The heart of justice: new Episcopal Vicar for Justice and Social Services on faith, poverty and radical compassion

As we mark Anti-Poverty Week (13–19 October), Catholic social services agencies across our Archdiocese are working to eliminate child poverty, raise the rate of government benefits and support fair housing, among many other things. We spoke with the newly appointed Episcopal Vicar for Justice and Social Services, Fr John Petrulis, about his journey to this new role, what poverty and social justice mean to him and the ways we, as the Church, are uniquely placed to respond to poverty and marginalisation.

Congratulations Fr John on your appointment to this role. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

I grew up in South Oakleigh with Lithuanian and Irish parents. My father came out to Australia from Lithuania in 1947 as a displaced person on the very first boat after the war, the General Stuart Heintzelman. He came from extraordinary dislocation and real struggle, spending close to 10 years in forced labour and displaced persons camps. He was on the first train to the migrant camp at Bonagilla and then another work camp in Yallourn, so he had a real journey of trying to find home and arrive at security again in life after the many traumas of his journey.

My mother came via England from West Cork in Ireland, a very isolated rural area near the coast. She was looking for a new opportunity, to try to find her way, because there was such strong poverty in that area of Ireland.

Both of them made their way to Australia and they met in St Kilda at a dance. So, after all these years growing up, I end up in St Kilda, where I have served as parish priest for 18 years. I often pass the boarding houses where they lived and made their first beginnings in Melbourne.

I grew up In St Peter’s Parish in Clayton, with a lot of connection with youth groups. I was the president of the local Young Christian Students (YCS). It was a time when there wasn’t much youth activity happening, so a few of us took the initiative to begin things like dances and other activities. It became an important formative place for me. And I met other leaders from young Christian student organisations around Melbourne and developed a bit of solidarity there.

After leaving school, I trained as a teacher and had an invitation, from someone with whom I shared a student house, to a Gospel reflection group. That became a very transforming experience, putting together my faith and it coming alive in that group. That person also introduced me to the Catholic Worker and Dorothy Day’s radical commitment to those in need. So those seeds, the simple encounters with people, you know, and gatherings and invitations, are what started it all.

Can you share some context around your work with those experiencing poverty and marginalisation in its various forms?

A childhood friend of mine developed serious mental illness in his early 20s—just accompanying him in that journey of the real struggle of mental illness and being exposed to the lack of proper services for his care. To this day, I still walk with him, 40 years later. I visit him now, but there is still a similar lack of real supports. There is some improvement with things like NDIS enabling him to have a better lifestyle, but that personal relationship opened up a lot of the reality of it for me at an early stage.

My first introduction to youth justice was through my placement at the Winlaton Training Centre for my pastoral placement in my first year of seminary training. That really opened my eyes to some of the realities of young people growing up without family connections, and all the things people attach themselves to that are not that helpful in their journey.

Relationship is paramount in the emergence of justice. It’s the personal relationship that remains faithful for the long haul.

The person who dropped me off there was Fr Kevin Mogg, one of the founding hearts of Catholic Social Services Victoria (CSSV). He was a great formative person in my journey, first as my Rector in the seminary and, later on, when he and Fr Terry Kean, the previous parish priest here at St Kilda, were talking about my perhaps being the appropriate person to come into the next stage of the of the mission’s life as parish priest here in St Kilda and Elwood.

Given that background, what does social justice mean to you?

Social justice means restoring what has often been robbed from people’s dignity along the journey of life. It’s giving what is owed, to bring a person back into life and connection into their social belonging once again, their rightful participation in what they’re called to. So the word justice reflects the goodness of God’s heart, a heart that that focuses on the one who has been excluded and wounded by life’s journey.

How has your perception of social justice and poverty changed over the years?

Relationship is paramount in the emergence of justice. It’s the personal relationship that remains faithful for the long haul. It’s not just about delivering services but how we deliver them. That makes an enormous difference. When you start walking with someone in that real spirit of compassion, it’s very hard to walk away.

But what I’ve learned is that you need a lot of resources, professional backup and, at the same time, holding the tension of ‘Why?’ Why has this person or this group of people found themselves excluded in our society and are suffering in such a way? It’s about creatively walking in the tensions of immediately responding as best you can, but also asking the bigger questions.

And I had a wonderful formation in the seminary from a priest, Damien Heath, who came back from South America and had reflected long and hard on that experience. The justice principles that he was applying—it wasn’t just abstract. He had come from an experience of seeing it lived out. And I think he helped my formation to broaden and deepen.

I had in my formation the opportunity to do a summer school in justice at Boston College, and Gustavo Gutierrez, who was the father of liberation theology, was someone who had lived the experience and inspired me to live it out in my own context here.

You’ve recently been appointed as Episcopal Vicar for Justice and Social Services. What can you tell us about the role?

I’m still getting clarity around the role, but I’ve already connected with Josh Lourensz [at CSSV] and his wonderful, passionate commitment to the many Catholic services organisations. I think there’s about 40. I think it’s about helping promote that the spirit of justice is not just an optional extra in the proclamation of the Gospel. It lies at the core expression of the Gospel. That’s something that the Archbishop would want to keep on growing and supporting. The Gospel is not just proclaimed by worship on a Sunday, but by being sent out to go and serve the Lord in the spirit of just relationship.

