justice rules the roost, restorative justice must wait for 100 Joe Caddy’s to launch a campaign for prison reform.

I’m fortunate to have been Priest at South Melbourne for 25 years.  I’ve learned a lot and unlearned even more.

My first time years as Priest, in half a dozen suburban parishes, in the 1960’s, brought experiences of working with 40 year old parents and their teenage children.  I became part of the parish/neighbourhood support team.  Together we looked after our young.  If one of them “strayed” from the herd, we became collectively unnerved.

Some suburbs were better than others at this essential service.  This was a lesson in itself.  It was safer to be a teenager and reassuring, too, in one place than another.

Young people need to feel valued as part of a “place”.  Country footy clubs (indeed, all sports clubs) are a good example of helping teenagers “grow up”.

Occasionally, a local club falls into the hands of untrustworthy people and becomes a bad influence for teenagers.  The same occupational hazard stalks all adults working with young people.  Some of my own vocational “profession” have grossly offended against teenagers who trusted them with their bodies, minds and hearts.

I continue my care and concern for the young people at risk and partly to offset the toxic footprint left by a few colleagues.  I put that here on public record.

Daniel Grollo of Grocon (a leading Australian developer) used these words, “offset the social imprint left by developers” as an explanation of his intention to build, without beyond cost profit, a shelter for 100+ homeless people in Melbourne.

I’ve been talking and writing about this “offset” for years. Thanks Daniel, for being creatively compassionate towards homeless people.  As with Joe Caddy and prison reform, we need hundreds of Daniel Grollos to make a real difference in the lives of the excluded poor.

After these two examples of intellectual “mothering” by blokes, let’s hear it for the greatest communicators of them all – Happy Mothers’ Day!

RJM

Podcast Delay

Just a note for those wondering what has happened to the Father Bob Show podcast. The Podcast Network has had severe technical problems, and will hopefully be back up and running as normal next week. If you would like to listen to or download the podcast, you may find it more expedient to visit the website at
http://fatherbob.thepodcastnetwork.com
Show #93 was in the can last Monday, and will be available ASAP.

Street Report #20 - Passover

The event was held at the St Kilda Drop In Centre.  We expected 10 to 18 people and ended up with 30 people. Assisting myself was Peter Fein and Dahlia Gross.

We served a traditional Jewish meal, with matzohs, gefillte fish, chicken soup, kneodeles, chicken and apple compote.  Not all participants were Jewish, (only about five) but they all appreciated the afternoon and thanked us for giving them an insight into another religion, so to speak.

During the serving of the meals, I gave anecdotes re the Passover dinner and why we have the customs we do at this time of the year. Rosa, the elderly lady, said the Mah Nish Tana, even though she wasn't the youngest there.

Henri J Ser

 

 

Carried away

One of our workers, in fact the hardest working, a Jewish man, put on a ritual meal for the people who live in a St. Kilda boarding house. It’s Jewish Passover this week. He and two other Jewish friends cooked the special dishes associated with Passover and waited on the tables while the guests enjoyed the meal and had the religious meanings of the dishes explained in a non-patronising way.

Some photos of the event are to be uploaded to this page. See for yourself.

No-one was trying to convert anyone just sharing a special meal on a special occasion, Passover, with people who have nothing special in their lives.

Passover has been enhanced by this celebration not diminished. Thanks to our Jewish worker and his associates for taking the trouble to create this special occasion in St. Kilda.

Last post I mentioned that Collingwood Football Club planned to feed the poor from their HQ at the Lexus Centre.

This week I met with a working committee, half Collingwood, half Father Bob Maguire Foundation (that damned name is starting to embarrass me! Not my name but my having to use it whenever I talk about the work we do. Excuse me.). The group seems keen on mobile food vans delivering to wherever poor people congregate. It’s probably a better plan than expecting people to travel to the Lexus Centre.

Maybe we can do both. I’d like the food vans to be known as “hopemobiles” each equipped with a flashing green light to let everyone know we’re all about hope for the hopeless. I’m leaving the details of the operation to my more experienced and practical colleagues. I, myself, need hope that this expedition into the unknown will become a real, right here right now, contribution to creating a civil society, a commonwealth where each gives according to their abilities and each takes according to their needs.

As a church person, I would have hoped that each mosque, ashram, synagogue, temple and church would be available as centres of religious civility. After 200 “white” Years in Australia, all these religious groups have established bits of real estate and infrastructure, even if ever so small, which could provide expensive precincts of hope or, prematurely flaunt my next to latest dream, ‘SPIRITUALITY AUSTRALIA’.

