Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier this year, Australian Ambassador to the Holy See Chiara Porro and her husband, Rien Schuurhuis, visited Australia. They came up to Darwin and spent time in Darwin, including a visit to the Nauiyu Aboriginal community. Yesterday the ambassador's husband, Rien, represented the Vatican, the Holy See, for the first time in history in the road cycling world championships that were held down in Wollongong. However, the purpose of the visit went well beyond cycling. Rien said that he was representing the Pope's belief in the symbolic parallels between sport and life. As we know, sport brings people together from all walks of life to cooperate and support one another to achieve shared goals With this in mind, last Friday the Vatican delegation visited Caritas Australia, which is a charitable branch of the Catholic Church, to learn about truth telling and reconciliation with First Nations Australians including Uncle Roger Jarrett, a survivor of the Kinchela Boys Home. Ambassador Porro has also said that she intends to use her appointment to bring a Pacific voice to the Vatican and to encourage Pope Francis to engage with and visit Australia and our region. We look forward to welcoming Pope Francis to Darwin.