I Once Was A Roman Catholic 'To Joe' Poem by Francis Duggan

I once was a Roman Catholic but I'm not one no more
For I've not been to church to pray since nineteen eighty four
And I don't have a religion for I have seen the light
And I still think God likes me and I think God's all right.

My mother made me a Catholic and as eight year old boy
I received my first communion in church at North Fitzroy
And my mum had great plans for me then and she even held out
hope
That I'd become the Vatican's first ever dark skinned Pope.

But a lot of things have changed since then and I've lost the Catholic faith
And my mum don't have plans for me now as a religious great
And she still devout Catholic go to church on sunday
And to the Roman Catholic God my dark skinned mother pray.

White man seeks his God from religion and Europe's white skinned race
Have removed us Aboriginals from what was our rightful place
White Europeans came to Australia and with rifles in their hands
They murdered most of my ancestors and took from us our lands.

And when I was a young boy I heard my grand da say
That white man's favourite past time after church on sunday
Was go out bush on horseback and gun Aboriginal down
And bring back lock of dead human's hair to show to whites in town.

And so I have lost my religion but God I do not fear
For I know God still love me and God to me is near
White man's God is bound by religion but Black man's God is
free
And Black man's God lives in every flower and every bush and tree.