That Priest who got carried away hanging onto a bunch of helium balloons, somewhere in Latin America, was fundraising to create a “spiritual pitstop” for truckies.

Loads of overseas countries have traditions of wayside shrines which offer a spiritual comfort zone. Monks of all persuasions offer hospitality as part of their own religious menu.

Eddie and Collingwood, traditionally for both, want a secular equivalent of those forementioned pitstops. In Australia, the sacred and secular can be mates. I don’t apologise for being a Catholic Priest and Eddie doesn’t for being a Broady and Collingwood boy.

This new, but typically Aussie venture, like Simpson and his Donkey, bringing hope to the hopeless, deserves the backing of all “true believers” of whatever culture or creed.

Closer to home, corner Dorcas and Montaque, South Melbourne, after six years tour of duty, we farewell Annette Amos who moves on to other things from her position as Parish business manager and founding Public Officer of the Father Bob Maguire Foundation.

Words cannot express our local gratitude to Annette and admiration for her administrative excellence.

Annette has, on occasions, prevented me from being carried away, like my Latin American colleague, by hot air.

RJM

The other religion

I went to the footy at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground is one of the local “sacred spots”).  What, dear readers, do I hear you say, are you doing watching football at a cricket ground?

My team, Collingwood, was pretending to play the team, Carlton, at the bottom of the 18 team ladder.

There were 78,000 experts at the ground.  It always amazes me how many people, men and women, rich and poor, can stay together in one place, for hours, without bopping each other on the nose.

If it was all blokes, there’d be brawls, don’t you agree?  But women have always been strongly represented at Aussie Rules football matches.  They’re heavily involved, too, in admin, umpiring and the health and safety of players.

Social commentator, Eddie McGuire, wrote in last weekend’s paper that Aussie Rules is blessed by the active presence of so many women at all levels of footy club activities.

Feminists may hate what I am about to say but women do humanise and socialise blokes, especially blokes involved in “combat”.  And it happens, at its best, in players’ homes and local footy club level.

Home and the local footy club, suburban or bush, are where blokes can be given fair, firm and friendly guidance by people they admire and respect.

Now Eddie McGuire has taken this homespun wisdom to another level.  He believes along with late mate, Essendon, and the AFL’s Ron Evans, that league football clubs should be places where players, training and admin staff, board and general members learn the fine art of caring for people who have almost lost hope of connecting with a decent, normal bunch of other people.

Eddie believes that footy clubs are just so well placed in Aussie society to exercise intelligent practical compassion that he intends, as announced just last week, to begin a meal programme based at Collingwood’s new, shiny home, the Lexus Centre, a stones throw from the MCG.

There’s an outside barbeque area furnished with tables, benches and heaters.  About 100 people could be catered for, people who are sleeping rough along the banks of the Yarra and environs, people from East Melbourne, Richmond boarding houses and, even, people from a distance who’ll travel for a good “feed”.  Maybe the Lexus Centre will give these people, just like you and me, a bit of a buzz of excitement, a bit of respect and hope.

Eddie’s asked me to help publicise this venture because he knows I’ve been involved in feeding people for many years.

This Parish, South Melbourne (the place that lost its football team, physically at least, to Sydney) feeds people, in the yard of the parish house, up to 60 a sitting, four times a week.

It’s not only the food they come for but also, a hope that they’re still connected, through the parish house, to a neighbourhood which normally and, maybe, understandably ignores them.

We ignore people we feel there’s no advantage in acknowledging.  We do this at our peril.  People treated with disrespect will be tempted to return like for like.  It’s a miracle so few do.

Our Parish is drafting a strategic plan (don’t leave home without yours!) which is subtitled “The Neighbourhood Parish”.  It includes a house of hospitality, otherwise known as the Parish house, previously known as the Presbytery (vicarage in Anglican, manse in Protestant).  This embeds, hopefully forever, help for the helpless, deserving AND undeserving, poor within the fabric of South Melbourne Catholicism.

Eddie hopes to do the same for world renowned Collingwood Football Club by feeding the poor deserving and undeserving, at the prominent Lexus Centre.

Human rights are a hot topic with the Olympic Games in Beijing and the Pope at Randwick.

The right to be connected, deserving or not, has a torch bearer here at South Melbourne and there at Lexus.

R.J.M

Talk vs Walk

Are the Iraqis better off now than when Saddam was king?

Depends who you ask, eh?  Just ask, by the way, don’t answer your own question.  You could cause yourself reputational damage.

Are the Tibetans better off under the Chinese than under the rule of the monks?  Depends what you mean by “better off” and depends what section of Tibetan society you’re questioning.

Those who, undeniably, are better off after a regime change may well have to seek protection in the event of the next regime change.

