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By CFM
November 27, 2007
The Melbourne Forum - Working for a Renewed Priestly Ministry - at the Camberwell Centre on Thursday 22 November 2007 was a great success. Just over 700 people were present including about 20 protesters determined to present 'the alternative agenda'. Chaired by Bernie Bicknell (CEO Mitre 10), the speakers were Anne O'Brien, Marilyn Hatton, Terry Curtin and Paul Collins. Here are copies of the four talks:
Paul Collins' Talk
IS AUSTRALIA HEADED TOWARD A CATHOLIC CHURCH WITHOUT THE MASS AND SACRAMENTS? Talk by Paul Collins.
1. Let's start with some stories from around Australia:
Firstly the situation in the eastern part of the Archdiocese of Melbourne - and remember Melbourne is the largest and and probably best-endowed diocese in Australia.
I want to begin by quoting from a letter I received from Father Allan Mithen, the parish priest of North Ringwood. Sending in signatures for the petition he commented:
‘The urgency of these issues really struck a chord with my parishioners due to our extremely relevant local and regional circumstances. I have been PP of Holy spirit North Ringwood since June 2002. Then on 1 February this year (2007) the neighbouring parish of St Anne in Park Orchards and Saint Gerard in Warrandyte was tacked on and I became PP of both. I turned 69 in August this year. ... But that is not all! In the Maroondah/Yarra Valley Deanery we have the following situation. Mark Reynolds has the mega-parish of Mitcham on his own, regularly celebrating 5 Masses each weekend, sometimes 6! Pat Purcell is PP of Mt Evelyn plus Warburton/Yarra Glen. Julian Langridge is PP of the rapidly-growing Lilydale and as from January 2008 the parish of Healesville will be added to his portfolio. [Les Tomlinson, the Vicar General] has been appointed to the traditionally two priest parish of Croydon until a permanent appointment can be made in the new year.' (10/10/2007)
Secondly Tasmania: Take the Archdiocese of Hobart, for instance, which covers the whole of Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands. It covers an area equal to that of the Republic of Ireland.
According to the 2007-8 Catholic Directory the archdiocese has 35 diocesan priests. Only 17 of these are listed as working in parishes with the rest retired or on leave. There are also 15 religious priests working in parishes, although five of these serve at the inner-city Saint Joseph's in Hobart. The result is obvious: parishes have had to be combined, or pastoral associates, including six religious sisters and two lay women, appointed. The Tasmanian crisis was highlighted in a 5 March 2006 ABC Compass program entitled A Parish with no Priest. The program focused on the north-east coast parish of Saint Marys that had just lost it's priest: he died of a heart attack in his car driving between Masses in the parish which covered most of the east coast of Tasmania. Archbishop Adrian Doyle confessed to Compass that he had no one to replace him. ‘Since I became archbishop [in 1999] there were eighteen priests who were active ... who are no longer so. The majority of them have retired for health reasons, and there have been some deaths as well. I think it was the three deaths last year [2005] that seemed to accelerate the whole situation in a way that we probably hadn't expected or certainly hadn't planned for.' A young priest, Father Greg McGregor, aged 31, then on loan to Hobart from Sydney, put the problem succinctly: ‘A lot of our guys are in their fifties and sixties and in ten, fifteen years' time they'll be retiring. They've certainly earned it, they've worked so hard. And, I guess, as the big bubble kind of moves through to retirement and the next generation moves on, I'm really worried about what it's going to be like in the future.' Increasingly many of the smaller parishes in Tasmania have a SWAP led by a sister or layperson.
Thirdly take Father Bill Brady, MSC (PP Hughenden, Winton, Richmond: He drives 660 km every weekend for 3 Masses attended by 80 to 90 people in total. He also drives enormous distances for funerals. He put 60,000 km on his car in 18 months.
