Coleridge told the Catholic priests that changes were happening, that there would be more of them and that it was important to be prepared.

Coleridge suggested that ministry as a Catholic priest was not a case of 'goundhog day' nor an example of 'yesterday once more.'

Rather, Coleridge recommended that Catholic priests prepare themselves for the changes and "fasten their seatbelts."

In his keynote speech to the nearly 200 Catholic priests at the Assembly, the archbishop said the Catholic Church is experiencing an "Abrahamic" moment.

Just like the biblical Abraham who set out on a journey for God without knowing where he was going, New Zealand's Catholic priests are also on a journey where the destination is unclear, Coleridge said.

Spiritual vitality

"The spiritual vitality of the Church is found largely in our immigrant communities," the archbishop noted.

"The centre of gravity of the Church is passing to Africa, Asia and Latin America. We have a Pope from Argentina. It's fasten your seatbelts time, we are going somewhere and there is no way back."

Coleridge says that, while the shape the future will take is unclear, we can rely on faith.

"But the act of faith is that there is one who does know where it is all leading. We must keep our eyes and our ears on God. We have to be on the journey."

Diminishing numbers

Coleridge pointed out the logical consequences of the current situation for Catholics in New Zealand.

"We cannot sustain the current mode of provision of priests, with far fewer priests and fewer people," he said.

"The shortage of people is the real problem.

"There are far fewer people who identify with the Church or come to Mass.

"People like our schools. They ask why are our schools full and our churches empty?

"Institutionally we are diminished."

Coleridge described the problem as "corrosive in a unique way... we are almost afraid to look at the damage."

Administrative changes

The priests at the Assembly heard that New Zealand's Catholic priests' administrative burden is also more complex than formerly.

Coleridge told the Diocesan priests at the Assembly they need to be like Abraham and turn wandering into journeys.

He acknowledged journeying is hard work - but also pointed out it goes somewhere.

"The priest as pilgrim is someone who can say to all the wanderers, come on a journey.

"The priest in a diocese is also a settler. The priest has a parish, and people are the community. We have to put down roots in a particular place, a parish."

Source

• New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference

In 2015, Australian Archbishop Mark Coleridge says he was asking himself something similar. There was a government-mandated investigation into sexual abuse in the church and Australian Catholics were leaving the faith.

Coleridge says the answer to his question came to him "from the Holy Spirit" while he was in Rome for the Synod of Bishops on the family.

"For the first time — certainly at a Roman synod — I saw discernment in action," Coleridge says.

"It was messy and unpredictable; at the halfway mark it looked very unlikely that we would achieve anything worth achieving. Yet at the end we did produce something which wasn't the last word, but which was a real contribution to the ongoing journey of the church."

It was there he decided it was time for the church in Australia to move toward a plenary council.

Several years and much planning, committee work, Vatican approval and — perhaps most importantly, listening sessions — the first of two Plenary Council assemblies began on Sunday.

Synodality is at the heart of the Plenary Council's purpose. Pope Francis has also announced a synod - the 2023 Synod of Bishops on synodality.
Preparations for this begin near the end of the Australian assembly.

Francis says the synod on synodality "is not so much about deeper reflection on this or that theme as it is about learning a new way of living as church."

Francis says the church must adopt a style "marked at every level by mutual listening and by a pastoral attitude, especially when faced with the temptations of clericalism and rigidity."

This would have helped combat the clericalism that the Australian Royal Commission often heard blamed for decades of covering up abuse cases.

The government investigators' call for a change of culture was echoed by Catholics participating in the Plenary Council's listening sessions.

"So much of what we heard during the council journey related to this concept of ‘conversion' — personal conversion, communal conversion and institutional conversion — with an ever-deeper renewal in Christ," says Archbishop Timothy Costelloe.

"Through the Plenary Council, we are being called to consider how we can be a church that goes out to the peripheries, that welcomes all into our communities and shows the face of Christ to the world."

This will be Australia's fifth Plenary Council; the last was in 1937. Rules for a plenary council are outlined in canon law. Although laypeople are among those who may be included, this is the first time they have been members of a plenary council.

The daily programme involves gathering for Mass, prayer, formal proceedings and large group dialogue and smaller virtual group discussions. Discussion summaries will be submitted the following day.

Offline time provides for people to pray and discern over two questions. One is about abuse and the other about being a missionary people.

Coleridge says the results of the assemblies will go to Rome for papal approval.

Source

• Catholic News Service
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

Pope Francis has approved the national ecclesiastical gathering.

The Plenary Council will meet twice - once in central Australia in late 2020 and again on the eastern seaboard in mid-2021.

The Council's aim is to make plans to address challenges the Church faces in contemporary Australian society.

Council delegates will seek deeper discernment, further learning, and dialogue.

A series of listening and dialogue sessions for establishing the Council's agenda begins on 20 May this year.

Pope Francis has endorsed Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe's nomination as the Council president.

Costelloe says he is "committed to listening to the Spirit.

"I encourage all Catholics, whether devout or disillusioned, fervent or frustrated, to seize this opportunity to speak what is on their minds and in their minds."

Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, who is the chair of the Bishops Commission for the Council, has asked people to "join in prayer as we embark on this journey together as God's people in Australia."

He says the gathering "will be a unique opportunity for people to come together and listen to God in all the ways God speaks to us, and in particular by listening to one another as together we discern what God is asking of us at this time - a time when the Church in Australia is facing significant challenges.

"We sincerely hope the preparation and celebration of the Plenary Council is a time when all parts of the Church listen to and dialogue with one another as we explore together how we might answer the question: ‘What do you think God is asking of us in Australia?'"

The bishops of Australia have launched a website for the Plenary Council to help people better understand how they can participate in the discussion process.

The website can be found at plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au

Decisions made at the Plenary Council will become binding for the Catholic Church in Australia, subject to the Holy See's approval.

Source

• Vatican News
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: National Catholic Reporter