Responsibility

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
6 Jul 2003

a had to leave my office to pick up the text from the secretary. On my return the culprit was sitting in the chair at my desk. He read the reference and turned with a smile. "What do you mean", he enquired "by writing that a am generally responsible?"

Some self knowledge and a sense of humour saved him from the worst forms of irresponsibility.

Today we hear too much about our rights and not enough about our duties and responsibilities. A responsible person is someone who respects the rights of others and fulfils his duty to himself and others.

Most irresponsible people are immature, although regular adult irresponsibility is usually a sign of something else, such as chronic laziness, even malice.

Irresponsible people always put the blame for their failure or weakness on another. At the beginning of creation, when our first parents overreached themselves and ate the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the devil. "Passing the buck" is not an Australian invention.

We are not born thinking of others. To be a child is to be self-centred. Some experts claim that the newly born begin by thinking of their mother as a physical extension of self.

Growing up is a development from the total dependence of a child on her parents to an adult co-operative independence, being able to stand on one's own feet. Children learn to be responsible by being given increasing amounts of freedom so that they learn to be accountable for their own decisions and activities. This best happens when they grow up in an atmosphere of consistent love and parental care. This is the carrot, while the stick is applied by their brothers and sisters and their schoolmates. Blind obedience, no room for mistakes and especially the absence of adult love, breed irresponsibility.

Recently there was an evening of input and discussion by senior students from all the Catholic secondary schools on the theme of leadership. John Eales, former captain of the world-champion Wallabies, gave the opening address.

Parents and teachers would have been proud of these young men and women. A certainly was. They knew that leadership is a form of Christian service; they realised that under the authority of principal and teachers they had significant responsibilities for the well-being of their student communities. Self-confidently they discussed together the practical implications that flowed from that. These young adults inspired hope for the future.

Babies were once defined as "a loud noise at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other". We should all strive to be adults.