{"id":337325,"date":"2023-09-18T19:54:38","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T09:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=337325"},"modified":"2023-09-18T20:08:28","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T10:08:28","slug":"voice-a-moral-and-ethical-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2023\/09\/18\/voice-a-moral-and-ethical-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Voice ‘A Moral And Ethical’ Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Catholic Auxiliary Bishop for Brisbane Tim Norton, retiring priest Fr Gerry Heffernan and Murgon parish priest Fr John Fowles at The Ration Shed last week (Photo: Cherbourg Radio)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

September 18, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Catholic bishop has asked ‘What would Jesus do?’ about the proposed Voice to Parliament during an interview at Cherbourg.<\/p>\n

Auxiliary Bishop Tim Norton was accompanied on his visit last Wednesday by retiring priest Fr Gerry Heffernan – who was heavily involved with Cherbourg in past decades – and current Murgon parish priest Fr John Fowles.<\/p>\n

During an interview with Cherbourg Radio, Bishop Norton referred to a video he made recently (see below) with Archbishop for Brisbane Mark Coleridge during which the pair discussed the upcoming Voice referendum.<\/p>\n

“Archbishop Mark was making the point that this was never really a political issue. It’s a moral and an ethical issue,” Bishop Norton said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“And moral and ethical issues are really important to the church. Trying to keep away from the politics of it all is extremely difficult.<\/p>\n

“Mark was making the point very clearly that this was moral and ethical. We have a moral and ethical obligation to move into this space, into this referendum.<\/p>\n

“As church people we are really involved in reconciliation. One of the main reasons for being church people and following Jesus is reconciliation wherever we are in the world.<\/p>\n

“And when we have opportunities we need to grab those opportunities and go forward with them as well as we can.<\/p>\n

“That’s why our involvement in this referendum as Christians, I think, is really critical.<\/p>\n

“Our discernment is through that prism of ourselves as people who do follow Jesus and, therefore, what would Jesus be doing?<\/p>\n

“What would Jesus say in this referendum?”<\/p>\n

Bishop Norton noted that the history of Australia – of which he was a part as an Anglo-Australian – had been very dismissive generally of Aboriginal culture.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“(It’s) my heritage, I’m a part of that and I acknowledge that. I want to do everything I can to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders live their culture in the spaces here in Australia, and that we would continue to be learning from them.<\/p>\n

“That has not been the dynamic. That’s why I think the Voice is really important.<\/p>\n

“All those elements of Closing the Gap, but not closing the gap. We as non-Indigenous Australians, for all the goodwill in the world, we might have been trying but we have not been successful in closing the gap with Aboriginal people.”<\/p>\n

Bishop Norton said Aboriginal people would have much more say in how to address some of the really difficult, complex issues that face them.<\/p>\n

He said the Catholic Church’s commitment to reconciliation would remain strong, no matter what the result of the referendum was.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“But with ‘no’ there will be so much more healing that we will have to try and do with people,” he said.<\/p>\n

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Junior dancers welcomed the three priests to The Ration Shed last Wednesday (Photo: Cherbourg Radio)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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A conversation about the proposed Voice to Parliament between Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge and Bishop Tim Norton, who visited Cherbourg at Easter and returned again last Wednesday:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n