Election 2014
Reflections on the key issues raised in the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ general election statement are shared below.
People living in poverty
Lisa Beech
Many New Zealanders are becoming familiar with our shameful child-poverty statistics, which show around a quarter – or 285,000 – of our children live in poverty. Poor children live in poor families and 10 per cent of children live at the hardest end of poverty, going without many things other New Zealanders take for granted.
Catholic-benefit advocates from Caritas, Catholic Social Services, St Vincent de Paul, Pax Christi and the Sisters of Mercy were among others who saw this first hand at the Mangere Benefit Impact in Auckland recently.
During the three days it became commonplace to meet families going without household and personal items most New Zealanders take for granted – beds, fridges, washing machines, wet-weather clothing, adequate nutritious food, medical and dental care.
Over the past 30 years inequality has grown and become entrenched. Child poverty figures are now twice what they were in 1984. As the gap between rich and poor has grown, of equal concern is a lack of empathy or understanding between different sections of our society. But issues of poverty and inequality have grown to become the number-one concern of many New Zealanders as measured in the May 2014 Roy Morgan Opinion Poll.
Our responsibilities to people in poverty extend beyond our shores to the global inequalities faced by people in our Pacific neighbourhood and in other parts of the world. This includes an estimated 870 million people living without secure access to food and over a billion people who lack adequate access to clean water.
Christ who identified fully with people facing material need addresses us in the Gospels, ‘I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink’. Pope Francis has renewed, by his personal witness, our commitment as a Church community to reach beyond our comfort zones to people living on the margins and peripheries of society. People living in poverty are people to keep in mind in considering how we vote.
Lisa Beech is Research and Advocacy Co-ordinator for Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand.
People living with pain, illness or approaching the end of their lives
Fr Patrick Bridgman
In Wellington Regional Hospital there is a mantra from patients that is often heard by Sr Sia and me: ‘Do you know that even the food is great here?’
Peoples’ expectations of hospital food, and their treatment in general, can be low.
Then they experience the high-level care that is here, and those expectations change. Patient care is a matter of ‘treating’ the whole person. All who are involved, including family, nursing staff, health-care assistants, chaplains, doctors, cleaners, food technicians, physios, consultants, social workers, whanau care, have responsibilities.
The sense of dignity a person will feel can contribute as much to the healing of the whole person as will the medicines and procedures applied.
To hear a patient speak of how they have been cared for and respected by all the medical staff, and how the person looks forward to the visits of the food-technician, Justin, is a witness of a person’s spirits and dignity being raised despite their having arrived in a very depressed state, with a poor prognosis.
There will always be the patient who finds the news of approaching death a burden too hard to bear, but bearing this burden alone need never be part of their journey.
As chaplains we are always impressed by the work of the palliative team who, working with the medical staff, chaplaincy, and families, provide a great level of experience to assist patients and their families.
A culture of healthcare focused on the whole person, including the end-of-life journey, ensures the dignity of people living with pain, illness, and approaching the end of life.
National Hospital Chaplaincy Week runs from 21–28 September, 2014.
Fr Patrick Bridgman is the Wellington Hospital Chaplain.
Unborn children
John Kleinsman
For many years a bill board stood on State Highway 1 just north of Paraparaumu with the simple but profound message: ‘Abortion stops a beating heart’. This phrase cuts right to the heart of the issue and challenges all those inclined to frame the abortion debate exclusively in terms of adult ‘choice’.
In their 2014 election statement the Bishops highlight the Catholic principle of protecting the most vulnerable. The unborn remain amongst the most vulnerable in our society. Ironically, in the last 20 years they have become even more vulnerable because of prenatal-testing technology. The availability of prenatal testing has led to some commentators referring to early pregnancy as ‘tentative pregnancy’, and the
re-emergence of the eugenics thinking of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
It is somewhat encouraging the number of abortions in New Zealand has decreased from 18,382 in 2007 to 14,073 in 2013. However, the fact we still lose the equivalent of a large class-room of children every day puts recent gains into perspective.
It is of great concern there now is a concerted move by many, including the Green Party, to make abortion more easily available in New Zealand. Given both opponents and supporters of abortion agree the present numbers are far too high, it makes no sense to introduce policies that will lead to an increase in numbers again. That alone makes abortion a serious and important matter for the upcoming election.
Taking this issue into account in deciding who to vote for is an important step – but just the first step. The harder step in the name of protecting the vulnerable is to make our families, parishes, secondary schools and communities more supportive for women and their partners who find themselves facing an unexpected pregnancy. This requires us to vote for MPs and parties who will advocate for welfare and employment policies that protect mothers and the children who depend on them.
