Father Bob

Tribalism

Our man in Darfur, Sudan, John, has sent a brief eye witness account of chaos fanned by tribalism.

“How are we to live together?” This is the overriding concern of modern society – or needs to be globally accepted as such. Some of us have a vocation to keep people of different tribes in touch with each other.

Having achieved that, probably after much personal pain, the next step is to enable those same people to work together to create a “commonwealth” for our shared children.

Good tribalism IN, bad tribalism OUT.

Have a read of John’s birdseye view of what happens when good members of different tribes do nothing to create a “commonwealth” of the Sudan. Then join up with the like minded social activists in your vicinity to stop the local rot.

“Bob has conscripted me, which is fair enough as I owe him a fair bit.
Since Bob was working off memory he threw in places I have not been, that is Angola and Liberia but otherwise since 1994 I have been in the Humanitarian Field or more aptly the Aid Game (a serious Game it is) for about 14 years.

In Sudan my role will be administrative and not at the sharp end where the IDP's (Internally Displaced People) have sought refuge in camps.
As best as I can (forgive me for starting every sentence with I but I'm not that literate) I will pass on impressions and facts as they come to me. All dates and statistics are as the ex treasurer John Howard once said ''a little bit rubbery''

Af ew weeks ago an attempted coup failed in Khartoum or more accurately Omdurman the suburb across the river. That's where old Charles(Chinese) Gordon got killed by the Mahdi back in around 1885, one of the things he tried to stop was slave trading but as that was the Medium of Exchange in Sudan he was not that successful. You can find a statue of him next to the old treasury building in Melbourne. When they built that statue it was probably the last time Victorians thought about Sudan with any sort of interest.

The coup failed, supposedly 200 vehicles crossed the Chad border and dove to Khartoum without not being noticed a modern day WW2 Long Range Desert Group. So about 200 cars soldiers/rebels/kids and nobody notices them. A bit of a leak somewhat worse than a public servant and fuel policies. Except for the death of an undisclosed number of government soldiers and rebels (one estimate about 34 cars were shot up) the effect was that the Government of the day was not infallible and was lying when they said they controlled provinces around Khartoum. Where did the rest of the attacking force go, the government doesn't know that either but it seems they split to all points of the compass without getting caught.

So how do you sneak thru about 1000 miles of government controlled country. And what's this got to do with Humanitarian Aid you may also ask. A rough answer is that nobody/organisation/religion/group is fully in charge or in any state of agreement for any length of time. Tribal connections are strong on both sides of the Chad Sudan border, so connections/networks exist where friendships/bribes/common hatreds exist and things can be done, such as attempting a coup.

To add to the situation South Sudan has been at war for about 25 years up to 2003 when peace talks started to take hold but at Abeyi (a potentially Oil rich area) where the Government troops and ex rebels are in a combined army fighting has broken out with the town burnt to the ground. Yes the majority of homes were grass/thatch huts but if that is that you have got and it turns to ashes, you and your family are going to be distraught, and if one of your family/tribe is killed you are going to be angry. Killing usually leads to revenge and more killing, blaringly obvious but sadly true.

Of course the borders of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya (once a light of peace but now under threat of tribe/civil war) all surround Sudan. All of these countries house their own rebels/oppositions/tribes on both sides of the imaginary construct that is a national boundary.
This is not the best ground to start a civil society, in fact every body wants Regime Change and only occasionally does any one film it and put it on TV. No film no event.

Of course Sudan also interferes in other bordering states, a few months back they backed a coup that almost brought down the government in Chad. Chad obviously had decided not to turn the other cheek.

Forgive me for the length of the ramble, I hope it sets the background for the situation in Sudan and Darfur.”

 

R.J.M.

Ninenty Nine Percent

Got an email this week from John, our man in Darfur, Sudan. I say “our man” because he grew up in South Melbourne. Rough and ready too was John. He loved the Army reserve unit and joined at his earliest opportunity.