Fourthly take the diocese of Toowoomba: At first glance Toowoomba looks to be in good shape. It covers all of southern Queensland from just below the Great Dividing Range westward to the South Australian and Northern Territory borders and is almost one-and-a-half times the size of Germany. With thirty-five parishes and forty-five diocesan and nine religious priests it seems to be adequately covered, even if many rural priests have to travel enormous distances between Masses.
What is interesting about Toowoomba is that it has a clearly articulated Diocesan Pastoral Leadership Plan with a nine year span that will conclude at Easter 2014. Based on present numbers and ages of priests in the diocese Bishop William Morris shows that in 2014 the diocese will be left with fourteen priests aged between sixty-one and seventy working in parish-based ministry, and four priests between sixty-five and seventy working in diocesan ministry. That is a total of eighteen priests for the whole Toowoomba diocese with its thirty-five parishes. The situation could not be put more clearly and the reality is that this is the kind of situation that many dioceses will be facing in 2014. Bishop Morris also points out that there are other solutions ‘for ensuring that Eucharist may be celebrated' besides more and more SWAP celebrations. These are ordaining married men ‘endorsed by their local parish community, welcoming former priests back to active ministry, ordaining women and recognizing Anglican, Lutheran and Uniting church orders'.
Finally, the Diocese of Bunbury in the southern part of Western Australia. Here 68% of all the priests of the diocese are foreign born priests. There are strengths and weaknesses that go with that. But you constantly hear people speak about these priests lack of language skills and inadequate pastoral and cultural formation for ministry in Australia.
2. Father Eric Hodgens' analysis of the shortage:
(i) The simple reality is that many parts of world Catholicism are facing a sacramental and ministerial crisis due to the catastrophic drop in the number of priests and in the numbers presenting themselves for training to the priesthood. While this is not true of every country, it is certainly true of the whole of the developed Western world, including places like the Republic of Ireland, and of many parts of the developing world, as well as places like Brazil with one priest to 7000 to 8500 Catholics.
(ii) Australia is one of many countries that face an increasingly acute shortage of priests. This is shown by the statistical work of Father Eric Hodgens. His paper ‘Seminary Facts, Factors and Futures' and his articles in Online Catholics ‘An Alternative to the Priest' (Issue 28, 1 December 2004) and ‘The Bishops Last Chance' (Issue 112, 12 July 2006) demonstrate this. But the priest shortage is not a new issue that has crept up on us. Many thoughtful Catholics have warned about it since the mid-1970s but there has been an absolute refusal by church authorities to confront the issue. This amounts to a serious failure of leadership.
(iii) The median age of Australian priests is now just above sixty. Most are very over-committed, working almost seven days a week with hardly any time-off. Burn-out and mental and physical exhaustion are becoming more and more common. Recruitment is down to an all-time-low. For instance, the Melbourne seminary which serves 1,350,000 Catholics in Victoria and Tasmania has only recruited seven candidates per year for the last fifteen years. ‘To get the number of priests we need to match the present coverage we would need thirty a year', Hodgens says. Nowadays the church is ordaining about 0.15 to 0.25 priests per 100,000 Catholics each year. Hodgens comments: ‘And there is no significant sign of it increasing'
(iv) Hodgens also points out that the age of ordination has risen and that therefore a priest will have a shorter period of service. Until the mid-nineties men were usually ordained around age twenty-seven giving them about thirty-eight years of service to the church. The average age of ordination now is thirty-five, giving an average of thirty years of service. ‘At this rate, even if they all stay priests, the long term result will be one priest for every 13,000 in Victoria and Queensland and one for every 22,000 in NSW'. In other words about 7.5 priests per 100,000 Catholics. Hodgens says ‘That means that Melbourne with its one million plus Catholics and 220 parishes will have only 75 priests'.