It also demands of us to look at our own personal involvements in building a positive culture of life. As Pope Francis recently noted, it is too often the case: ‘We have done little to adequately accompany women in very difficult situations, where abortion appears as a quick solution to their profound anguish’; especially in situations of poverty.
John Kleinsman is the Director of the Nathaniel Centre and lectures for the Catholic Institute of Aoteroa
New Zealand.
Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Migrants
Sr Catherine Jones smsm
New Zealand had its best medal tally ever at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. We pride ourselves on our sporting achievements on the international stage. But how do we fare on the humanitarian and development aspects of international relations? Would it be bronze, silver or gold?
In their general election statement, the New Zealand Catholic Bishops h
ave invited all Catholics to reflect deeply on the questions facing New Zealanders as they go to the polls.
The Bishops rightly focus on key issues facing New Zealand at this time such as child poverty. But they also remind us: ‘In a global world, our responsibilities do not end at our own shores’. In particular, we are ‘our brother’s keeper’ for migrants and former refugees who now call New Zealand home.
It is about 10 years since my first visit to a New Zealand prison. I was part of the support group for asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui once he was released from solitary confinement.
Always we were two or three visitors at a time. We exchanged jokes in Algerian Arabic, shed tears over some of his early poems and shared his anguish for his family. Outside, the legal system moved slowly but in the end Ahmed was freed and reunited with his family, who have now settled in New Zealand.
My life too was changed forever. I hesitate to tell this story but I do so because I believe we all have our story of a chance encounter with ‘the foreigner who lives among you’ (Deuteronomy 26:11). Take a moment to recall that person and that time, and the impact it had on you. What is the next step you want to take?
To all those volunteers who work to welcome former refugees into our society, who help with language and cooking classes and many other community support areas – please stand for your gold medal.
Make room for others who will join you soon on the podium!
Sr Catherine Jones smsm is a former member of the Caritas Board and has worked in refugee resettlement.
People in prison
Sister Marie Roche rsj
I am a Sister of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. I walked through the gates of Rimutaka Prison 17 years ago in my role as the full-time Catholic Prison Chaplain. There are up to 1,000 men inside this prison who I serve through my ministry. Men aged 17 to 85 years, who have families and loved ones and who have committed crimes against other human beings and their loved ones.
I listen to the stories of these men. Stories of mental health, addiction, fear, abuse, dashed dreams and failure that have inevitably led to a cycle of pain, trauma, despair and dysfunction. One of my major tasks in the words of Pope Francis is to invite them to know, ‘the Lord is inside with them’; that there is hope, healing, forgiveness and a way of putting things right so they can be free.
At times the challenges I face would appear impossible. Yet my Catholic faith and commitment offers me and us a way to deal with both the perpetrators and victims of crime. Faith calls us to look through the eyes of Christ and see him in these men no matter how serious their offending: ‘For I was in prison and you visited me’ (Matthew 25:36). When I sit with them I sit with Christ.
Faith also demands I and we reach out in love to victims and do what the Good Samaritan did: ‘Look after him’ (Luke 10:35). It is not for me, an either-or scenario, but a ‘both’ and a mission.
In their statement our Bishops ask us to move beyond election slogans and consider the complexity of many social situations and challenges.
We must move beyond pre-judgments and excuses and work to find a way where our prisoners and their victims are all cared for and restored as fully-human, fully-alive valued members of our society.
Let us pray this month for the grace to deepen our understanding of our common prayer: ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’; which reminds us whenever we pray we all are flawed human beings in need of the compassion, mercy and love of God.
Pope Francis says: ‘Thinking about this is good for me: When we have the same weakness, why did they fall and I didn’t? This is a mystery that makes me pray and draws me to prisoners.’
It is important any ‘solution’ to crime in Aotearoa New Zealand includes consideration of the rights, responsibilities, reconciliation, restoration and rehabilitation for all who are affected by crime and offending.
Sr Marie Roche rsj is a senior prison chaplain at Rimutaka prison.
People without a vote
Hannah King
At the Youth Voters Forum held after the Child Poverty Forum in Wellington on 5 August, an interesting and compelling idea was put before us – that nothing will change in this country unless people cast their vote not for themselves but for those in need.
The child-poverty statistic will not be reduced unless those of us who live outside that statistic use our vote to support parties and policies that prioritise and advocate for these children and their families. It isn’t a question of our outrage over the situation in which a quarter of our children live – as surely we all see this as unacceptable.
It’s a question of the level of dedication we each have to making a difference.
If we want to see all Kiwi children fed, clothed and housed adequately, we must be willing to sacrifice our own self-serving agendas and use our voice and influence for the children in this country who have neither.
Hannah King is a Year 13 student at St Catherine’s College, Wellington.