Over the last few years he’s replaced reserve army service with professional relief work in places such as Angola, Liberia, Kosovo, East Timor and Afghanistan.

He was back in Australia earlier this year, got sick, got well again and signed up for the Sudan.

I’ve tried to get him to contribute to this blog so you could get a closer look at what happens in places most of us can only read about. I’ll try him again. Oh, I left Iraq out of his tour of duty!

I guess you can’t expect too much detail from overseas correspondents. Negative criticism might infotain you and me but it might, also, put the informant’s job at risk if he/she gave an eye witness account of oppressive measures taken by a military junta in country A or repulsive behaviour by UN troops in country B.

And, it’s not only writers from overseas who are at risk, but also, social reporters here in good old Oz. Lots of social workers employed by charities, partly funded by government, have to be extremely selective in what they say publicly. It can be a case of “tell the truth, lose the funding”.

I know there’s legal, contractual issues here. But, say, I’m a social activist working for an ngo without government funding. Then the ngo wins funding. I was an advocate for “excluded” people before funding then was a silent witness because of funding.

Occasionally, a government, commonwealth, state or local, bravely states that funding needn’t silence the recipients. That policy nearly always has to change as analyses from ngos in the field  conflict with government officers’ own reports.

Never forget, comrades, that 99% of us are in “the field”. 1% of us are staff officers.

HQ staff, whether government, church or corporate, has one job – help field workers get the job done. How often, however, does the 1% turn into an elite to be served by the 99%, not vice versa?

In a pluralist society, or a secular humanist democracy or whatever we’re now calling ourselves, public or civil servants have “vocations” not just jobs. This latest (blessed?) stage in the evolution of “how are we to live together” humanity, requires 1% to offer themselves to enable the 99% to get on with living life to the full, not just inhaling and exhaling lives of quiet desperation.

That’s where social reporting comes in. We need to keep an eye out, locally, regionally and globally, and nudge the 1% to earn its money and relative security. All these one percenters are power over others. Even the humblest tram driver has power over others. The 1% needs to know it has been empowered by the 99%, not the owner or the CEO, but “we” the People.

I write this stuff with one eye on civil society and another on “ecclesial” society, i.e. the body corporate known as Church.

Elitism, in the form of clericalism, has been around, within Church, forever. People are the Church 99%. Clerics are the 1%. I’m on infallibly safe ground when I say that the clerical 1% has a vocation, not just a job, to serve the 99% lay people.

I won’t go on about this here. It might bore non-Church readers. However, I do believe that if only the Church 1% would recommit itself to the service of the 99%, then Church could show the way to a secular humanist society like ours.

That’ll require a metamorphosis, a change in structural shape. Australian secular society has its paradigm the Commonwealth – not a republic or monarchy – but, first and foremost, a Commonwealth.

Church in Australia needs to change from the hierarchical “trickle down” shape to the communitarian “trickle up” shape where the 99% empowers the 1%, “under God”, of course. Our man John in Darfur can only dream of such an outcome.

R.J.M.

Maureen Johnston

Maureen Johnston didn’t like the church. She popped up a few years ago to volunteer to feed the local poor both from the parish kitchen and backyard and from a food bus travelling through South/Port Melbourne and St. Kilda. That’s about 10 years ago.

She died last weekend. We’ll send her off from this kitchen and church, Friday 23rd May. I offer, as her epitaph, the submission we made to the Governor General 3 years ago. Maureen missed out then. We gave her a creation of our own “the order of St. Peter and St. Paul” for services to parish and neighbourhood. Lest We Forget.


Dear Excellency,

Maureen Johnston has been a resident of South Melbourne for most of her life.

A single mother and grandmother, Maureen has 4 children and several grandchildren, and for the last 6 years has been the primary carer for her grandson who is now 16 years old.

