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NOVEMBER 2004
National Commission Executive Meeting Record Roll-up at Clergy Conferences
In the last few weeks I have seen something of the range of the life and ministry of clergy in Australia. I attended a clergy in-service in Lismore, two weeks of retreats in Canberra-Goulburn, and met bishops in Perth and Bunbury. I have recently visited seminaries in Brisbane, Sydney and Perth and while in Perth took part in an excellent formation program for recently-ordained priests. I also met there a group of men who are being prepared for candidacy to the permanent diaconate. Many of the newly-ordained priests in Perth were born in countries other than Australia, while their clergy life and ministry team includes priests born in Vietnam and Spain. And during the Canberra-Goulburn retreat I met the last two Irishmen still serving in parishes there. Frs Barney Lynch (Cobargo) and Michael O’Brien (Narooma) are both due to retire next year, marking the end of a most significant chapter in the history of that archdiocese. As Advent and Christmas approach, I hope this special season will be one of peace and blessing for you and for those you serve. And, as they say, “if you know God loves you, tell your face!” Peter Brock NATIONAL
COMMISSION EXECUTIVE MEETING The
Executive of our National Commission recently met in Canberra. Current members
of the Executive are Bishop Don Sproxton (Auxiliary Bishop of Perth), Frs Mark
Freeman (Director of Clergy Life and Ministry, Hobart) and Dave O’Connor
(Brisbane), Ms Mary Cameron (Pastoral Associate, Melbourne), Elisabeth Cowie
(Office Manager, Canberra) and myself. Here
are a few things from the meeting: · A Fourth Draft of Welcoming Priests from Overseas has been prepared and is being circulated. Hopefully we are close to a document we can present to the ACBC and Major Superiors. · Work is in hand for the review of Guidelines for the Permanent Diaconate. · Our office will support a national meeting of Diocesan Vocations Directors planned for April 2005. · We will also organise a gathering in September 2005 on Diocesan Spirituality, a follow-on from last year's gathering of retreat givers. · Fr Brian Lucas, secretary of the Bishops’ Conference, joined us for a discussion of future plans and projects. · We floated the idea of holding our January 2006 Commission Meeting in Perth, and combining it with some contact with the local church in Perth. ·
As I come towards the end
of my three-year term, a formal appraisal has been prepared for submission to
the Bishops’ Committee for Clergy and Religious. ·
We planned the agenda for
our next meeting of the whole Commission, scheduled to be held in Adelaide in
January 2005. As always, the meeting was prayerful, hard-working, enjoyable and fruitful.
RECORD
ROLL-UP AT CLERGY CONFERENCES Several
NSW dioceses have recently reported remarkable attendances at clergy seminars.
“We had priests there we haven’t seen at conferences for years”. One
recently-ordained priest said he saw clergy he had never previously laid eyes
upon. The reason? The NSW Ombudsman’s office has insisted that dioceses
provide seminars on recent changes to child protection legislation, reporting
procedures, etc. As one priest commented, “we haven’t had a roll-up like
this since the seminar on the GST”. And when the bishop and the clergy life and ministry team invite the clergy to the next seminar, on the Word of God, say, or pastoral planning, or the Year of the Eucharist, …?
I
am indebted for the following information to Dr Michael Costigan, Executive
Secretary, Bishops’ Committee for Justice, Development, Ecology and Peace. “Seven
Australian priests from Propaganda Fide College, Rome, will celebrate the Golden
Jubilee of the ordination on 7 December. They are Bishop Pat Dougherty
(Bathurst), Mgr Jim O’Loughlin (Adelaide), Frs Kevin Castles (Rockhampton),
Arthur Hackett (Port Pirie), John Ware (Sandhurst), Barry Whitely (Perth) and
Joe Yu (who volunteered for Melbourne when he could not get back into China).
Another Chinese priest in the same class, Sylvester Chao, did the same, but died
several years ago after doing fine work in several Melbourne parishes. “They
were all ordained on 7 December 1954. As it was a Marian Year, their ordination
was brought forward so they could say their ‘first Masses’ on the Feast of
the Immaculate Conception. The fact that seven have survived and have given a
combined total of 350 years of service is both admirable and remarkable. (It was
a big year for Australasia, with four Kiwis, one of whom has died, also with
them)”. In
recent clergy retreats I have met some of the fine priests who were ordained in
Australia that year. It seems that 1954 was a vintage crop! Ad
multos annos.
Fr
Christopher Gleeson SJ has just published A Canopy of
Stars
- Some Reflections for the Journey, Ringwood Vic., David Lovell Publishing, pp 158; $22.50.
It is an anthology of what he calls “nuggets of wisdom” drawn from a wide
variety of authors and sources. Fr
John Flynn writes from Cairns of a book recommended by Archbishop Frank Little
during their recent clergy retreat: Sacramental Orders by Susan K. Wood, Lex Orandi series, Liturgical Press Collegeville USA 2000. Many
clergy around Australia would have met Fr Richard Lennan who teaches at the
Catholic Institute of Sydney. His latest book has just been released: Risking
the Church – The Challenges of Catholic Faith.
Oxford University Press. For more books, and more information, go to www.auspriest.org à Reading à Recent Books. Any of these books can be ordered online via our website.
The
National Committee for Professional Standards has just released Integrity
In Ministry, a new edition which is being distributed to clergy throughout
Australia. It is “a code of conduct for clergy and religious engaged in
ministry on behalf of the Catholic Church in Australia. It has been written for
the guidance of those in ministry and for the information of those people with
and among whom clergy and religious exercise their ministry”. (Preamble) “As
part of their vocational commitment clergy and religious also continue to
develop the pastoral and professional skills their ministries require. Among
the behavioural standards that follow from this principle are: ·
participation
in support processes such as support groups, clergy fraternity, Ministry
to Priests program, a one-to-one support relationship with a colleague ·
participation
in continuing education programs ·
participation
in regular professional supervision ·
establishing
processes to evaluate the quality of one’s work participation in local and national associations of one’s peers”. (excerpts from 3.2
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