The Sisters of the Good Samaritan marked Refugee Week this year by hosting two events – one which shone a light on the plight of people living in Gaza, and the other highlighting the precarious situation of refugees and asylum seekers living on Bridging Visas in Australia.

By Debra Vermeer

The events were organised by the Good Samaritan Refugee and Asylum Seeker Support Network (GRASSN) as a means of raising awareness of the issues both among the Sisters and across the broader Good Samaritan community.

The first gathering was a Community Conversation with People on Bridging Visas, held on 17 June at the Good Samaritan Congregational Centre in Glebe, New South Wales.

It featured Joannie Lee, Refugee Leadership Officer from Jesuit Refugee Service Australia, who introduced two people who are living on Bridging Visas. These temporary visas are issued while a person’s migration status is being assessed or reviewed, an outcome which can take years.

Image: photo Lissa Brown/Sisters of the Good Samaritan.

Good Samaritan Sister Catherine Norman from the GRASSN, who was also among the presenters, said the event was attended by Sisters and staff at the Congregational Centre as well as groups of senior students from two Sydney-based Good Samaritan Education schools – St Scholastica’s College, Glebe and Stella Maris College, Manly.

“Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) has a program where they train refugees and asylum seekers to share their stories,” Catherine said.

“They have developed a special program for schools. The program provides an opportunity to hear personal stories of people directly affected by this significant issue of social justice in our country, and to engage in conversations with them over morning tea afterwards.”

One of the presenters told his story of the difficulties in trying to find work as a refugee when his eyesight was deteriorating.

“The students were able to hear first-hand that being on a Bridging Visa is not a very comfortable place to be because people on those visas don’t have many rights,” Catherine said.

“They also learnt about what JRS does to support these people with food, accommodation and training for work.

“Hearing these stories directly from the people themselves has a big impact on the teachers who accompany the students to these events and, hopefully, on the students themselves, who must be concerned, socially alert young people, to be interested in studying and learning about these social justice issues.”

The second event hosted by the GRASSN was an online conference entitled, ‘Finding Freedom: Diversity in Community’.

Image: photo Lissa Brown/Sisters of the Good Samaritan.

Presenters included Sister Jan Barnett RSJ, the Josephite Justice Network Coordinator; Nicole Chehine, the Advancement Director for Caritas Australia; and a Palestinian refugee with lived experience seeking refuge in Australia.

Jan explored the topic of antisemitism. She defined and differentiated the difference between antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli Government within the context of the Government’s actions in Gaza.

“She noted that support for the people in Gaza is hampered by this,” Catherine said.

Nicole discussed the delivery of Caritas Australia’s Gaza Emergency Relief Program and the agency’s continued advocacy for social justice.

Catherine said Nicole outlined the desperate situation of people in Gaza, where homes, hospitals and essential water and sanitation infrastructure have been destroyed. Nicole said food deprivation had reached extreme levels. Famine is imminent with half of the population on the brink of starvation. Nicole also outlined the extreme difficulties in getting aid through to the people.

The Palestinian refugee, who preferred to remain anonymous, raised the issue of people like themselves being afraid to speak out on behalf of the suffering people of Gaza for fear of being denied a refugee visa in Australia.

“But while there are these barriers to speaking out and helping the people in Gaza, there are ways we can help,” Catherine said.

“Jan spoke of the Josephite Social Justice Committee seeing a need to be engaged in advocacy, and we in the Good Samaritan Refugee and Asylum Seeker Support Network are always looking to identify groups and individuals in Australia with whom we might work.”

This included both Jewish and Muslim groups who are opposed to the treatment of people in Gaza, along with organisations like the Refugee Council of Australia, the Archdiocese of Sydney’s Justice and Peace Office, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, other religious congregations and the Sydney Alliance.

Image: photo Lissa Brown/Sisters of the Good Samaritan.

Meanwhile, two Sisters of the Good Samaritan, Patty Fawkner and Clare Condon, recently signed an open letter calling on Australia’s Catholic bishops to speak out and call for an end to the suffering in Gaza.

The letter, which was published in the online publication Pearls and Irritations in May, was issued by a group of concerned Catholics under the title Catholics for Peace and Justice for Palestinians.

It urged the bishops to “to take whatever action is available to help end the genocidal acts in Gaza”.

The letter called for:

• An immediate ceasefire as urged by Pope Francis;
• Release of all the 59 remaining hostages and the bodies of dead hostages and soldiers held by Hamas and the progressive release of more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails;
• Israel should allow the UN and other international agencies unlimited access to ensure the provision of food, water, medical supplies and equipment, shelter and earth- and rubble-moving machinery;
• Urgent action to process and admit many thousands of Palestinians for at least temporary settlement in Australia;
• Australia should commit to enforcing, in Australia, all orders of the International Criminal Court and identify ways to implement any decisions and opinions of the International Court of Justice relating to Israel and Palestine; and
• Australia should extend its current limited arms embargo on Israel to include the provision of arms or arms components through third states, the trade in dual-use items (especially those related to drones and to surveillance) and prohibit the import from Israel of all such items.

It also urged Australia to play a full role in a UN-convened conference in June on implementation of UN resolutions on the Two-State Solution. 

“We urge all Catholic Bishops to provide leadership to help bring an end to the genocidal acts,” the letter concluded. “Please speak up.”

Patty said she signed the letter because of the “horrifying” situation of suffering in Gaza, and her belief that the Church should strongly advocate for an end to the violence.

“The situation is so utterly disturbing and what adds to that disturbance is that as soon as you speak out about it, you’re accused of being antisemitic. The level of suffering is unconscionable, and the West has to do something.”

The Bishops Commission for Social Justice, Mission and Service issued a public statement in early June saying that they joined with Pope Leo XIV in expressing their concern about the “worrying and painful” situation in Gaza.

“We support his appeal to ‘allow the entry of dignified humanitarian aid and to put an end to the hostilities, whose heartbreaking price is paid by the children, elderly, and the sick’, as well as the safe return of hostages,” the letter, signed by the Commission’s Chair, Bishop Timothy Harris, said.