What aspects of your personal journey and experience do you feel will help you most in that role?

My life has always been formed by people in need, from my earlier days in my family and growing up in my parish life, but also in parishes I’ve been in. I was in disability ministry in Sunbury in the deinstitutionalisation times in the mid-80s, and that was a profound experience of witnessing how damaging institutionalisation can be. But also at the time there was great, hopeful desires to bring people into community, which is the model now.

The nature of the Church is to be called out of itself in service and be part of the transformation of the world.

I spent three years working with a group called Citizen Advocacy, trying to help people come out of the institution into being welcomed into the community, be integrated, and understanding that a person with a disability is a person first, not a disabled person. That was very formative for me there.

And in my parish in Boronia, we had a great justice group that was formed, and it was a time of East Timor finding its independence. We had a very strong solidarity project through the Salesians at Los Palos. I visited there with Bishop Hilton Deakin, who was a great, inspiring heart in his care for the East Timorese.

How will this role as Episcopal Vicar differ from the roles that you’ve had in the past, say at a parish and a more local level?

It will differ in the sense that it is about helping unify various communities in the spirit of justice, trying to help promote the awareness in the connection with parish. So I’ll be coming from a wider perspective, back to parish, to help parishes support Catholic social services, and help with the communication of the great work that’s been happening and to further the new structures that are needed to support Catholic social services as our Church goes through enormous transition at this time.

With Take the Way of the Gospel and parish renewal, how could that work together with the call of Catholic social services and the spirit of justice in those new communities? How do parishes cooperate on a justice project that they may be connected to through a work of Catholic social services? So it’s an exciting time. It’s a challenging time, but a great opportunity to renew the focus on the work for justice as a Church.

In my time here at Sacred Heart, I’ve seen the power of a local community being called out of itself when it’s become more introverted. The nature of the Church is to be called out of itself in service and be part of the transformation of the world rather than be a place only of members going to.

What do you see as being the biggest challenges relating to poverty in our communities across the Archdiocese? Are they material, spiritual, social, something else, and how are they playing out?

I think all of the above, but particularly I think when people are living their ordinary daily lives, the enormous pressures people are under, the cost of living and how that’s affecting and creating other forms of poverty in terms of isolation and creating a sense of helplessness that needs the empowerment of community to help people have the confidence that they’re not alone. I think a parish and a church has a real call to help. There will probably be many people coming to church who are feeling that in various parts of Melbourne. How can we recapture a sense of community that will have compassion for one another?

This week is Anti-Poverty Week. What do you feel the Church in our Archdiocese is uniquely placed to do to address the challenges of poverty?

The fact that we’re in ordinary communities that can be listening to the local area. And there are so many people of many gifts in our parishes that can be focused around issues of disadvantage in our local areas. I think there’s an opportunity for people to become more aware of anti-poverty programs like the focus on child poverty and raising the rate of various payments that people really struggle to exist on. I see that each day at [Sacred Heart] Mission. We have plenty of people who are just on benefits and can’t live on them. They can’t feed themselves and pay the rent. So I’ve seen a lot of older people come in supplementing their income by coming to the mission. So there’s some of those awareness-raising and understanding opportunities. Local parish communities can begin to just listen to their fellow parishioners in the area they’re living in.

In our society, we suffer so much from a damaging, enclosing individualism that makes us lose our heart for our fellow citizens.

What’s your hope for those working in our Catholic social services across the Archdiocese and, importantly, for the people that they serve and accompany?

It’s for them to know that they’re not isolated as just organisations but they are held in a Church that’s growing to understand, growing in the spirit of justice, to connect and support them. And we’d hope that parishes, with the fruit of good communication, can continue to see the good work of Catholic social services in all its various ministries here.

And what can people wanting to alleviate poverty in all its forms do to accompany those who are experiencing it?

Listen to the person before you, in your family, who is on the edge of things. Listen to your neighbourhood people. Listen as you read the paper to what’s going on.

Pay attention and let your heart be led. Ask questions like ‘What if that was me? How would that affect me? How would I feel?’ to create a spirit of compassion for those struggling. Because in our society, we suffer so much from a damaging, enclosing individualism that makes us lose our heart for our fellow citizens.

And if you had one message to share with our community of faith here in the Archdiocese, what would that be?

Don’t discount any little act you can do for another person in your immediate area and that may ripple out to others. Join with others in your area to keep on asking that justice be something that’s ongoing. Never give up on the search.

Whatever circumstance you’re in, you’re always welcome at the at the kitchen table at our place.

We’ve covered a lot of ground there, but is there anything else you would like to share?

As I look back on my personal journey, I think, the sense that the Spirit of justice has called me through life. Through my parents. Through my Church belonging in the earlier days. Within the call of being a priest.

One image that comes to me strongly is the kitchen table at home. Mum and Dad had this great heart for anybody who’d come, you know. And they had such a welcoming heart.

Often I’d come home and there’d be someone from the neighbourhood crying with Mum, or Dad would be making a cup of tea in the background, but there was a sense that everyone was welcome. I think for me, that’s always meant a lot—that they never gave up, closed the door. Whatever circumstance you’re in, you’re always welcome at the at the kitchen table at our place.