Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Statement of Sorry (1997)

Statement of Sorry and Request for Forgiveness

Pope John Paul II said to Aboriginal and Islander peoples in Alice Springs in 1986:
“Christian people of goodwill are saddened to realise—many of them only recently—how long Aboriginal people were transported from their homelands into small areas or reserves where families were broken up, tribes split apart, children orphaned and people forced to live like exiles in a foreign country.”

In May this year, the magnificent Reconciliation Convention took place in Melbourne, calling all Australians to work together to make a better future for our whole nation.
This event has offered a prophetic challenge to the whole of Australia and especially to the Church in Australia and to our own local Church of Adelaide.

As Christian people of goodwill, we are saddened that Indigenous children were taken away from their families.
We accept responsibility for the part our Church has played in the removal of those children and we ask forgiveness.
We accept and welcome the recommendations of the Bringing Them Home Inquiry. We will act upon them in this local Church.

As Christian people of goodwill, we are saddened too by the part our Church played in the dispossession of Indigenous people in this southern part of Australia.
This process took away their lands without agreement or compensation, destroyed their social systems, and deprived them of their rights and traditional interests. We are sorry, and we ask forgiveness.

Today we recommit ourselves to furthering the process of Reconciliation in every way that we can.
Indigenous sisters and brothers, we are sorry, and we ask your forgiveness.

Archbishop of Adelaide
Aborigines’ Sunday, 6 July 1997