(v) Overall the 2006-2007 Official Directory lists 1697 diocesan priests and 859 religious order priests serving about 5.1 million Catholics. That is about one priest for every 2000 Catholics. However, there are a number of variables that have to be taken into account. Probably only about half religious order priests serve in parishes and the totals also include retired priests, priests otherwise assigned, or on-leave from the active ministry. A reasonable guess is that there is one priest per 2800 Catholics. But even this masks the real situation because the superabundance of priests from the 1950s and 1960s are still moving through the system. But these men are now close to, at, or beyond retirement age, with many of them still working just to keep parish structures going. But within a decade or less as the present generation retires or dies the crisis point will have been reached with no solution on the horizon. Hodgens comments that ‘we will have a quarter of the number [of priests] we need in Victoria and Queensland and one sixth in New South Wales.'
3. It was in this kind of context that Frank Purcell, Anne O'Brien and I decided someone had to take the initiative. So we drew up the petition. Essentially what we are trying to do is to get the bishops to respond to and assume responsibility for their dioceses - and the needs of their diocese rather than looking over their shoulders to Rome all the time.
Paul Collins, Ph.D., Th.M., B.Rel.Std., FTCL.
Marilyn Hatton's Talk
Catholics for Ministry Public Forum: Melbourne 22 November 2007
Ordination of Catholic Women
One of my clearest and earliest memories is getting dressed in my neatest clothes while the rest of the house slept, and walking to early morning mass with my beloved grandmother. Like many families in post war Australia in the 40's, we were three generations living in one bustling household.
Walking to mass with my grandmother was a special time for me, I had her undivided attention ....we had confidential conversations righting the weekly ups and downs of the household. This coincidently put us in a reflective mood for the sermon of the day and discussion of it on the return walk.
My parents moved into their own home 18mths later and my father in his wisdom picked up on this practice, and he and I used to walk to mass mid week before he went to work and I went onto school. Again a precious time and great grounding in faith.
This faith sustained me through the many challenges and disappointments of life until the 80's, when I was driven to explore a sort of cringe factor I had with the church. 'The cringe factor was best articulated as a heavy uncomfortable feeling ..... which I didn't understand, and that I wanted to be rid of.' It was at this time that I joined Women and the australian Church (WATAC).
At the time,my husband and I had three teenagers (all attending catholic schools) and I was serving on the local parish council. At a professional level I had responsibility for progressing status of women issues in the ACT and Commonwealth governments. I was gaining a thorough understanding of the importance and complexity of ensuring womens participation in decision-making and leadership, and was aware of dissonance between my private and public worlds.
I was embroiled in gaining an understanding of how gender oppression works.
As a trained nurse I understood the horrors of domestic violence and abuse, but claims of systemic sexism !!!!!! and questions of how women's economic dependence contributed to this, were all new concepts. I had dear husband, a good father and uncles, some who were religious, and many valued relationships with friends and work colleagues who were men. I was struggling with stepping out of the traditional gender roles and looking at them through the mirror of equality ...... this mirror reflected a very different concept of fairness.
I began to clearly understand how exclusiveness and inappropriate use of power and the drive for status .. worked in gender relationships and the world.
It was like coming out of a fog, understanding what this mean't required me to reframe my identity and this was a much tougher task.
Along with this understanding also came the realisation that such behaviors are so entrenched in our culture that they are often unintentional. I have been guilty of them myself and it is easy to inadvertently collude with others.
Just for a minute.....
Lets consider what we get with exclusivity....Have you ever been dismissed or excluded?
What did that moment feel like?
..... once you understand how exclusiveness and inappropriate use of power impact and are so destructive to men and women, you cannot go back and you certainly don't want to be part of it...... it's like the environmental slogan .....
When you knew.... what did you do about it?......
Amongst other things I joined Ordination for Catholic Women, shortly after Marie Louise Uhr and Zoe Hancock founded it, in 1993. OCW is a group of women and men who advocate the ordination of catholic women within a renewed ordained ministry in the Catholic Church. We believe that an ordained ministry of both women and men will make the Church spiritually richer, more open to the lives of women and men, and more able to bring God's love to our world.
