Bishop warns on ‘subversion’

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32560, 20 March 1971, Page 18

Bishop warns on ‘subversion’

“We must -be especially wary that we do not allow the ideals of our way of life to be subverted by false and cleverly imported views from abroad of racial relations and racial problems elsewhere.” This warning is contained in a statement by the chairman of the Roman Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (the Most Rev. B. P. Ashby) the Catholic Bishop of Christchurch. “We must avoid thinking racism if we are to avoid being racist,” says the statement issued to mark the inauguration of the International Year Against Racia’ Discrimination tomorrow. “New Zealand has developed as a multi-racial society. Racial justice within it is as yet imperfect. New Zealand has an opportunity and a duty to demonstrate to the world that a just multiracial society is possible. “It is imperative that as Christians in New Zealand, our beliefs in equal human dignity are expressed in out attitudes and actions.” The Bishop says that 1971 is designated as the International Year against Racism. “Our special responsibility this year is to be aware of, and respond to the needs felt and expressed by our Maori people and our migrant communities, using our resources —human and material—so that we may become truly one people,” he said. “Opportunities must be created for the wider teaching and learning of Maori language as the key to a culture in which we may all share, and to which Maori people have the right by inheritance.

“Such positive measures to encourage the appreciation of different races and cultures in our midst are essential to counter the racism latent in almost every mixed society. “While we recognise the right of a nation to regulate the flow of immigrants to ensure the orderly development of an existing society, we can not accept either discrimination on the basis of race in entry to this ocuntry, or racial injustice in access to housing, work, education, ot any other rights and benefits of our society. “No matter what we may achieve in racial justice and harmony in this country, we cannot remain contented as long as racial discrimination or oppression is practised elsewhere, either by one country towards another, or by one race towards people of another race in the same country.

“Not only must we seek to end such injustice for the sake of the oppressed people, but we must do so in the recognition that racism is one

of the most potent threats to peace in the world,” the statement adds. "All men are brothers, for the self-sacrifice of Christ redeemed us to become sons of the same Father. Such has always been the teaching of the Catholic Church. “The Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Church in New Zealand affirms this as the Christian basis of all relations between peoples of different races.”