The Catholic Weekly 10 October 2021

catholicweekly.com.au 3 10, October, 2021 Francis passes on his blessings for the Plenary Pope Francis sent both greet- ings and blessings from Rome to the nearly 280 members gathering for the First Assem- bly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia. In a message signed by the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Cardinal wrote that “Pope Francis prays that the Council may be a graced occasion for mutual listening and spiritual discernment, marked by pro- found Communion with the Successor of Peter”. The pontiff said the Plenary Council “represents a singular journeying together of God’s people in Australia along the paths of history towards a renewed encounter with the Risen Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit”. The letter from Pope Francis was read out to Plenary Coun- cil members at the opening session of the First Assembly on Sunday by Mons John Bap- tist Itaruma from the Apostolic Nunciature in Australia. The president of the Aus- tralian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Mark Coleridge, in a message to Pope Francis, said the Coun- cil’s 278 members are “deeply conscious that the Plenary Council takes its place within the universal Church”. Archbishop Coleridge said he hoped the Plenary Council would be a gift not just for the Church in Australia, but for the Church around the world. The Pope sent a message of greetings and blessing to the Plenary Council in Australia. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING students urge Plenary current crisis of faith in the Church was related to the ba- sic error of seeing the Church “through a paradigm and dia- lectic of power.” The letter warns both against clericalism, a concern raised frequently by Pope Francis, and the phenome- non of laity seeking to sup- plant clergy “from their God ordained—literally—role to serve the Church.” Citing Vatican II, the stu- not to be derailed by contemporary fashions and risk ‘desacralisation’ of faith dents called on the Council “to clearly delineate the com- plementary nature of the lay and clerical vocations as fore- seen by the Second Vatican Council. Laity are called to act as a leaven in the world, the RAISING THE Church in Aus- tralia to address the crisis of vo- cations – whether to marriage, religious life or priesthood – is a vital task facing the Plenary, ArchbishopAnthony Fisher OP said on Sunday. The Archbishop’s comment came in his homily at Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney marking the opening of Aus- tralia’s Fifth Plenary Council. The official opening Mass of the Plenary was celebrated by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB of Perth – also the Ple- nary’s President – and lives- treamed across the nation. But while behind the voca- tions crisis currently affecting the Church in Australia there are wider challenges to faith, ¾ Peter Rosengren Prelates set out key principles for Plenary authority and morals, Arch- bishop Fisher said he was confident all these could be addressed. “The Church in Australia has many strengths: the faith and generosity of her faithful, religious and clergy; her many institutions serving so many Australians; above all that One who is Lordof that ‘Great South Land of the Holy Spirit’ that is Australia,” he said. “If our Council addresses the many challenges and in- spires a renewed sense of the baptismal vocation and mis- sion, this should play out not just in good spouses and par- ents, priests and religious, but also in good politicians and journalists, teachers and aca- demics, scientists and artists, lay leaders and workers within Church institutions but espe- cially beyond. “Finding ways to inspire, form and support these hear- ers, carriers and doers of the Word will be crucial going for- ward.” Archbishop Fisher said the Plenary needed to address “some very contemporary questions.” These included how to deepen the spiritual lives of the faithful amidst the noise and busyness of modernity, how to spread the Word in a socie- ty of declining faith, affiliation and practice, how to ensure the church’s institutions are com- mitted to its central mission, healing the wounds of coloni- sation and abuse, advocating for the unborn, dying and oth- ers ‘at the peripheries’ of what Pope Francis has described as a ‘throwaway society.’ However behind these questions, he said, “is the per- ennial challenge to receive the Word who is God and in turn be voices for that Word. “So we ask: How might we better identify, form and support leaders for mission— young or old, married or single, cleric or religious or lay person — to be the missionary disci- ples Australia needs, each ac- cording to their particular state of life?” In his homily opening the Plenary, Archbishop Costelloe said Catholics “must become, evenmore thanwe are already, a community of true disciples”. In an impassioned appeal to Catholics across the nation, Archbishop Costelloe said much of the work ahead in re- newing the Church in Austral- ia “will need, therefore, to be done on our knees, metaphori- cally if not literally.” “Perhaps the most impor- tant thing God is asking of us at this time is to return the Church to Christ and return Christ to the Church,” he said. “What has always been true in theory and in principle ur- gently needs to become true in the day-to-day experience of everyone who encounters us. We must become, even more than we are already, a commu- nity of true disciples. “We must become a living icon of Christ who humbled himself, taking the form of a servant. We must learn from theOnewho ismeek andhum- ble of heart. We are being sent by Him as He was sent by his Father. “If we remain in Him, as branches remain part of the vine, we will bear much fruit.” Christ is central to everything, he reminded Ple- nary participants. “How can we be a mission- ary and evangelising Church if we are not listening to the Lord Jesus who says to us, as He said to His first disciples, “As the Fa- ther has sent me so I send you” (John 20:21)? How can we be an inclusive, participatory and synodal Church if we do not re- flect deeply on the hospitality of God made known in Christ, who draws so many people into His mission of preaching, healing and teaching? More Plenary coverage at www.catholicweekly.com.au clergy are to pass on the de- posit of faith in all its integri- ty—which is so sorely needed in the modern world (cf. Lu- men Gentium 31 and Presby- terumOrdinis 2).” ACSA called on all those participating in the Plenary to take “a sincere and sober look at the state of the Church in Australia and the world,” into account in their deliberations. “Approaches to the Faith which minimise the super- natural and threaten to render the Church of God just an- other NGO have resulted in a marked fall in Church attend- ance, marriages, and celibate vocations,” the letter stated, echoing Pope Francis who has repeatedly warned against al- lowing the Church to become nothing more than another non-government organisa- tion focussed on activities but not on Jesus. “As scandalous as they are, there is nothing in the aforementioned submissions which has not been tried ei- ther by various communities in the Church or in other ec- clesial communities. The del- eterious effects of these false ways are a matter of public record; the communities who follow them will shortly be ex- tinct. “What is needed is not a desacralisation of the Faith but an interior conversion both on the individual and community level, from which we are not exempt. We direct this call to conversion firstly to ourselves,” they wrote. Youth take part in Eucharistic adoration at an Ignite Conference in 2018. In an open let- ter issued on 1 October, Australia’s Catholic students have called on the nation’s bishops and members of the Plenary Council to not allow secular values and ignorance on the part of Catholics determine the historic event’s outcome. PHOTO: IGNITE CONFERENCE ... many sub- missions sought to change teachings of the Faith solemnly defined by the Magis- terium relating to issues of sexuality, life, or other moral issues and show a lack of faith in the Church and her Divine Founder.” Australian Catholic Students Association ACSA President Claudia Tohi, a student at Monash University, led the Association’s call to the Plenary. PHOTO: SUPPLIED PLENARY COUNCIL