We are committed
- to promoting informed discussion on issues relating to ordination of women within a renewed ordained ministry in the catholic church, in the community and within the catholic church
- to seeking opportunities to shape change in the church and increase the participation of women in church leadership through annual conferences, publications, media releases and public actions.
We maintain links with International organisations committed to the ordination of catholic women and we have representative on Women's Ordination Worldwide (WOW).
Such a focus all sounds pretty reasonable to people outside the catholic church. Women have proved themselves to be responsible, competent and accomplished in all walks of public life. They undertake 76% of pastoral care in our parishes and if women withdrew their labor and financial support the church would be struggling to maintain its functions.
So what is the barrier to ordaining women in the catholic church?
While present church teaching forbids the ordination of catholic women or even the discussion of it on church premises we believe an examination of the scholarly evidence indicates that there is no barrier to the ordination of catholic women!
The barriers raised by the Vatican and generally officially supported by our Australian bishops are:
- scriptural barriers.......
The Catholic Biblical Commission of 1967 concluded that there are no scriptural barriers to women's ordination - cannon law..... cannon law can and has been changed in the past
- ordination is a privilege and not a right...... if men are privileged by ordination there is no reason why women can't be similarly privileged.....
we are both baptized in Jesus Christ.
So it seems it is really about, exclusiveness and prejudice, and inappropriate use of power to the point of being erroneous, as the church was in the case of slavery. Coming back to my own journey though, many people who support this do so unconsciously and unintentionally
What is clear, is that changing such entrenched behavior and misunderstandin
OCW believes that ordination of catholic women is integral to passing on the faith
Why?.......
The sort of faith formation that I received is seldom a possibility for the children of to-day........t
This is crucial when it is parents and grandparents who embed the faith in children's lives with the support of parish communities and catholic schools .
Paul and I are fortunate to belong to a parish looked after by the Dominicans. Recently after a busy week of the daily grind, we collapsed into the pew feeling battered... to leave only half an hour later grounded and restored by the Eucharist and by a wonderful short interpretation of Luke's gospel about the tax collector and the Pharisees by Father Bernard Maxwell (late 70s).
Most young parents do not have or understand the value of this support because they are divorced from a practice of their faith. Again the reasons are complex. But the ones that should concern us are:
Firstly, the image the church projects does not appeal to many, it is perceived as authoritarian, even hypocritical and lacking in understanding of the day to day challenges and difficulties people and the world face.
Secondly, in a time when young mothers are recognized and valued for their contribution to leadership in all spheres of public life, and there is such a desperate need for good leadership in the catholic church......... the church's stance on forbidding the ordination of catholic women and married men seems ignorant and lacks integrity. The next generation does not respect such behavior.
Finally, embarking on parenting at a much later age means that they have had considerable independent life experience and responsibility away from their family practices for several years before they starting to rear their own children. So as adults they don't even approach the parish communities that would support them if they do it is sometimes not helpful.
One of our catholic faith's most enduring strengths is its tradition, that is, its ability to adapt and to understand the needs of the times. This month's issue of the Catholic Women's Newsletter quotes from the excellent research Report commissioned by our Australian Catholic Bishops Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus p.197
To hold to a notion of the unchanging nature of the Tradition would seem to counter belief in the ongoing, living reality of God's revelation in a Church. Thus to hold that the traditional ways of appreciating women's participation cannot be subject to change would seem a distorted view of the nature of the living Tradition of the Church.
The church in our times, has failed to lead responsibly. It has not made adequate provision for the pastoral care of the faithful, even though psychologically suitable celibate male candidates are almost non existent and the current priesthood is ageing and dying.
Our competitive and individualistic culture that emphasizes individual need over collective good, desperately needs a counter culture that grounds and supports people.
We have to ensure that change in the current situation is about more than simply ordaining married men and women... the church has to be more understanding of the challenges people deal with on a daily basis to serve future generations. This won't happen within the existing culture. We can't fix this with the same consciousness that created it is time to make the shift from exclusiveness to inclusiveness. We have to discern a new way of envisaging and living our faith and working together to shape a renewed priestly ministry. This in no way means doing away with formation and scholarship... it is more important than ever.
