Australia Incognita

Diocese reports to the Pope; Port Pirie and Darwin

2012-02-03T10:56:00.002+11:00

Today I want to post the next installment of my series looking at the state of the Australian Church, diocese by diocese, with a look at the two very geographically large (but very sparsely populated) central Australian dioceses, Darwin and Port Pirie.

But first, a big thank you first of all to those who have continued to provide comments and updates on the posts already completed in this series, as well as input on the ones still to come. In a number of cases, reactions to the post and comments are providing useful information and corrections of perceptions not just of what I and other commenters have written, but that may be more generally out there, so please, keep it up! In some cases, I plan to do a follow up post or two eventually based on the supplementary information people have sent me.

And please, do keep sending me suggestions on things to look at in relation to those dioceses I haven't yet written about: the more you tell me, the more accurate and useful a picture my post will present. And yes, I am deliberately leaving some of the big ones until near the end in the hope of receiving more input to help me get it right!

Ad limina reports?

Closely related to this, one question I've been meaning to ask readers: has anyone seen the report (or some part or draft of it) your bishop submitted on the state of his diocese to the Pope for the ad limina visit?

I'm guessing the answer is no, since it has been noticeable going through diocesan websites that while some (but by no means all) bishops have provided report backs on the discussions held in Rome, or given accounts of the colour and light around the visit, none that I have seen have actually said what they told the Pope and Vatican dicasteries about the state of their diocese, or reported back any feedback from Rome on identified issues in their dioceses.

Now it is possible of course that Pastoral Councils (where these exist) have been in the loop. And not everything that goes into a report to the Pope/Roman bureaucracy, or is said by them, will be appropriately shared (certainly not in full).

Still, I would have thought some version of at least some of the exchanges pertinent to a diocese could be shared, or at least key issues and facts on diocesan shared in sanitised summary form...

In the meantime, I will continue on with my versions of what they might say!

Today, the centre of Australia, with two of the largest dioceses in the country in terms of geographical size, viz Darwin (largest, taking in 1, 352,212 sq kms) and Port Pirie (third, after Geraldton, with 978, 823 sq kms).

Darwin

Source: ACBC

Darwin, which basically takes in most of the Northern Territory, is huge in terms of geography, but small in terms of population: it has an estimated 45,600 catholics in 2009. The diocese takes in the city of Darwin (population 127,500) and Alice Springs (population 27, 481), as well as a number of smaller towns, but this is the least densely populated region of Australia, with many small and isolated Indigenous communities.

Aboriginal Australians make up around a third of the population, and as a result, the Territory's population is the youngest in Australia, with a median age of 30.3 years. The remaining population is very diverse ethnically, with more than 80 nationalities represented amongst its residents.

The diocesan websites notes that:

"Our Diocese has been and to a large extent still is, missionary.

We have priests from all over the world providing wonderful service along with a great team of various communities of Religious men and women.

...We are not an affluent Diocese but we are deeply grateful to Catholic Mission and other benefactors who enable us to provide the much needed services in our Diocese."

A particularly nice touch on the diocesan website's home page message from Bishop Hurley is a request for prayers for the diocese, which I hope you will join me in responding to:

"I hope you enjoy your “virtual” visit to our Diocese and I ask that you pray for us as we labour in this wonderful part of God’s vineyard."

Leadership

Source: Diocesan website

Bishop Daniel Eugene Hurley, aged 71, took over the diocese in 2007 on the retirement of Bishop Collins, having previously been bishop of Port Pirie.

The bio on the diocesan website is refreshingly brief and modest - a fuller account of his background and previous achievements can be found in this report on his appointment.

Bishop Hurley is a member of the (conservative bishops) Domus Australia supporters club, with a wing of the Australian pilgrim house in Rome being named after a NT religious sister in recognition of the diocese's support for the project.

In 2009 the diocese had 25 priests and 7 permanent deacons (several of them Aboriginal), with one of the higher priest to people ratios in the country of 1:1824. Most of the priests of the diocese are religious however: there are only 7 diocesan priests, according to Catholic Hierarchy, and there are no seminarians so far as I can find.

Bishop Hurley has been active in the campaign against mandatory detention of refugees.

He has also been working on a strategic plan for the diocese, which you can hear about here. Sounds like solid sensible (if not greatly inspiring) stuff. A hardcopy of the plan doesn't actually seem to be available online however.

Religious life: A number of religious orders operate in the diocese. Contemplatives located there include the Little Sisters of Jesus (of Charles Foucald) and Carmelite Friars. Active orders include the Missionaries of Charity, Canossian Sisters, and the vibrant new emerging order, the Missionaries of God's Love.

Liturgy: There is no Latin Mass said here. But the Golden Jubilee of the Cathedral, which was originally conceived of as a War Memorial, occurs this August, and over the last few years Bishop Hurley has run a fundraising and works campaign (launched by Cardinal Pell) to restore and complete the construction of the Cathedral in preparation for this.

Transparency and accountability: Darwin's website is not flashy, but it does a good job at providing useful and interesting information in a very accessible way.

I like for example, the FAQs, which answer questions like 'how do I become a catholic' and 'how do I arrange for a priest to visit the sick/dying', for example.

The real standout feature of the site though are the pages for each parish and aboriginal (mission) community. These not only give current mass and reconciliation times, but in most cases also some history of the parish, and information on devotions and parish life more generally.

The parish life descriptions include comments on how many people regularly attend Mass and other activities there, in some cases how many baptisms and so forth have been conducted, as well as clear information on preparation for sacraments and so forth. Traditional devotions such as Adoration, and groups such as the Legion of Mary seem to be strongly encouraged.

Port Pirie

About the diocese

The diocese of Port Pirie takes in most of South Australia (aside from Adelaide itself and theSouth East of the State), and goes up as far as and including Uluru.

It is the third smallest diocese in Australia in terms of population, with around 28, 653 Catholics in 2004. Back then it had notionally had 35 priests (27 diocesan) and a nominally, a very low priest to people ratio, at 1:818. Based on the diocesan websites listing for parishes, however, the diocese now has only 23 priests, with most parishes including several churches and many priests administering two or more parishes.

Port Pirie, where the cathedral is located, has a population of 13, 206 in 2006. But the diocese also includes a number of larger towns including Whyalla (pop 21,122) and Port Augusta (pop: 13, 257)

The diocesan website states that:

"We have 58 churches and thirteen schools faith and learning centres across the diocese.

There are three Homes for the aged and infirm, and Centacare – Catholic Social Services – operates out of several venues across the state.

