OCEANIA/AUSTRALIA - The liturgy is enriched with aboriginal chants and prayers in a church on the outskirts of Sydney

Sydney (Agenzia Fides) - The Australian Church has the desire to get closer to Aboriginal communities and this is why the inclusion of traditional Aboriginal songs and prayers in the liturgies has been promoted: as reported to Fides by the faithful of the Archdiocese of Sydney, after years in which the participation of Aboriginal Catholics to the life of faith of the community was in decline, the church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, on the outskirts of Sydney, will launch a series of meetings and celebrations dedicated to the faithful Aboriginals, with the aim of bringing them to live and celebrate the liturgy with continuity. In fact in the territory of the church there are many Aboriginal Catholic families, and this is the reason of the pastoral initiative. The church, founded in 1872 will propose a monthly prayer meeting that will include hymns and prayers written by Aboriginal people, along with some rites of their native culture. These liturgies are added to the usual monthly Mass dedicated to the Aborigines, which is celebrated in the Church of the Reconciliation, in the center of the city of Sydney, where baptisms, communions and confirmations are also celebrated in the indigenous language. According to the data which Fides received by the local Church, there are about 4,300 native Catholics in the Archdiocese of Sydney out of 634,000 Catholics. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 19/01/2012)