In the last weeks numerous wonderful priests have who have devoted their lives to ministry have reiterated this in response to the petition. They want reform and deserve our church projects an image of a God that beckons to people..... one that imbues a sense of inclusiveness and love, that seeks to understand and that engages and anchors future generations to walk humbly, live justly and love tenderly.
I have spoken to you of what and why and I am now going to put in my bid for the how and when'. We need your support:
We also ask you to participate in the dialogue on a renewed priestly ministry and ordination of catholic women within your parish communities with Catholics for Ministry and other progressive catholic groups. If you feel able, we invite you to join OCW by filling in one of the forms on your seat and handing it in at the door as you leave.
Finally, I want to emphasise that all of us who have the gift of faith are duty bound to lead and take responsibility to reshape our church. We need to support our bishops and work with them so that: our church projects an image of a God that beckons to people..... one that imbues a sense of inclusiveness and love, that seeks to understand and that engages and anchors future generations to walk humbly, live justly and love tenderly.
Marilyn Hatton, RN, B.App. Sci., M.Litt. (ANU)
Co-Convenor
Ordination of Catholic Women Inc.
Terry Curtin's Talk
CATHOLICS FOR MINISTRY RALLY 22 NOV 2007
I was the pastoral leader at Aspendale from 1996 to 2000. I was part of an experiment aimed at finding a way of dealing with the declining number of priests. It generated a lot of interest at the time. The "Australia
What did the Aspendale experiment tell us about renewing ministry?
The Aspendale parish community was involved in the pastoral leader experiment from the beginning. The parish spent some months in discernment because it meant they would lose their parish priest. They participated in choosing the pastoral leader. They helped prepare the commissioning liturgy. At a Sunday mass, the parishioners presented me to Archbishop Little who accepted me and prayed over me that I would be a good pastoral leader. The subsequent life of the parish was characterised by widespread involvement in all the faith activities of the parish. It was a vibrant parish. I think the message is that when you genuinely engage the community, the life of the church becomes more vigorous, ministry becomes more effective. It must be genuine engagement. In recent consultations in many dioceses around Australia, invariably a majority of responses has been that married men should be ordained Invariably the request has been rejected. Rome has decided that it is not on the agenda. What is the point of these consultations ? Little wonder that many Catholics have become cynical about surveys and consultations on how the church should plan for change. I think the call tonight is for genuine engagement between bishops priests and people. We are entitled to be listened to on all aspects of church life, including on who our leaders should be.
The Aspendale experience showed us that a married person with the right qualifications can be a good pastor in a catholic parish. This is not my assessment. That was the outcome of an independent survey of parishioners. It was also the assessment, given in writing, of the then Archbishop Pell who conducted a parish visitation during my time there. Also of Fr F Martin, my supervisor and Fr M Quigley the parish priest who followed me at Aspendale. The perceived problems usually associated with a married person being a pastor, namely that a married person cannot give the same dedication as a single celibate person, that it would be too expensive to have married pastors, they won't have the same theological and counselling skills, etc were shown not to be insurmountable. They can present some difficulties, as my wife and I discovered, but they can be dealt with. Because of the Aspendale experience there is now less reason to deny ordination to married men.
But in one way the Aspendale experiment was flawed. It was based on the notion that the pastoral role and the sacramental role could be separated. It had been suggested that if priests could be relieved of their pastoral and organisational responsibilitie
As pastoral leader I did have some liturgical functions, such as conducting funerals.