Our diocese embraces the tourist, fishing and whale watching areas in the south, great areas of grain crops, the beauty of the Flinders Ranges, the desert of the north west, sheep and cattle country in the north east, the Riverland along the Murray with its orchards and vines, the mining industry for iron and uranium and coal, traditional communities of Aboriginal people, the first Australians, and the majesty of Uluru."

Leadership

Source: Diocesan website

The bishop of Port Pirie is Bishop Gregory O'Kelly SJ, aged 70, was appointed in 2009 after a stint as Auxiliary of Adelaide, and before that was headmaster of St Ignatius Adelaide and Riverview in Sydney.

He remains close to the archdiocese, reflecting in recent months to this diocese on the angst caused by the abuse allegations in Adelaide and the Bishop Morris affair (albeit in a constructive way).

The diocese has one seminarian, from the Philippines, the first for several years. There was however, an ordination of a permanent deacon in 2011.

Unsurprisingly given his background, the bishop is a strong defender of the Catholic schools system, arguing that the failure of catholic schools to produce catholics reflects the collapse of Catholic family life rather than the schools themselves. He chairs the relevant committee of the ACBC.

I've been critical of the bishop of late, for his defense of marriage in terms pitched to please the liberals in a Cath News article. He has recently written another such pitch (albeit one unproblematic doctrinally!) this time in conjunction with Bishop Hurley, on refugees.

Transparency and accountability: The Port Pirie website is pretty old-fashioned, clunky, bare-bones stuff, devoid of much real content. It hangs off the Adelaide site (indeed, click on the sitemap and you lose Port Pirie and find yourself in Adelaide!

Curious really for a bishop who apparently worries about a resurgence in clericalism:

"In some quarters there has been something of a resurgence of clericalism, which constitutes taking a dangerous step backwards. Clericalism has done much damage to the Church, placing both heavy demands and unwarranted power in the hands of the ordained, and at the same time relegating the laity to a role of passive and subservient dependence on the clergy..."

Yet how can we the laity be empowered if there is no transparency and accountability?

Mass attendance and the convenience factor

Finally, I wanted to note that some of the statistics for these two diocese perhaps provide some interesting support for the idea suggested in comments on my post on Mass attendance that convenience is a major factor in mass attendance rates (a point for bishops contemplating reducing the number of masses offered in cities to bear in mind!), at least at the margin.

Take the case of these two dioceses. The proportion of catholics who regularly attended Sunday Mass in 2006 was, on my calculations, 13.8% for Port Pirie (ie exactly on the national average), and 9.6% for Darwin.

There are, I suspect, three proxy measures we can look at I suspect for convenience: the proportion of Catholics in urban centres as opposed to more spread out (the metropolitian effect); population density of a diocese in general; and the proportion of priests to catholics/parish size.

The two dioceses are not too dissimilar in terms of population density as far as I can see. But on the urban concentration, Darwin ought to have a higher attendance rate, since around three-quarters of the diocese's Catholics live, so far as I can work out, in the major urban centres of Darwin, Palmeston and Alice Springs. By contrast, only around a third of Port Pirie's Catholics live in the (much smaller) towns of Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Pirie.

The counterbalancing factors though are parish size and priest to population ratios: Darwin's, on last available data was a relatively high priest to catholic ratio of 1:1,824, while Port Pirie's was nominally 1:818, the lowest in the country. And Darwin has chosen to spread out its resources, with the major centres having parishes with around 5,000 catholics each, whereas Port Pirie's parishes are typically much smaller.

Of course, part of the difference in mass attendance rates may not be just convenience but also the priestly presence effect on evangelization...

Christmas is over...

2012-02-02T22:32:00.000+11:00

Even on the old calendar, Christmastide is now over, and so the antiphon at Compline changes. Here is the new season's...

Toowoomba again: who is Fr Ian Waters?

2012-02-02T08:54:00.006+11:00

The Toowoomba story has finally made it back into the Fairfax media today, in a story by religion writer Barney Zwartz. It is mostly the same old awful stuff, and it contains a few absolute clangers.

The Pope rules, ok!

Let's skip to the big one:

"...found that Pope Benedict breached canon law and exceeded his authority in removing Bishop Morris without finding him guilty of apostasy, heresy or schism and without following the judicial procedures canon law requires."

First, it is impossible for the Pope to exceed his authority in a case like this since he has full legislative, executive and judicial authority within the Church (CIC 330-333). There is no appeal from his judgments, and he is not bound by canon law!

But secondly, even if he was so bound, there are no specific provisions relating to the dismissal of a bishop for him to breach.

It is up to the Pope to judge whether the process used within the relevant Vatican agencies is appropriate or not, not for some civil lawyer to judge. There is no required 'judicial procedure'. That would be because the Office of bishop is not a job, but an appointment as successor to the Apostles. And of course the apostles were a mixed bag too, remembering one in particular who sought to destroy the Church.

Thirdly, there is absolutely nothing that specifies that someone has to be guilty of schism, heresy or apostasy before they can be removed from Office in the Church! Ineffective ministry is a perfectly good reason for removal.

Indeed, absolutely orthodox priests can be removed from office for all sorts of curious reasons as the case of Fr Speekman of Sale diocese ultimately attests.

So who is Fr Waters?

The opinions of a civil lawyer can readily be dismissed, but what about the opinion of canon lawyer Fr Ian Waters? And just why was it that the Toowoomba dissenters fastened on him in the first place?

Well it turns out that the selection is not in the least bit random.

Fr Waters is actually the author of a 2008 article in the Australasian Catholic Record on General Absolution. And guess what, his article defends a broad use of it in rural Australian dioceses, contrary to the intent of the Statement of Conclusions for Australia and numerous other instructions!

Coincidence? I think not!

Fr Water's article is full of typical liberal fluff at odds with the tradition of the Church.

It argues that auricular confession was not given to us by Christ.

That 'individual and private' celebration of the sacraments (as in private confession) is counter to the spirit of Vatican II.

He quotes with approval a statement by Father Gerald Gleeson, of the Catholic Institute of Sydney, rejecting the orthodox concept of mortal sin:

"Many have observed that a theology focussed on individual actions according to which, for example, one’s laziness in missing Mass on a single Sunday could lead to eternal damnation, is simply too horrible to be believed. Most older Catholics today don’t believe the teaching about mortal sin they received as children, and rightly so. The tragedy is that neither they, nor younger Catholics, have been
introduced to a more mature, and theologically more adequate, understanding of sin and sinfulness."

The article is careful to mention the canonical restrictions placed on the use of General Absolution. But he concludes by stressing the power of the diocesan bishop to decide on the circumstances in which General Absolution can be used, Rome notwithstanding. And by suggesting some arguably quite inappropriate uses of it.