Maureen, a pensioner and active participant in the South Melbourne community began her voluntary work in 1990, alongside Outreach worker Henry Nissen OAM, on the food bus preparing and handing out sandwiches, offering hot coffee, aid etc., and generally supported the many who were often desperate for help and who welcomed seeing a friendly face. The food bus travelled the Port Melbourne, St. Kilda, Flinders Street Station areas.

In 1994 Maureen volunteered her services four days a week at the Parish House of Hospitality in South Melbourne.

The Parish Open House is a local non-profit South Melbourne organization offering assistance to underprivileged residents in need of help. The volunteers and workers at Open House work tirelessly with individuals and many families in need. They provide food parcels daily, offer advice on where to find help on housing, clothing, travel tickets and general welfare needs. Perhaps most importantly, the courtyard at Sts Peter and Paul’s Parish provides a safe environment for individuals who need to socialise and interact with others over a cup of coffee.

The success of The Parish Open House relies solely on the people involved in providing a safe and friendly environment for patrons. Maureen has been instrumental in helping Open House reach its goals. Maureen’s volunteering began with the collection of food from Food Bank. Unpacking and handing out food provided Maureen the opportunity to provide moral support for the people in the South Melbourne area who were lonely and often destitute.

Maureen’s experiences at The Parish Open House helped her identify three years ago, that there were many more people in need of a regular cooked meal as well as the opportunity for companionship, friendship and developing self esteem by interaction with others. Solely, she embarked on the service of providing evening meals on Monday, Tuesday and breakfast on Wednesday, insisting they would be free to anyone in need.

Supported with the encouragement from Fr Bob Maguire AM RFD, Parish Priest of Sts Peter and Paul’s, South Melbourne, Maureen took it upon herself to introduce and run this highly successful program. Shortly after its introduction, numbers at Maureen’s meal program rapidly reached between 60 and 80 patrons daily. The success of this project relies entirely on Maureen’s confidence, unselfish dedication and genuine care for the South Melbourne marginalised.

Not only Maureen provide patrons with food and an opportunity to interact with others, she also encourages them to participate in the preparation, cooking and cleaning up, enhancing their self esteem and providing them with a sense of purpose, belonging and pride.

A pensioner and suffering with osteoarthritis, a hernia and emphysema, Maureen does not drive, but walks to Coles every day to purchase supplies for the next meal, relying on the aid of her shopping trolley as she is severely stooped. While Maureen has significant health issues, she is unfailingly reliable and will only miss hosting a meal if she is very sick. She is the only person who provides meals on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and is very committed to her responsibility for people who have come to rely on these mealtimes.

The main source of demand began with food parcel handouts. Due to the success of Maureen’s meals, this demand has significantly decreased. The healthy meals sustain patrons and offer social interaction with others who are in a situation similar to their own, helping them realise they are not isolated. Maureen understood from experience that there were many lonely people living in South Melbourne, surviving on welfare. They would eat alone in their own home, having no contact or interaction with others. Unselfishly, she decided to make a change to their lives, and succeeded tremendously, admirably and without ever looking for or expecting recognition.

While selflessly ignoring her own health issues and always thinking and looking for the next project she can to undertake to improve peoples’ lives, Maureen is a familiar South Melbourne local and countless have benefited from her advice, friendship and kindness.

We nominate Maureen Johnston for an Order of Australia award for the wonderful work she continues to do and the impact she has made on this local community. Her loyalty, commitment and dedication to the marginalised group in South Melbourne is amazing and inspiring. Struggling in her own right, Maureen assists her daughter, who is on a disability pension and unable to look after herself or her son. Maureen is solely raising her 16 year old grandson and she still has time for her enormous and ongoing commitment to others in need. She has the admiration of all who know her.

Maureen has never been nominated for an award and has never been acknowledged for her dedication to community work. I believe she is very deserving of formal recognition as she stands out as a person with a passion for helping people get their lives back in order with encouragement and without judgement.


Bob Maguire on behalf of Parishioners

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