The call to prophetic witness, whether it emerges from a religious vocation, our baptismal commitment as disciples of Christ, or our common human vocation to goodness is held in frailty ( the earthen vessels image).

For each of us who aspire to goodness in our own lives and the life of the world there is awareness of the contradictions within, the gap between that to which we aspire and how we actually are.

Nevertheless, the call to prophetic witness remains. Corrosive and violent conflicts, whether global, local or domestic impel us to affirm with clarity the importance of respect for the dignity of each human person and belief that there is the capacity for peace, dialogue and mutual understanding. Realism must never be an excuse for cynicism in regard to the graced human capacity to be better. Implicit in acknowledging the ‘what is’ is the commitment to ‘what could be better’.

In faith, we are conscious that this enterprise is not in our own power but utterly dependent on God’s grace. Hence the indispensability of prayerful awareness as the foundation of prophetic commitment.

Fr Peter Jones OSA,

President, Catholic Religious Australia.