Yep, not only is he a Morris supporter, he would appear to have positively encouraged the good bishop by providing a pseudo-academic rationale for disregarding the repeated instructions from Rome on the extremely narrow circumstances in which General Absolution is to be used.

Doesn't sound exactly an "Independent" expert to me...

And the truly terrifying thing is that he is, presumably, teaching the next generation of priests this kind of thing, and making decisions on behalf of the Melbourne Archdiocese based on this erroneous theology.

Toowoomba 'leadership' group: delusion, disobedience and deceit continue

2012-02-01T07:49:00.004+11:00

The antics of the 'Toowoomba Diocesan Leadership Group' continue. Thanks to a Toowoomba reader for sending this latest...

Parishes and other diocesan agencies were apparently treated to an 'update' on the Bishop Morris situation yesterday, sent out from the Diocesan chancery, accompanied by a particularly rabid article on the saga from Fr Michael Kelly SJ.

Potentially on the positive side, it seems the ACBC are attempting to take the situation in hand, agreeing to meet with the group. Although given the make-up of the Queensland Province, I wouldn't be holding my breath for decisive action.

On the negative, this note illustrates the extreme degree of delusion this group have been brainwashed into, with their hopeless obsession on 'clearing the name' of Bishop Morris!

Here is the update, with my comments:

"Carter Memorandum:

The Memorandum prepared by Hon W J Carter QC was forwarded to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) but no reply or comment from them has been received. [Well what could you say!]

Fr Ian Waters, an expert on Canon Law [who should be removed from whatever positions he holds] was asked to look at this Memorandum from the point of Canon Law. Both articles concluded that Bishop Morris has been denied natural justice.

At the request of Fr Frank Brennan, Fr Michael Kelly SJ [Please Holy Father, suppress the Jesuits again!] wrote an article on the subject for The Tablet and other media outlets. He asked permission to send these documents to the editor as verification of points made in his article. Permission was granted and therefore they have been made public and can be downloaded from:

http://eurekastreet.com.au/uploads/file/12/waters.docx and

http://eurekastreet.com.au/uploads/file/12/carter.pdf

To listen to an interview with Bill Carter on Bishop Morris aired on Radio National Breakfast on 18th January: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/

Also, Mark Copland has uploaded these files, along with articles from Frank Brennan and Andrew Hamilton onto the website: www.bishopbillstory.com.au.

Copies of the Memorandum and Canonical Reflection will be/have been sent to the Cardinals of the relevant Sacred Congregations involved in the original process, as well as to the Supreme Court of the Church.

Attached is a copy of Fr Michael Kelly’s article.

ACBC and Proposed Meeting:

Correspondence between the ACBC and the Toowoomba Diocesan Leadership Group (TDLG) has, so far, borne little fruit because the ACBC has not addressed any of the questions/concerns raised by the TDLG.

However, the ACBC suggested that, through Bishop Brian Finnigan, a meeting be arranged with the TDLG and several bishops of the Queensland Province. This proposal has been accepted and will take place towards the end of February. Bishop Morris will also be present.

It is most likely that this meeting will take place in Brisbane with a small representative group from the TDLG (possibly 10 people) and if videoconferencing or teleconferencing facilities are available, this will be arranged for the benefit of the larger group.

It has been proposed that the agenda for this meeting include:

1) The sharing of any further information on the process gained by the bishops during their Ad Limina visit as stated in their Media Release upon their return from Rome;[Why isn't Bishop Finnigan's report back good enough for them?]

2) What further steps can be taken to clear Bishop Bill’s name; [!Whoever is suggesting that his name either needs to be or can be 'cleared' is deceiving these people and leading them astray. The Pope has made his decision; there is no appeal. Let it go!]

3) Reiterate that our diocese is not divided as some claim, and that Bishop Bill has the support of the vast majority of the people in the diocese. [yeah right, not! Even if this were true, this is not a democracy. Numbers don't matter in the civil court system; similarly they don't affect the Holy Father's prudential decisions on what needs to be done.]

4) The clarification of definitions (such as infallibility) and other points as previously requested, but so far unanswered.[They are asking for some catechesis? Well, surely no problem giving them that...]

Another meeting of the whole TDLG will take place after the meeting with the bishops.

Council of Priest and Diocesan Pastoral Council (DPC)

Fr Ray Crowley has advised that Bishop Brian Finnigan has approved the re-establishment of the Council of Priests (to be known as the Ad hoc Council of Priests) and Diocesan Pastoral Council, as advisory groups until a new Bishop is appointed....

Dates for the ad hoc Council of Priests meetings are 6/7 March, 17/18 July and 7/8 November. An agenda meeting is to be held on 5 February. (Items to be put forward to Fr Michael O’Brien by 30 January).

Dates for the ad hoc DPC are: 18 February, 21 April, 14 July and 10 November.

Sr Eileen March

Please keep the faithful suffering in Toowoomba in your prayers, and pray for a swift resolution of this delusional nonsense.

Let's kill all the lawyers...

2012-02-01T07:20:00.000+11:00

The subversive influence of legalism continues to grow in Australia, undermining the concept of personal responsibility for our actions, pushing for 'rights' that run counter to the common good, and attempting to undermine the capacity for action on the part of decision-makers.

Sick secularism; stealth jihad

Consider some of these recent gems.

The Australian Muslim imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for blasphemy who plans to sue the Australian Government for not doing enough to get him released.

The High Court's interference in the actions of the Government on the Malaysian Refugee exchange.

And now, reported today in the Sydney Morning Herald, where a couple are suing their IVF doctor because their son was born with a genetic disease passed on to him from the father and is now severely disabled....

IVF has to go

This is not, of course, the first such outrageous, morally offensive IVF related case has been brought to court. Remember those Canberra lesbians who sued because they ended up with two children rather than one?

Rather, it demonstrates once again the dangers of the commodification of children, who are rejected if they don't meet the parents particular standards of perfection.

On the plus side, maybe if enough people sue, IVF will become more expensive, and be used less....

But while we must look in horror and ponder how parents could even contemplate running such a case, saying their now 11 year old child should never have been born, we should bear in mind that it is the lawyers who are enabling this try on. Let's kill all the lawyers.

And meanwhile back in Toowoomba....

So faced with mass disobedience, what would you do?

2012-01-31T11:52:00.001+11:00

Yesterday's post on Toowoomba has prompted an interesting debate on what the Church should do when faced with mass disobedience on the part of priests and other church functionaries, supported in many cases by a large number of the laity.

It is an debate that is relevant to any number of dioceses in Australia, and around the world, so I think it is worth discussing.

Do you step in quickly and take tough action, including and up to excommunications? Or do you, as commenter 'carob-molasses' suggests, go softly softly in the interests of keeping the diocese going?