We’re already reading in Australian newspapers that Iraqis who’ve assisted Australian soldiers in Iraq will need protection by migration here when our military presence in Iraq ceases.

Those of us old enough to remember the Vietnam conflict of the 1960’s and 70’s will recall with sadness our desertion of those South Vietnamese who had invested themselves and families in that gruesome civil war.

Robert Mugabe and his disciples are, also, stalling a regime change in Zimbabwe presumably to make sure they’ve got time to exit safely and cashed up.

My own religious/spiritual tradition seems to me to indicate that we’re not, per se, revolutionaries.  We can survive, if not flourish, whatever regime is in power.

That’s the whole puzzle of Jesus of Nazareth.  The Roman occupation force was in town.  The religious/civil establishment had rolled over to keep the peace.  Businesses were flourishing even after paying Roman taxes.

Assassination squads of Jewish nationalists were committed to killing a Roman a day.

Jesus had been promoted to celebrity status by vested interests and an ever gullible public.

The rest is history, as they say.  “The man”, as military governor Pontius Pilate labelled the Nazarene, was, also, history.

“Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s” seems to say it all, for me, at least.

Now, how that insight stands up to practical, political scrutiny, I realise is embarrassing to political “inactivists” like me.

Let the Games begin and let all defenders of human rights work out how to participate in that expression of civil religion in such a practical way that their point is made, as it must be, but without violence.

All activists need to stick to their guns, so to speak, without violence but with plenty of intelligent and compassionate forcefulness.

Dedicated social activists, not just casuals, spend most of their time and energy just waiting.

Persistence needs to wait patiently for the opportunity.  The Chinese will discern in this formula the Taoist Philosophy.  “Step out of the turbulent waters of the river.  When the turbulence ceases, step back into the river.”

At the root of so many of these current conflicts lies the apparent incompatibility of individual and collective rights.  It’s not only an East/West thing but a North/South thing also.

Australians are well placed to contribute as newcomers to this 6000 year debate.

We’re only 200 “white” years old.  Germaine Greer, hate her or love her, says that Australian “white” society should seek communitarian wisdom from our aboriginal “neighbours”.  They have inherited ancient wisdom.  We’ve got modern “know how”.  Let’s get together and tackle some of the current publicised issues like youth homelessness, police unrest, global warming, urban sprawl, water everywhere in some places, none in others, elite schools vs. community based schools.

Putting all this legitimate stuff of public concern on the internet and encouraging citizens to down load relevant pod casts may well look like public debate but how are we to segue from “talking the talk” to “walking the talk”.

Kevin ’08 will do his political best but you and I need to put ourselves in with the little time and energy left to our disposal.

That’s what Anzac Day’s all about – at its best.

RJM

WYD and DID08

According to experts, I should be writing this blog in Gotham font because that’s the style adopted by Barak Obama for billboards, leaflets and other US of A, presidential election handouts.

I’m not so much stunned as distracted by this claim. I don’t, myself, type much. I prefer to invest myself in hand writing.

I know it’s unfair, because others have to decipher my scribble and translate it into type. I try to make my handwriting as legible as possible. That’s the least I can do. But, I do believe people can conclude that you’ve taken the trouble, the risk of committing yourself, in your own hand, for people to judge that value of “what” you say by the way you say/write it.

If I was keyboard friendly, I’d belt out more stuff more often. That would be handy now that a national broadcaster has asked me to blog, a couple of times a week, on the topic of roman catholic World Youth Day, held in Sydney in July, ’08.

I said no, then yes, based solely on the practical problem of creating time for such a worthy task.

I like to do “catholic” things. I’m sad that my priest (including “high priest”) colleagues don’t get me to do more purely “catholic” things. I’ve grown old now in roman catholicism. I haven’t caused the institution that much trouble.

I don’t want recognition or applause just more work within Catholicism. I wouldn’t intentionally frighten the members of the institution, just infotain them about the marvels of justice and peace generated within secular society.

Everyone needs to know what catholics have now, officially since the 1960’s, come to embrace the secular and to acknowledge its value, its autonomy, and even, if I may add what seems paradoxical, its sacredness or holiness.

Sorry, that’s a mouthful, but it’s an explanation of what I’m on about, why I pop up on the TV and Radio and, occasionally, in the newspapers.

I don’t do any of these things for self promotion except as a representative, self appointed up to the date of writing this blog, of “gonzo” Catholicism.

One of my colleagues diagnoses my penchant for publicity as “narcissism”. You may have to Google that.

I don’t believe that to be true. I don’t personally enjoy public appearances. I do like others, however, to enjoy those appearances. Awareness raising is part of a catholic priest’s work, among catholic worshippers or secondary school students at catholic colleges or spirituality at the pub gatherings.

