Thursday, 28 October 2021

 Ms BLANDTHORN (Pascoe Vale) (10:02): Father Walter Kelly Black, ordained as a priest in 1959, was born into eternal life in August 2021. He influenced faith formation, development and renewal of clergy and religious and laypeople alike across Australia and the Pacific, in Rome and no doubt beyond, from local parishes to the Holy See. Father Walter was in Rome around the time of Vatican II, and on his eventual return to Australia he brought a unique understanding of its intention and a drive to influence its progression in Catholic social teaching and culture. From 1986 to 2003 Father Walter was director of LJ Goody Bioethics Centre in Perth and from 2004 he was their senior consultant, and the centre’s library is named in his honour. I thought it was appropriate in this place to acknowledge that Father Walter’s intelligence, spirituality and thinking have had a profound influence on many of our parliamentary colleagues on all sides of the aisle in every Australian parliament when it comes to the sanctity of human life as well as the inherent dignity of the person.

When I went to Rome, Walt suggested I visit the stunning 12th-century mosaic of the Tree of Life in the Basilica of Saint Clement. The mosaic depicts the cross as the tree, the roots in the earth reaching to heaven and the foliage embracing and sheltering people of all occupations, representing all walks of life, indeed all living things, and immortality is symbolised in this mosaic. Walt’s admiration of this mosaic does not surprise anyone who knew his love of God and life but also his profound sense of equality and social justice.

Walt was the son of proud parents Bridget, nee Kelly, Black and William Black, brother to Marianne, Helen, Biddy, Gavan, Peter, Buster, Joe and my grandfather Adrian. He was my mum’s uncle and my great uncle. We will all remember him fondly, continue to hold him in extremely high regard and remain inspired by his work.