Change is possible

Let me put my cards on the table. I do think it is possible to turn things around in a diocese like this.

I don't think it is acceptable to let things run on just because people might not be out and out heretics.

We don't just want a church that stumbles on somehow, we want one that is genuinely flourishing, and one rooted in orthododoxy and orthopraxis, not error.

Obedience is one of the most fundamental virtues of our faith. Without it we are not truly Christians.

It won't be easy of course, and not everyone will be converted.

So what would you do in practice?

Now I don't know what Bishop Finnigan has actually done in Toowoomba, or what (the few orthodox?) bishops in Austria are doing, for example.

They may well have done some of this already. But I think it is worth trying to compile a list, based on what has worked elsewhere, for those dealing with such problems to consider!

I'd also note in this particular case, Bishop Finnigan for example may be restricted to some degree in what he can do as he is Apostolic Administrator, not the actual bishop of the diocese.

Still, here is my list of suggestions, but please do add to the list!

1. Get everyone engaged in prayer for reconciliation.

Ask every parish to have at least an hours Adoration each week to ask for the grace of renewal for the diocese.

2. Find some contemplative prayer warriors...

Find a good contemplative monastery and ask them to pray for the diocese - ideally ask them to send a few monks or nuns to live in the diocese for a period, and provide the necessary support to make this possible.

3. Find the orthodox people in the diocese, and get them to help.

Form an informal ginger group of those who have been seeking change, and get them to help identify the problems and come up with solutions. You need a counterweight to the dissenters! The challenge will be to build and develop this group into a positive force who can bring in others to support the cause, turn them from a minority to a majority.

4. Isolate and neutralise the bullies and troublemakers.

In a situation like Toowoomba a few will be the active ringleaders of disobedience - many more will be simply intimidated into going along with the seeming majority. So try and find if there is some common ground - something on their agenda that is useful and achievable that their energies can be redirected to. Or whether some need a change of job or to gain a bit of perspective by some time out of the diocese...

5. Make it clear that you are not acting alone

On the one hand, bishops are the leaders, the authentic teachers for their diocese. But they are part of the universal church, and they can draw on outside help!

Make sure your diocesan website sells the message that you are part of the universal church.

Bring in people like Cardinal Pell and other strong speakers (clerical and lay) to help preach and teach. Yes, they might get a bit of flack, and so might you, but the more different voices say the same thing, the more chance the message will eventually get through.

Beg and borrow some solid priests to help out from other dioceses and/or overseas.

6. Create a clear, positive agenda and push it hard/catechesis

Set up an engagement process to help the people of the diocese see (or at least enough of them) what the (real) problems are, and embark on some solid catechesis, including for priests.

An obvious starting point for most dioceses in Australia might be why the ministerial priesthood is essential, and what can be done to encourage more young men to try their vocation!

7. Make it clear that ongoing dissent is not acceptable.

A positive agenda though is always going to be swamped if the dissenters are allowed free reign to continue their campaign. So I do think a formal warning, and prohibitions on using church facilities/promoting dissent is necessary.

And if that doesn't work, then there are canonical steps that can and should be used to bring about repentance.

Other suggestions?

No healing in Toowoomba: the case for some suspensions, excommunications and interdiction

2012-01-30T09:50:00.003+11:00

A reader sent me a copy of the Toowoomba Cathedral Bulletin for this Sunday. Seems things are as bad as ever there, with a self-appointed 'leadership group' continuing to stir up trouble.

In particular, Fr Ian Waters’ “Canonical Reflection” and Bill Carter’s Memorandum were both available for distribution and all were encouraged to take a copy after Mass.

And then there was this item in the bulletin:

"BISHOP MORRIS: LEGAL ASSESSMENT of the PROCESS of REMOVAL

Since the removal of Bishop Morris in May 2011, a group known as the Toowoomba Diocesan Leadership Group has met on several occasions (May, June, July and November in 2011 and more recently 17 January 2012) to respond to this action by Vatican authorities. This Leadership Group comprises all Priests, all Pastoral Leaders, all Directors and Executive Officers of Diocesan Agencies and Ministries, and all members of the Diocesan Pastoral Council, the Diocesan Pastoral Administration Committee and the Diocesan Finance Council: in effect, key people from across the Diocese in positions of pastoral leadership.

The Leadership Group has been in regular contact with the Bishops of Australia and with Bishop Morris. In the latter part of 2011, Justice William Carter, a retired Supreme Court Judge (Qld), was asked to provide a legal opinion on the process resulting in the removal of Bishop Morris. Justice Carter was provided with copies of documentation between Bishop Morris and the Vatican authorities. These included the Congregations for Bishops, for Worship and Sacraments, and for the Faith, and ultimately, Pope Benedict. Justice Carter provided his opinion in late October 2011.

In November 2011, Fr lan Waters, an eminent Canon Lawyer in Sydney, was approached to provide a canonical (Church Law) perspective on the legal (Civil Law) opinion of Justice Carter on the process involved in the removal of Bishop Morris. Fr Waters provided his opinion in mid December 2011.

Both opinions have been given to Bishop Morris. Both opinions have been tabled for discussion at the January 2012 meeting of the Toowoomba Diocesan Leadership Group. Both opinions have been sent to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) and through the Conference to all Bishops in Australia. Both opinions are to be sent to the three Congregations (noted earlier) in the Vatican in the coming week. Justice Carter and Fr Waters have both given recent and extensive interviews on the ABC. Bishop Morris has agreed that this legal material be released to the wider community.

Copies of these documents are available on the front and east tables."

Priests to pray especially for...

2012-01-28T06:00:00.002+11:00

Herewith my occasional list of priests and bishops who have generously responded to the desires of the laity and said (attendance in choir counts, especially for example if it is a bishop doing confirmations or just visiting a community!) the Traditional Latin (EF) Mass, and thus especially deserve our prayers.

Apologies if any names I've previously had on the list have dropped off for some reason, or I have details wrong - just let me know.

It is clearly incomplete (who, for example says the Latin Masses held in Albury and Cairns?), so please do take a look through and get back to me with any names to add, or ordination dates, so I can then update the date order version.

