The Catholic Weekly 12 April 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 8 NEWS 12, April, 2020 ‘Catholic clarity for complex times’ Listen to our Podcast every Thursday Ordinary Catholics having a relaxed, informal and searching conversation To subscribe go to https://www.thiscatholiclife.com.au HIGHLIGHTS Special Edition: Stuck inside with the Armchair Catholics Episode 36: That’s History Episode 35: Extra, Extra! Archbishop Costelloe said the Church’s focus currently is ensuring that people continue to be cared for pastorally, spiritually and emotionally during the pandemic. PHOTO: GIOVANNI PORTELLI PLENARY COUNCIL organ- isers have postponed its first assembly which had been scheduled for October this year in Adelaide. Plenary Council president Archbishop Timothy Costel- loe SDB said that the upheav- al caused by the coronavirus pandemic, including severe restrictions on travel and group meetings, made the “difficult, but necessary” de- cision unavoidable. “Even though it is pos- sible Australia may have moved through the worst of this health crisis by October, our capacity to adequately continue the process of dis- cernment and formation – for everyone in the Church and in particular for the delegates – is severely compromised,” Archbishop Costelloe said. The decision was made af- ter the Bishops Commission for the Plenary Council con- sulted with the advisory and planning teams and the en- tire Australian Catholic Bish- ops Conference. Archbishop Costelloe said the Church’s focus currently and for the foreseeable future is ensuring that people con- tinue to be cared for pastoral- ly, spiritually and emotionally during the pandemic. The bishops will consider proposals for an alternative timeline for the Council’s two assemblies at their biannual meeting in May. “The timing, the order and the location of the two assem- blies will need to be re-exam- ined, but it is hoped that hav- ing one assembly in Adelaide and the other in Sydneymight still be possible,” Archbishop Costelloe said. Plenary Council facilita- tor Lana Turvey-Collins said work has already begun to Covid19 halts Plenary Organisers have postponed the first assembly due for October consider how the changed timeline provides opportuni- ties to embed the practices of dialogue, listening and com- munal discernment. “There is obvious disap- pointment in the postpone- ment of the first assembly, especially so soon after the excitement of announcing the Plenary Council dele- gates,” she said. “But once the pandemic has eased, people will have a thirst to look to the future – and the Plenary Coun- cil is about the future of the Church.” In brief Egypt OKs 74 churches TRADITIONAL DIS- CRIMINATION against Christians did not pre- vent Egyptian authorities approving plans for 74 new Christian churches on 2 April. The Church Construc- tion Law of 2016 extended the power to approve the building and renovation of churches to provincial governors. While the new Law made the process less complicated, the legisla- tion remains discrimina- tory as the same require- ments do not apply to Sunni Muslim houses of worship; other religious groups such as the Ahma- di, Baha’i and Shia com- munities. Although the law is an improvement, Egyptian Christians continue to face difficulties estab- lishing and maintaining church buildings and have suffered extensively from sectarian violence in the Islamic nation. - CWS Pope asks Catholics to fund missions POPE FRANCIS established an emergency fund to help communities in the Catholic Church’s mission territories affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The pope has given an initial contribution of A$1.2 million and asked church or- ganisations to contribute to the fund, which will be man- aged by the pontifical mission societies, according to a state- ment published on 6 April by Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evange- lisation of Peoples. “In her task of evangelisa- tion, the Church is often on the front lines of major threats to human well-being,” said Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the congregation. “The Holy Father is calling upon the Church’s entire vast network to face the challenges ahead.” The pontifical mission so- cieties, which are under the Congregation for the Evan- gelisation of Peoples, include the Society for the Propaga- tion of the Faith, the Mission- ary Childhood Association, the Society of St Peter Apostle and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious. The societies support more than 9,000 health clin- ics, 10,000 orphanages, 1,200 schools, 80,000 seminarians and 9,000 religious sisters and brothers in more than 1,150 ¾ ¾ Junno Arocho Esteves mission dioceses - mostly in Africa and Asia. Archbishop Giovanni Pie- tro Dal Toso, president of the pontifical mission societies, said the Catholic Church’s charitable institutions will play a key role in supporting mission territories that are suffering due to the pandem- ic. “Through the Church’s ac- tivity of preaching the Gospel and of practical aid through our vast network, we can show that no one is alone in this cri- sis,” ArchbishopDal Toso said. “This is the Holy Father’s intention in establishing this fund. “While so many are suffer- ing, we remember and reach out to those who may have no one to care for them, thus showing forth the love of God the Father.” - CNS Dr Tom Catena, a US Catholic lay missionary, examines a patient at the Mother of Mercy Hospital in Gidel, a village in Sudan. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/PAUL JEFFREY NEWS