The incident illustrates the close link between pastoral leadership and sacramental leadership. It was obviously fitting that the person who was the pastor who had ministered to the dying person should also be the person who led the funeral service, not some person relatively unknown to the grieving family or to the community of which they were a part. The same goes for major sacramental functions. The pastoral leader is the one who ought to preside at the Eucharist. It is far from ideal for a relative stranger to a community to preside at the Eucharist. In the 4 years of the Aspendale experiment over 50 priests visited the parish for the weekend masses. They could not all be expected to have a feel for the life of the parish. I prepared for and attended every Sunday mass in the parish and every major liturgy, the Easter liturgies being the most important. I welcomed the visiting priest and on behalf of the community invited him to lead us our Eucharist. Note "our Eucharist"
My experience at Aspendale led me to believe that a new model of priesthood is required. The prime vocation should be the vocation of servant leadership in the faith community. Faith communities will throw up leaders. The job of the Bishop among other things should be to accept the communities proposed leaders, celibate or not, assess them and train them, and ordain them.
I spoke to Archbishop Pell about this. I said that if he were to consider ordaining married men I would be a candidate. He acknowledged there would be no doctrinal objection. But he insisted that it would never happen in his time. Why? He listed the usual practical objections referred to above. But what I detected beneath the surface was fear. Fear that the clerical structure that has pertained for centuries may come under threat. Once the door is opened for a new class of minister, a married person, or a sacramental minister appointed for a particular community or for a limited period of time, then the sort of control now exercised through the order of clerics comes under threat. Archbishop Pell fears an exodus from the ranks of celibate clergy. He fears the disappearance of a 1,000-year-old tradition. I felt sorry for him as you do for anyone who is afraid. Almost by definition it is the job of Bishops to preserve the tradition. The great tragedy in this circumstance is that by striving to preserve the tradition of clerical celibacy our leaders in Rome threaten the legacy of Jesus, they threaten the tradition of the Eucharist.
What do we say to our bishops? We say to them don't be afraid. We say meet with us and share your fears. Lets talk about them and pray about them in an atmosphere of equality as Christsfaithful
Because the Spirit is moving in the world today no less that she ever has, moving especially in our hearts. People now search for personal authenticity, search for truth by looking into their own depths. Dogmatic pronouncements don't cut it anymore especially if they defy common sense such as the proposition that it is God's will that women not be priests. People now seek to draw on that well of living water springing up from deep within themselves. This is the life force Jesus promised the woman at the well. That is where we will find our true selves and our mission in life. Our mission will shape our ministry and there will be a multitude of ministries. Many will be directed to the great demands of our time such as justice and reconciliation between peoples and preservation of the earth on which we live. The church must commit to these projects, to become a servant church to them, or it will or it fade into irrelevance. It needs to become less centralized, less authoritarian, more inclusive of women and other beliefs. It needs to find new language to replace current archaic formulas of faith. Many scholars have speculated that the future of the church lies in small ecclesial communities. These smaller communities will meet in memory of Jesus Christ and break bread. Instead of a shrinking Eucharist practice, Eucharist will be celebrated much more often in many more places. Those who preside will have been trained and will have been authorised to do so because we will still need order, but they will be men and women, celibate and not celibate. And there will be lots of them because every community will provide one. There will be no shortage of vocations. There is no shortage now.
Many Australian Bishops, maybe most of them, share our concerns. But they need to do more than just hope something will happen. They need the courage to take a stand. Loyalty to Rome must not be allowed to take precedence over the faithful's right to the sacraments. If the shepherds do not feed their people they will lose them. The prophet Ezekiel put it more bluntly two and a half thousand years ago when the religious leaders of Israel were falling down on the job. "The Lord Yahweh says this: I am going to call the shepherds to account. I am going to take my flock back from them." (Ezk 34:10)
Terry Curtin,
Ezekiel 34: 2/3 Trouble for the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shepherds ought to feed their flock.
Ezekiel 34:10 I am going to call the shepherds to account. I am going to take my flock back from them.
Anne O'Brien's Talk
Anne grew up in Essendon and was educated by the Sisters of Charity. In 1950 she entered the Sisters of St Joseph and taught in primary and secondary schools until 1971 when she returned to the lay state. During the 1970s she underwent an accelerated learning curve as Executive Secretary to the Director of the Catholic Education Office of Victoria, and as Executive Secretary to the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria.