VICTORIA

Melbourne

Archbishop Denis Hart – 9 December 1997
Bishop Peter Elliot – 15 June 2007
Fr Nicholas Dillon - 7 June 2003
Fr William Grogan - 22 June 1979
Fr Glen Tattersall - 23 June 2001
Fr Donald Lourensz -26 June 1987
Fr John McDaniels - 29 June 2002
Fr Paschal M Corby OFM Conv – 17 November 2007
Fr Mark Spora
Fr Colin Marshall
Fr Bob Maguire
Fr Bill Uren SJ
Fr John Walshe, 1982

Sandhurst

Bishop Grech (obit December 28)
Fr Peter-John Nievandt - 1 July 2005
Fr Chris Reay - 19 August
Fr Leo Hynes - 28 June 1975
Fr Bernard McGrath - 17 August 1984
Fr Leo Lane - 27 July 1948

Sale

Bishop Christopher Prowse (priest 16.8.80/bishop 19/5/2003)
Fr Andrew Wise

Ballarat

Bishop Peter Connors - priest 23/7/61; bishop 21/5/87
Fr John Corrigan - 16/9/2011
Fr Henry Nikel SVD

WA/PERTH

Archbishop Barry Hickey - 1 May 1984
Father Martin Roestenburg O Praem - 13 April 1991
Father Timothy Deeter - 8 May 1981
Father Patrick Holmes 27th May 1961
Father Michael Rowe - 21 May 1994
Father Georges Maurel - 29 June 1979
Father Jim Shelton - 30 June 2000 (now US based)
Father Brian Limbourne - 29th September 1989

ADELAIDE/SA

Archbishop Philip Wilson – 10 July 1996
Father Michael McCaffrey FSSP - 24 June 2006
Fr David Thoroughgood - 20 March 1982,
Fr Mannes Tellis OP - 20 December 2008
Fr Christopher Dowd OP – 30 July 1988

CANBERRA/ACT

Archbishop Mark Coleridge – 19 June 2002
Bishop Patrick Power – 18 April 1986
Bishop Aloysius Morgan (obit 21.5.08)
Fr John Parsons - 3 April 1982
Fr Ken Webb FSSP - 22 May 2004 (now Canada-based)
Msgr John Kelly (obit 5 August)
Fr John Fongemie FSSP - 23rd June 2001 (now US-based)
Fr Dominic Popplewell FSSP - 22 Nov 2008
Fr Paul McGavin

NSW

Sydney

Cardinal George Pell – 21 May 1987
Bishop Julian Porteous - priest 7/9/74; bishop 3/9/2003
Fr Lawrence Gresser FSSP - 4 March 2000
Fr James McCarthy - 30 April 2009
Fr Andrew Benton - 30 April 2009
Father Terence Mary Naughtin OFM Conv - [7] May 1988
Fr Duncan Wong FSSP – 7 June
Fr Kevin Muldoon
Fr Anthony Robbie

Parramatta

Emeritus Bishop Kevin Manning of Parramatta - 10 July 1991
Fr Marko Rehak FSSP - 22 November 2008
Fr John O'Neill
Fr Terance Hogan
Fr William Define FSSP
Fr Adrian Wee FSSP
Fr. John Rizzo, FSSP, 19 May 1985

Wollongong

Fr John Stork

Wagga Wagga

Fr Kim Holland - 25 September 1992
Mgr William Fulton

Broken Bay

Fr William Alliprandi
Father Jim Boberg (R.I.P.)

Lismore

Bp Geoffrey Jarrett - 22 February 2001

Maitland/Newcastle

Father Jim Boland (R.I.P.).
Father Harry Fenton (R.I.P.).
Monsignor Thomas Brennan.
Father Thomas O'Sullivan (R.I.P.).
Father Harry Fenton (R.I.P.).
Father Jim Doran (R.I.P.).
Father James Boberg (R.I.P.). non-resident
Father Ephraim Chifley. Non resident
Father Terence Mary O.F.M. – CONV non resident
Father Andrew Benton. Non resident

TASMANIA

Fr Gerald Quinn CP - 21 July, 1962

QUEENSLAND

Brisbane

Bishop Joseph Oudeman
Fr Gregory Jordan SJ – Brisbane
Fr William McPherson Ross, 19 July 1959
Fr Stephen Hartley

Rockhampton

Fr Martin Durham - Rockhampton

OVERSEAS

Fr Mark Withoos, Rome
Fr Joseph Kramer FSSP, Rome
Fr Hugh Sommerville-Knapman OSB Douai
Fr Alban Nunn OSB Ealing
Fr Anthony Denton, Rome
Fr Damonn Sypher FSSP

Understanding those Mass attendance figures: some invidious comparisons*

2012-01-27T17:36:00.005+11:00

A reader asked me a few days back to explain the percentage of Catholics/percentage attending Mass figures I've been citing in my diocesan profiles.

I imagine it has others puzzled too, so here is a bit more on what (I think!) it means, and apologies for the delay in responding!

The figures - step one: overall mass attendance rates

In 2006, a census was done of those who attended Mass across four Sundays in May.

It found that 708, 618 people attended mass or a Sunday Assembly in the Absence of a Priest on average on those Sundays. Thanks to the official census, we know that in total there were 5, 126, 884 people claiming to be Catholics in 2006. Divide the first figure by the second and you will get 13.8%.

So on average, around 14% of Catholics turn up at Mass each week.

Step 2: By diocese

But of course the Mass attendance rates vary by diocese.

The Pastoral Projects Office of the ACBC hasn't, for some strange reason, at least as far as I can find, released the percentages by diocese.

But it has provided a table, in the recently released See I am doing a new thing. A report on the 2009 survey of Catholic Religious Institutes in Australia (the relevant table, which uses 2006 data, is on page 17), which, in conjunction with the National Sunday Mass Attendance Report, enables you to calculate these.

What the table I've been using (from the Report on Religious Life) actually provides is a comparison between the proportion of Catholics in Australia and the proportion of Mass goers in Australia.

Take a diocese like Broken Bay. It has 4.2% of Australia's Catholics located in it. So 4.2% of 15.1m adds up to 215,329 people.

It also has 4.2% of mass attendees. So that is 4.2% of those 708, 618 attenders across Australia, or around 29,761 people turning up to Mass each week in Broken Bay.

Divide 29,761 by 215, 329 and you get 13.8% - in other words, if you have the same proportion of Catholics as you have of Mass attendees then Mass attendance rates for the diocese are exactly on the national average.

What this means is that if the proportion of Catholics in the diocese is, like Sale 2% of all Australians, and the proportion of Mass attendees is only 1.7%, the proportion of Catholics going to Mass in the diocese is a lot lower than 13.8% (in fact around 11.7%). To see just what the proportion of Catholics who turn up at Mass each week at mass then, you have to do the arithmetic above. And I admit I've been a bit lazy (or short of time!) and haven't bothered to do the calculations for each diocese up until now.

But the results are quite interesting (if depressing), so here are a few.

Comparing the proportion of Catholics with the proportion of Mass attenders

Keep in mind though, that they are just different ways of presenting the same data. And that they are little old now. Do let me know if you think I've made an error though. Note also that I'm using the rounded percentages from public reports, so the figures are not exact).

