I have been quizzed a few times as to why the Diocesan Resource Centre Library advertises and supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander events such as Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week. My answer is that libraries are places for education and attending an event that provides you with even one more piece of information about a topic, a way of life, a group of people can only bring more understanding. This understanding can assist us, as the people of God, to bring unity and flourishing to our community. We are called as people of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle to Live the Joy of the Gospel and Share it with the World. Jesus’ life, as told to us through the Gospels, was a life of love, a life of seeing the dignity in all people and a life of community. We can live this joy and share it with the world through our Human Library events.

The Human Library at the Diocesan Resource Centre on June 27 features a book who has worked extensively towards increasing knowledge and understanding around the social issues facing the indigenous communities of our Diocese and areas of Sydney. Fr Darryl Mackie has been a priest in many parishes of our Diocese. In this role he has worked with Indigenous people to ensure that their culture and community are included in funerals and other liturgical celebrations. In 2018, whilst living and working in Sydney as the Catholic Chaplain at St Vincent’s hospital Fr Darryl was appointed as the chaplain to Sydney’s Aboriginal Catholic community. At the time Fr Darryl said, “that the most important thing he will be aiming to do in his…role is listening and walking the journey with people.”[1]

In his chaplaincy and parish work Fr Darryl has taken the words of Pope St. John Paul II to heart “You are part of Australia and Australia is part of you. And the Church herself in Australia will not be fully the Church that Jesus wants her to be until you have made your contribution to her life and until that contribution has been joyfully received by others.”[2]

I invite you to come along to the Diocesan Resource Centre on Friday 27 June, the week before NAIDOC Week 2025, to listen to, and ask questions of, our Human Book Fr Darryl Mackie, so as to gain a greater understanding of how we can work together to achieve the vision of Pope St John Paul II as articulated above and first expressed in 1986.

[1] Rodrigues, Marilyn. Sydney’s Aboriginal Catholic community welcomes its new chaplain
The Catholic Weekly, 3/7/2018
Sydney’s Aboriginal Catholic community welcomes its new chaplain

[2] Address of John Paul II, 29 November 1986, Alice Springs, https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1986/november/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19861129_aborigeni-alice-springs-australia.html.