From the 1980s Anne, unexpectedly, found herself drawn into parish work, during which time she undertook further studies in theology, psychology and education. In her parish work she practised as a Pastoral Associate and a psychologist, especially as an adult educator and a relationships educator.
Anne has been very blessed in being able to share leadership with the parish priest, Frank Martin, in both Endeavour Hills and Cheltenham. Frank recognised Anne's gifts and allowed her free rein in using them. Collaborative ministry has underpinned every aspect of her parish experience. Anne is known for her capacity to identify people's gifts and network with them to energise the community.
Anne believes that the role of the church is to create and nurture communities whose inner life is sustained by the liturgy and education, manifested in a collaborative working together to meet the needs of people - locally and beyond its borders. To assist couples who are outside the sacramental orbit of the church, Anne now practises as a Marriage Celebrant.
Twin mottoes: "I have come to serve - not to be served"; and "Come as you are." The church: a welcoming community grounded in the
I've worked for the last 25 years of my life in the parishes of Endeavour Hills and Cheltenham as a pastoral associate and a psychologist. I've had the wonderful opportunity of integrating my educational, theological and psychological insights so that I wore three hats at the one time. I speak, therefore, from first hand experience of sharing the lives of countless people in various shades of churched, unchurched and non-churched.
We're here tonight to raise awareness of the need for a "renewed priestly ministry". But we need to think more broadly than just an increase in the number of priests. There's no guarantee that the ordination of more priests - whether they're celibate, married men, married women, or single people will necessarily provide the renewal which we are crying out for - especially at grass-roots level.
When I worked with groups of parents prior to the baptism of their child, the first thing I used to say to them was: What are you doing here? Why have you asked for baptism for your child? Given the poor image of all churches and especially that of the Catholic Church, why would you want to have your child baptised in any church, let alone the Catholic Church? This would wake them up! After all, they expected me to tell them why they wanted to have their child baptised.
We would then brainstorm to discover some reasons for baptism - to give me something to base our discussion on. Well, sheepishly, someone might say: for values, morals, to get into a Catholic school, community, to get into heaven, "I want my child to have what I had". "It's always been done in our family." Sometimes Mum or Grandma would ask: how old is baby now, don't you think it's time to...
Now people perceive that there are many ways of being a good Christian, Catholic, religious person. It might be because they go to church regularly; or they do all sorts of good deeds, devote themselves to their families, are members of Rotary or St Vincent de Paul, go to church at Christmas and Easter; coach children in the various sports; are involved with refugees, or third world poverty, contribute to World Vision and so on. Many people don't experience any need to attend church.
We also know that a majority of people are celebrating their life events with rituals outside the church: their births, marriages and deaths; coming of age, renewal of vows...The church is no longer perceived as important in celebrating these life events. Why are people turning away in droves from celebrations in the Catholic Church? I'm sure that you can come up with as many reasons as I can.
Many Catholics are finding their values, morality, and spirituality through a wide variety of guides: perhaps in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism; in the Universe; in the plethora of books, which offer spiritual guidance. This trend is relegating Jesus to the status of a great prophet - however, for many, he's just one among others. He lived, he died, "he did not die into nothingness but into God."[i] Jesus gives purpose and meaning to life and death. It is God - Mystery - that is the source of our hope, meaning and way of life. For me with my Judaic-Christia
The church's mission, therefore, is to offer each one of us an insight into the God of Jesus. The church must nurture this faith. It must continually challenge us with Jesus and Jesus' God. But then there is a real problem with God! Everyone has a god or several gods. Here we strike difficulties because the notions of God we were taught in our youth no longer sustain us. Perhaps we have believed that God was a superior being: "Santa Claus in the sky"; one who could make things better for us if only we prayed hard enough; one who is all-powerful, all-knowing; one who punishes wrong-doers. In the light of scientific knowledge, however, many have rejected these religious symbols but they have not had an opportunity to replace them with more meaningful concepts.