WA

Perth: 14.4% of Catholics attended Mass (diocese has 7.4% of all Catholics; 7.7% of Mass attenders)
Broome: 6.9% attend Mass (0.2% of Catholics; 0.1% of attenders)
Bunbury: 9.6% (1% of Catholics; 0.7% attenders)
Geraldton: 10.4% (0.4% of Catholics; 0.3% of attenders)

NSW/ACT

Sydney: 18.3%
Parramatta:18.3%
Wagga Wagga: 16.1%
Broken Bay: 13.8%
Wollongong: 12.6%
Armidale: 12.5%
Bathurst: 11.7%
Lismore:11.2%
Maitland-Newcastle: 10.1%
Wilcannia-Forbes: 9.9%
Canberra-Goulburn: 13.3%

Victoria/Tas

Melbourne: 15.3%
Ballarat: 14.5%
Sandhurst: 12.3%
Sale: 11.7%
Hobart: 8.1%

Queensland

Toowoomba: 13.8%
Brisbane: 11.1%
Rockhampton: 10.9%
Townsville: 8.9%
Cairns: 8.8%

South Australia/NT

Adelaide: 12.5%
Port Pirie: 13.8%
Darwin: 9.6%

I'll let you ponder further what these numbers really mean, although I have to say the Sydney (18.3%) vs Broome (6.9% comparison) is pretty stark. Of course, the clearest message is that five decades of the spirit of Vatican II have created a nation whose Catholics are mostly of the lapsed variety...

**I've added the most rest of the figures in and provided a more direct link to the report whose figures I'm using since some readers don't seem to have been able to locate it.

PS aCatholicas, I am not a 'conservative blogger' either politically or theologically as you would discover if you read this blog a little more closely. If you must label me, traditionalist committed to genuine renewal within the Church would be closer to the mark.

Armidale: prayers for a Bishop-Elect please

2012-01-27T08:09:00.001+11:00

Continuing my series of diocesan profiles, today Armidale.

Source: ACBC

Armidale's very new bishop is yet to be actually consecrated (or ordained as a bishop if you prefer!) - that is scheduled to happen on 9 February (the principal consecrator will be Emeritus Bishop Matthys, with Cardinal Pell and Bishop Hanna of Wagga Wagga as co-consecrators).

Ranked twenty-third in terms of Catholic population, Armidale had around 43,223 catholics in 2006, and takes in some 91,500 sq kms (NB For this post I've relied, where there is a choice, on figures from a recent diocesan press release distributed via the Bishop's Conference media group - the figures for the diocese's size and number of parishes don't quite line up with the I assume now outdated data on the Catholic Hierarchy website).

Transparency and accountability

In a press release on the upcoming consecration of Bishop-Elect Kennedy, Bishop Matthys said that he was satisfied that he will be handing the Diocese of Armidale to his successor in a good position:

"More clergy are needed but we're not doing too badly. Organisationally and financially we are not facing any difficulties."

Of course, it is hard to provide any kind of independent assessment of that statement, due to the strange lack of a diocesan website for Armidale, the only holdout amongst Australian dioceses (despite a long running campaign on the part of the Cooees).

Hopefully this lack will be swiftly rectified under the new regime (though I rather suspect this series is making some other dioceses wish they were likewise free of that affliction called the internet)!

It is true though that the Catholic Schools Office website does have some interesting and useful historical information on parishes, schools and religious communities (as well as the very cute map below depicting the activities of the region):

Source: Armidale CSO website

Leadership

In 2006 the diocese had 32 priests in total, slightly up on the number when Bishop Luc Matthys took office in 1999.

It has 23 parishes, each of which has a priest - but many parishes contain several churches, some of which are administered by religious sisters.

Despite some significant efforts to promote Sunday observance Mass attendance rates in 2006 at least were below the national average - the diocese had 0.9% of the nation's Catholic population resident, but only 0.7% of those who attend mass regularly (perhaps the absence of a website makes it difficult to find out when Mass is actually on!).

Nonetheless, Armidale has a reputation for orthodoxy and orthopraxis under Bishop Luc Matthys, who celebrated his golden jubilee in December.

I could only find two parish websites on the net. One was the fairly standard kind of thing you'd see in any diocese. But the home page of Tamworth's St Nicholas bears clearer witness to the diocese's conservative reputation:

"...Accordingly, we strive to be: a Catholic Church Community - Faithful to the teaching of the Church - Faithful to the Eucharist and to Prayer - Faithful to the Catholic way of life-sharing what we have with those who are in need!"

And its bulletin bears that out, with the parish offering substantial confession times in each of its three churches, a note on which week it is in the Liturgy of the Hours along with the weekly calendar of saints feasts, and other positive indicators of a vigorous parish life.

Liturgy and religious life

I'm led to believe there is a regular Latin Mass held in Armidale - but there don't seem to be any details of it on the web.

There are several active religious orders present n the diocese, but as far as I can see, no contemplatives.

The bishop-elect

Source: The Irrigator

Bishop-elect Kennedy, aged 43, seems set to build on the strengths this diocese already has. A press release quotes him as follows:

"Bishop-Elect Kennedy said that his initial reaction to his appointment was one of excitement. “I thought I should be nervous. Yet, I felt at peace with the news. The number of people assuring me that I am in their prayers has contributed to that peace," he said. "I am both honoured and humbled to have been chosen to be a successor of the Apostles as the Bishop of Armidale."...

"My age doesn't concern me. I gave my life over to God and this appointment, at this point in my life, is God's Will. My young age presents one quirk, in that I will be the spiritual Father to the Priests of the Diocese, many of whom will be much older than I," he said. "As a 'Gen-X' Bishop, I see it as a positive that I will have an evident ability to relate to younger generations. However, we can all understand one another across generations. I hope that I am seen as somebody who can understand and communicate with teenagers when I am 75."

The youngest of nine children, Bishop-Elect Kennedy said he feels blessed and truly grateful that he grew up in a loving, secure, stable, caring family. "It saddens me that this is less common today."

"My parents came from farming backgrounds. I grew up in the rural Riverina locality of San Isidore near Wagga Wagga. My father was a public servant in Wagga and my mother was a nurse until she became a stay at home mum."

Bishop-Elect Kennedy's education began in a small, two-class country school at San Isidore. He then attended a school run by the Christian Brothers in Wagga. "I was so happy with my schooling that I decided to become a school teacher myself. I taught for three years at Xavier Catholic High School in Albury.”

He then commenced studying to be a priest. He began his priestly formation at Vianney College, Wagga and completed his studies in Rome at Propaganda Fide, obtaining a Licentiate in Sacred Theology.

