By Josh Low
Confronting a culture increasingly hostile to religious belief was the focus of a workshop by renowned speaker, Father Richard Leonard SJ, last week.
Held at Loreto Primary School Hall on 19 May, some 90 people were in attendance as Fr Leonard covered a range of topics, which were based on his book, ‘What Are We Doing On Earth, For Christ’s Sake?’
Topics addressed included the role of Catholics in society today, the relationship between science and faith, the centrality of religious experience and the importance of our image of God.
Fr Leonard expressed that in regards to the faith, Catholics have to put up with so many people in society who ‘tell us we’re nuts to believe any of it’.
However, he expressed that between all human persons, there is common ground and a want for the same things, such as kindness, truthfulness, care for the earth, justice, peace and love.
“It’s good to start with what unites us,” Fr Leonard said.
“Dialogue with atheists and non-believers can be very good for us in a number of ways. It improves our clarity in our thinking, rational argument for the faith, the case for religious influence in public policy and our practising of what we preach.”
He emphasised that people are not angry of belief in God but of the religious influence over public policy and legislation.
“Some atheists couldn’t care less that we believe in God and want to practice our faith.
“They’re cranky that we’ve had a major influence over public legislation, and that influences everyone.
“But when they say we should have no influence, then that’s anti-democratic,” he said.
Citing figures from the last census conducted in Australia, Fr Leonard said the numbers of believers are higher than most Australians think, or are led to believe.
“Therefore if we’re a democracy they have every right to see some of their values enshrined in law.
“So when atheists tell me we should just ‘butt out’ and stay with Jesus in our Churches, that’s not very democratic.
“I don’t think we should have the last word, the only word or the final word but we’ve got every right to stand up for our values,” he said.
Fr Leonard said that society doesn’t recognise the contributions to the community that the Church provides, recounting the number of institutions with affiliations to the Catholic Church and the people that come to seek assistance.
“If only others could see that Catholic religious communities actually do good things here in Australia.
“For instance, the Catholic community in Australia is the largest provider of education, healthcare and welfare outside government in the country today.
“We get very little credit for it and most people don’t know it. But they want to say that the only story about us, is our criminal and dysfunctional story. That’s not true.
“It is of course a despicable story but it’s not the only story,” he said.