Saturday, December 13, 2008

Church of mercy better than being right: Manning

Some Catholics believe that "it is their mission to correct everybody else" and to develop a Church of "those who are right" rather than "a Church of mercy," Parramatta Bishop Kevin Manning has told Campion College graduates.

Bishop Manning was addressing the inaugural graduation ceremony of Sydney's Campion College last week, The Catholic Weekly reports.

Twelve young men and women received their degrees for Bachelor of Arts in the Liberal Arts in the Great Hall of the University of Sydney on Friday, December 5.

Bishop Manning told the graduates that there were three qualities "which must underpin your deeds, great or otherwise."

"These are fearlessness in the advocacy of human dignity, love, and proclamation of the mission of Christ," he said.

Bishop Manning said fearlessness in the advocacy of human dignity, was evident in the life and work of a man who was a member of the first Senate of the University of Sydney and its vice chancellor from 1865 to 1869, John Hubert Plunkett, an Irishman who was appointed Attorney-General of NSW, the first Catholic to be appointed to high office.

Plunkett successfully prosecuted a group of white stockmen responsible for the Myall Creek massacres in which 28 Aboriginal people were murdered in 1838.

"Plunkett was fearless in applying his conviction that all people are equal under the law," Bishop Manning said.

"So I say to you that the equality and dignity of all men and women is the basic principle of humanity, a principle which Jesus lived and taught, and a conviction you must carry with you all the days of your life."

Bishop Manning continued that humility is a virtue which well becomes a graduate in the liberal arts.

"This applies to Church matters as it does to all areas of life," he said.

"Some Catholics persuade themselves that it is their mission to correct everybody else, other Catholics in particular, to develop a Church of those who are right, rather than a Church of mercy, forgiveness, compassion, justice and love. Alongside these Beatitudes, and leaving aside the great truths of Scripture and the Magisterium insistence on being right, often over the most trivial items, is indeed folly."

The Member for Blaxland, Jason Clare, represented Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who was unable to attend because of the late sitting of Parliament.

"It's often said today that education is the pathway to opportunity," Mr Rudd's message said.

"And it's certainly more today than ever before, with so many jobs requiring a strong and diverse set of skills.

"What Campion College also understands, of course, is that education is always much more than just preparation for a job. It is also preparation for a life.

"Which is why you can never separate values from education. This is something that is well understood by the Catholic education tradition."

Mr Rudd said that Campion was the first college of its kind in Australia to have an exclusive focus on the liberal arts, although the same trend was now evident in the new direction being taken by the University of Melbourne.

Research suggested that while only three percent of American college graduates studied at liberal arts colleges, those colleges have produced 19 percent of US presidents, and a disproportionately large share of CEOs and Pulitzer Prize winners, he said.

"The great argument for a liberal arts education is that it can train a person for life, not just for work," Mr Rudd's mesage said.
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(Source: CTHN)