Ordained into the Priesthood in the Diocese of Wagga on August 14, 1999, he was the assistant priest in Griffith (1999-2000); Rector of St Francis’ Residential College at Charles Sturt University (2001-2003); assistant priest in Albury (2004-2006); and the Parish Priest of Leeton since 2007. His teaching background was one of his qualifications to be a Lecturer at Vianney College where he taught Moral Theology and Church History.

He was the Parish Priest of Leeton, NSW, and the Vicar Forane (Dean) of the Murrumbidgee Deanery when his appointment as Bishop of Armidale was announced in December last year."

Please keep Bishop-Elect Kennedy in your prayers.

Happy Australia Day: now let's get serious about converting Australia!

2012-01-26T12:11:00.004+11:00

Today is Australia's National Day, and so a day to relax and celebrate our achievements as a nation.

But also, I would suggest a day to reflect on where we are headed.

Priorities

Some of our bishops have (inevitably) used the occasion (yet again) to call on the political parties to work once again to develop a sensible refugee policy. Spectacularly bad timing unfortunately, as no sooner had their press release come out then the Liberal-Coalition walked out on the joint talks that had been underway amidst recriminations about the cost of reopening Nauru processing and sharp words came forth from Indonesia causing Opposition Leader Mr Abbott to entrench himself even further on the Coalition's 'tow back the boats' lunacy.

Couldn't we have a positive message for once? Australia is one of the great countries in the world to live in, and does so much to try and make the world a better place, and just now and then it would be nice for someone to say so.

But if we do have to focus on the challenges ahead, really, despite the high profile of the issue, how we treat refugees is surely a marginal one given the small number of people actually involved.

We have far bigger problems.

Where for example is the call for Australia to recognise the most important right of all, to life?

Or why not take the opportunity to reiterate the importance of defending the traditional family in order to safeguard the future of our society?

Or perhaps to support the case at least in principle for recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Constitution, in line with the recently released report? Small beer and purely symbolic at one level, but also an important recognition that the situation of our Indigenous population remains a far greater national shame, in my view at least, than our treatment of refugees.

Symptoms not the causes

In reality, I think it can be argued that virtually all of the social and economic problems Australia faces are in the end symptoms of a bigger problem, namely a self-indulgent, materialistic culture that puts the individual ahead of the good of society as a whole and rejects the reality of God.

The solution then, is not just nice words and lobbying on particular topics - we the laity do need to take charge and do that of course, consistent with our vocations - but also the adoption of a more strategic approach, viz converting Australia.

And on that front, it is nice to see that the Archdiocese of Sydney's new Lenten resource is directed exactly at that end, namely the promotion of the New Evangelization.

Make Disciples of all nations - the New Evangelization

Make Disciples of all Nations is based around the readings for Year B (in the Novus Ordo calendar).

Cardinal Pell's introduction to the resource talks about the establishment of the new Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation, of which he is a member, and goes on to say that:

"In undertaking such a significant step His Holiness has provided us with a timely reminder that it is the duty of the Church “always and everywhere” to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the Church is missionary “by her very nature, since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father” (Ad Gentes, Vatican II, Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church, 2).

In providing us with this reminder Pope Benedict is aware of the many challenges facing us in evangelising those people who have not heard the Gospel. Furthermore, there are many who have heard the Gospel, and indeed have been baptised, but no longer practise the Christian Faith. [Of course there is one more important group noticeably missing Cardinal Pell's summation that we shouldn't skip over, namely those who are practising Christians, but lack the fullness of unity with Peter!] In some cases, they have abandoned it altogether. As a way of meeting this challenge, in his address to the new Council in early 2011 the Pope asserted that Christians must ensure that their style of life is “genuinely credible”. He adopted as his own the words of Pope Paul VI, who stated “It is therefore primarily by her conduct and by her life that the Church will evangelise the world, in other words, by her living witness of fidelity to the Lord Jesus the witness of poverty and detachment, of freedom in the face of the powers of the world, in short, the witness of sanctity” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 41)...

The general introduction to the resource by the (seemingly anonymous) author of the resource goes on:

“The present generation of Christians is called and sent now to accomplish a new evangelisation among the peoples of Oceania”, so wrote Blessed John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation, “The Church in Oceania” (13). Whilst the call posed and still poses great challenges, the Holy Father noted that, “it also opens new horizons, full of hope and even a sense of adventure.” It is an exciting time to be Catholic. Many Australians, in the realisation that materialism has failed to satisfy their deepest desires, are searching for fullness of life encapsulated in truth, goodness and beauty. As Catholics, we know that these are found in the person of Jesus Christ. We therefore have a wonderful opportunity to invite others into communion with him and each other. [Good! Christianity unity, viz bringing all into the Catholic Church in its fullness is acknowledged!] This is the mission we have been given (Mt 28:19-20)!

Yet we are mindful that sharing our faith in Jesus with our friends, associates, family and society is difficult. At times, we are all too aware of our deficiencies, we feel embarrassed to “go against the crowd” and take the risk of standing out from those around us. Perhaps we do not know what to say or are afraid that people will ask questions of us that we cannot answer....

During this time of Lent, let us acknowledge our deficiencies and failings and draw closer to Jesus reflecting upon his infinite love and mercy and drawing upon his strength. Let us resolve to become more like him. Let us reflect upon his boundless love for us and all of mankind in dying for us thereby reconciling us to himself and each other. In so doing, let us seize “the opportunity of bringing the Gospel, by witness and word, to all people and nations” (Blessed John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 92).

What a good resource looks like...

Like the Canberra-Goulburn production I reviewed recently, this is a multi-media production.

But unlike the Canberra one, this resource does not wallow in a warm fuzzy cloud of pseudo-ecumenical niceness. It certainly encourages non-Catholics to be involved in Lenten groups. But it doesn't compromise on the message in order to achieve that.

It does include personal testimonies, but also solid contextual material on the readings themselves, as well as extracts from relevant Magisterial documents. It includes traditional hymns, such as Be Thou my Vision and solid set prayers.

And it has some very practical, concrete suggestions on how to put what has been learnt into action. Those practical suggestions aren't warm fuzzy either - the week one suggestions are:

"Begin each day with prayer, offering up all the activities of the day to God.

• Choose an act of self-denial and endeavour to live it every day during Lent.
• Set aside 15 minutes each day for personal prayer, to talk with God in your own words and listen to him.
• Pray for a family member, friend or colleague that they may encounter Christ during this Lenten period.
• Invite a friend to join your Lenten group next week."

It is not perfect. As I noted above, the Cardinal too seems to want to avoid talking about the need to actually convert non-Catholic Christians to the faith. The resource also includes allowance for the seemingly standard reductionist version of lectio divina, which bears no relationship whatsover to the lectio divina methodology set out by Pope Benedict XVI in Verbum Domini.