To speak about God, or the Sacred, or Mystery (the word I like to use), we have to recognise that God is beyond all words and concepts: we can't think God; but we can experience God. (We're having ourselves on, if we think we can define God.) Secondly, God is not a "being": God is a nonmaterial layer or level or dimension of reality that both permeates everything, and at the same time is more than everything.
So we need new images to help us reflect on our relationship with God. Perhaps you might ponder these images of God:
- i. God is the light of which each of us is a spark
- ii. God is the ocean of which each of us is a droplet
- iii. God is the womb in which each of us lives
But, you might say, what has any of this God-stuff got to do with us in the 21st century? How do I make any sense of it in my life and that of the world today? Of course, God saw our confusion and took on our humanity in the person of Jesus.
Jesus' mission was devoted to bringing about God's kingdom: Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth. So many of our fears, questions, prejudices evaporate once we take on the mind and the heart of Jesus.
At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus proclaimed his mission:
- to preach good news to the poor
- to proclaim release to captives
- to give sight of the blind
- to set the oppressed free
Pretty challenging stuff!
Jesus lived out the harsh reality of daily life with faith, hope and commitment. So if we take Jesus as our benchmark, how would we judge our families, our church, and ourselves?
Reflect on your experience of church. Does it live out Jesus' mission? For example,
Is it totally inclusive and non-judgmental; does it welcome women, men and children of all ages, status, sexual orientation, marital status? the disabled, those addicted to harmful substances, Christians and non-Christians? Is it a risk-taking community that moves outside its comfort zone? Does it have a strong commitment to social justice? To the poor and the powerless? To third world countries? Refugees?
What has all of this got to do with a renewed priestly ministry, you might ask. Well, renewal will only come about if we are faithful to the true mission of the church. Ands the true mission of the church is to proclaim Jesus' mission - through thick and thin, regardless of the price. Crucial to this renewal will be our leaders -particularly at the level of the local community.
When the corporate world, hospitals, prestigious schools and so on require a new leader, what do they do? They head hunt. They engage people whose profession it is to head hunt. They are prepared to wait months and even years in order to ensure that they have the best possible person. They want a person who is professionally and personally competent to implement the mission of the company. Especially will they want a person who is already steeped in the culture of their business. A person whose whole being pulsates with the challenge this leadership position brings.
Hugh Mackay argues in his 2007 book, Advance Australia...Whe
The church needs to head hunt leaders who are imbued with the real mission of the church, and who have been well and truly inculturated into this mission. There is no shortage of men and women who demonstrate in their daily lives their identification with the God of Jesus, and hence with the true mission of the church.
In a recent edition of The Tablet, an English weekly, a priest made this observation of the Irish Church; his words could apply equally to the Australian Church: We were too careful, too afraid, too amenable to the wisdom of a narrow clerical world...and, let's face it, too many of us were too ambitious at a personal level to upset the clerical consensus.[iii]
Finally, Joan Chittister reminds us that Relig
Anne O'Brien
B.A., B.Ed., B.D., M.Ed., Grad. Dip. Couns. Psych., MAPS, Ph.D., Dip. Marr.Cel.
iKung, Hans (2007). The beginning of all things: science and religion, Michigan, USA: William B. Eerdmans, 205.
[ii] Mackay, Hugh (2007). Advance Australia...Whe
[iii] Hoban, Fr Brendan, Theologian attacks over-cautious Church, quoted in The Tablet, 20 October 2007, 43. Fr Hoban was speaking at a conference in honour of Fr Enda McDonagh, Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at St Patrick's Maynooth, on the occasion of his five decades at the forefront of theological discourse in Ireland.
[iv] Chittister, Joan (2007). Welcome to the wisdom of the world: and its meaning for you. Michigan, USA: William B. Eerdmans, 30.