I admit I’m nervous about the much publicised extravaganza, World Youth Day, to be held in Sydney in July. (See just mention WYD in this blog publicises it and should get me brownie points! Let’s wait and see. Don’t hold breath).

In my own town, Melbourne, there’s a local lead up, Days in the Diocese, launching on Anzac Day! In true catholic, otherworldly fashion, it involves a Cross and Icon (of Mary).

My nervousness concerns whether the organisers, under orders, in revisionist catholic style, of clerical authority, will try to meld Anzac Day, Cross and Icon to provide a palatable incentive for all Melbournians to participate or ignore the sacredness of secular Anzac Day in pursuit of an “in house” devotional catholic jolt.

Admirable as that may be, when an opportunity would be lost of adding here and nowness to an iconic Anzac Day.

The AFL will do it through C’Wood Vs Essendon at the MCG.

The Catholics could do it by linking the many crosses of Fromelles and Gallipoli with WYD cross and the countless devastated mothers of killed, wounded physically and emotionally victims of war, with Mary’s icon.

I respectfully suggest that a public display of devotional Catholicism needs to be balanced, indeed strengthened, with a public declaration of catholicism’s dedication to the cause of commonwealth and common good.

There’s a saying in the social networking community that if you wan’t your blog readership to “spike”, you need to bring someone or some cause down.

Not so for this, my blog. For what it’s worth I endorse WYD and DID08, but reserve the right to popularise /secularise it!

RJM

Life after Holy Week

I short weighted you last blog. Sorry about that. It was, what’s called, Holy Week for us Catholics.

There were loads of ritual things to participate in. The local Galilee school kids re-enacted the events of Jesus of Nazareth’s famous Last Supper, execution on the day after and resurrection two days later. The Age newspaper dropped in, took a beaut photo and published it on Good Friday morning. It had a grade 6 boy shouldering a (light weight) cross and heading for the church door. Colour photo, too.

You couldn’t see the kid’s face, because that would breach privacy.

It’s the same out there on the streets where, by the seasonal way, Jesus is condemned to death, etc. every hour of every day. Where and when? – go look and listen!

Our street reporters can’t provide graphic evidence of street poverty, because their photos would breach privacy. I’m not saying we should provide you with graphic evidence, even “snack” sized movie reports, but it would be one way of letting you in on what’s going down in a street near you.

Not to grab your money, mind you, but your attention. Then, just maybe, your registration of interest in learning the art of social activism.

There’s many forms of social activism. One, not to be discouraged or sneered at, is social voyeurism. That’s when you catch yourself witnessing something around you which is disturbing to you as a human being with conscience, a crew member on spaceship Earth starting to wake up to the need for mutual responsibility.

Over the next few months, some of us will evolve to the next stage of social activism, not just noticing but assessing the degree of rightness and wrongness.

I say the next few months, because the Olympic Games in Beijing will trigger, has already triggered, indignation over China’s human rights record.

Some say the Games are sacrosanct, not to be used for political advantage. Others say the advantage sought isn’t political but moral. Yet others remind us morals and politics are inexorably interwoven.

Were global critics of the US invasion of Iraq being selectively indignant by observing silence over China’s law and order campaign in Tibet?

Closer to home, in July, the Aussie Catholics will play host to the world’s youth during a week of celebrations, religious and secular, in Sydney.

I’ve been asked by a national broadcaster to write a blog, couple a week, about WYD, as it’s known in Catholic circles and will become known, closer to the event, in the wider community.

I guess a moral assessment of WYD, Pope Benedict present and all, may attempt to weigh up the costs and the outcomes.

I’ll leave that exercise to others more versed in megabucks.

If the exercise raises the morale of local and global youth, then, it’s a good thing. There’s so many “big days out” already pitching at the “youth” demographic that one more, heavily weighted in favour of justice and peace, seasoned with religious devotion, won’t do any harm and may do some good.

A lot of ordinary people, not all churchgoers, are involved in providing accommodation for thousands of overseas visitors. A lot of good just must come out of so many random acts of kindness.

Another lot of ordinary people will be organising massive religious exercised associated with the WYD. Melbourne is already bombarded with requests from local WYD headquarters for local parishes to join in the spirit of the occasion.

These “big events”, sacred or secular do put a big strain on the local host neighbourhoods.

We know, here in South Melbourne / Albert Park, the burdensome privilege of hosting the Grand Prix. Randwick, and other venues around Sydney, should expect not just a financial profit but, also, a social spiritual outcome, a blessing, for the neighbourhood.

RJM