Still, nice to see at least one diocese in this country putting out resources that head us firmly in the right direction!

On the observance of secular feasts....

2012-01-25T15:03:00.001+11:00

When I was thinking this morning about what I might write about for Australia Day tomorrow, I was thinking of arguing for restoration of the novus ordo-esq practice of observing the feast on the nearest Monday, in the interests of celebrating the sacred Australian Long Weekend.

I had forgotten to take account of just how seriously this feast is taken.

Good Friday, Easter and even Christmas Day may be under assault from the secularists, but not, it seems, Australia Day!

I'm currently living in the middle of a construction zone.

The hillside next to me is being dug up and new optical fibres (I assume for the National Broadband Network) laid.

The road behind me is being repaved.

And in my street, three (more) McMansions are currently under construction, perfectly good older houses having been pulled down in the interest of constructing something bigger and better on the same site (its been an ongoing process - last year three houses on either side of me each grew a story. Only three more left in the street to go...but maybe the allegedly collapsing economy will spare us those!).

The workers at all of these sites are likely to turn up on any day of the year and at any hour - I was out cutting my hedge early, at around 6.30am one morning in the hope of getting it done before they arrived, but nope; last Sunday the hill diggers were at it; and one of the building sites even had someone working on it on Christmas Day.

But this afternoon, blissful silence has once more been restored, as all five sites have closed down apparently for Australia Day.

I'm betting on it being a four and half day weekend since everything looks very thoroughly packed up.

Well, patriotism is a virtue I suppose...

PS Would it be unAustralian of me to do the rest of my hedge tomorrow just in case the workers are back on Friday?

Ballarat: on building wells!

2012-01-25T10:20:00.004+11:00

Today, continuing my series on the state of the Australian church diocese by diocese I want to look at the last of the regional Victorian dioceses in my survey, namely Ballarat.

Ballarat is also the last of the (known) upcoming vacancies since Bishop Peter Connors turns 75 in March.

Again on this I particularly want to thank those who sent me input, which I've drawn on heavily here. Related to this, I have received a comment to the effect that things sent to my email address were bouncing for some reason - has anyone else had this problem? If so, please leave a comment on this post marked not for publication so I can see whether its just a one-off or not!

Source: ACBC

Lay-led Communion services and parishes

I want to take the opportunity here to focus particularly on the problem of lay-led Communion services.

There are lot of issues I could focus on in relation to Ballarat, similar to those in a number of other dioceses - an education system that seems to have been captured by liberals, at least if some of the contents of its resource centre are any guide; promotion of new age spiritualities (though that seems to be common to virtually every diocese in Australia!); and so forth.

But Ballarat has long been the Australian 'leader' in the use of lay led Communion services: according to the ACBC report on on the 2006 National Church Life Survey, Ballarat had far and away the greatest number of Sunday services without a priest, averaging 18.3 such assemblies a week back in 2006.

But first some general background about the diocese.

Diocese of Ballarat

In 2006, Ballarat diocese had a catholic population of around 98,922, making it Australia's twelfth largest diocese. In terms of geographic size, it covers around 58,000 sq kms, putting it well down the list in those terms.

It takes in a number of important regional towns including Ballarat itself, and Warnambool.

The diocesan website (which is admirably easy to navigate, and contains much useful accountability information), notes that:

"The Diocese has a number of provincial centres and large rural areas. There is a wide range and mix of primary and secondary industry and tourism and many places of natural beauty - the Great Ocean Road, the Grampians, the towns of the Murray River, the Little Desert and the goldfields."

Liturgy

Like Sandhurst, many traditionalists will be familiar with Ballarat from the annual Christus Rex pilgrimage. But it is not promoted within the diocese at all.

I'm told there is a regular Latin Mass in Ballarat, but I can't find any recent reference to it on the web (or in lists of Christmas masses etc).

Source: Diocesan website

Leadership

Ballarat's current bishop, Bishop Peter Connors, celebrated his golden jubilee of ordination last year. He was originally from Melbourne where he was Vicar General under Archbishop Little and subsequently an Auxiliary. He was translated to Ballarat in 1997.

During his tenure, the number of priests has fallen sharply: from 80 in 1999, to 65 in 2006, with a consequent increase in the priest to catholic ratio to one of the higher ones in the country, of 1:1,506.

Indeed, the diocesan website states that:

"There are 52 parishes in the Diocese comprising of approximately 135 Mass communities. 20 of these parishes do not have a resident priest. There are 64 priests in the Diocese, of whom 41 are in active ministry. There are 3 religious women who are parish leaders and a number of religious orders present in the Diocese."

The diocese had one (albeit a particularly notable one, in the form of blogger A Country Priest ) ordination last year. But it was only the third that I can discover for the decade. And the diocese has only one remaining seminarian.

On the positive side, the diocese did have an above average 'mass' attendance rate (I assume the figures include lay-led Communion services) - 1.9% of Australia's Catholics live in the diocese, but 2% of those Australian Catholics who actually turn up on a Sunday.

It is worth noting that this is also a diocese where the sex abuse scandal ran deep, with a higher than average number of offending priests, including the notorious Fr Risdale. On the positive side, I'm told that those who have been affected by this have some positive things to say about Bishop Connor's handling of the issue. If so, he has evidently learnt from accusations of involvement in several cover ups in Melbourne during his time as Vicar-General and Auxiliary chronicled by Broken Rites and elsewhere, including this case (which was settled out of court).

What works, what doesn't

As I flagged earlier in this series, part of the purpose of these diocesan briefs is to highlight what seems to work and what doesn't, and look at what still needs to be done to position the Australian Church to fulfill its mission of converting Australia, helping all in this country to find salvation.

Many dioceses (including my own) seem to be considering expanding the use of lay led Communion services (aka Sunday Assemblies of Word aka Communion in the Absence of a Priest, aka...). Yet in my view, all the evidence suggests that far from solving the problems the church faces, makes them worse.
These kinds of services are a legacy of Blessed Pope John Paul II.

Like altar girls and Communion in the hand, an entirely illicit and untraditional practice was legitimised and even encouraged to spread, in this case by the Directory for Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship in 1988.

There are actually three options for Sunday celebrations in the absence of a priest, viz:

• Liturgy of the Hours;
• Liturgy of the Word; and
• a standalone Communion service, or Communion with either of the above.

Yet the default seems to be Communion services.

Some of the things that happen in some other dioceses may be a lot more problematic than those that occur in Ballarat. Brisbane's official guidelines for such services for example explicitly state that:

"In Catholic parishes in remote areas, lay leadership of Sunday worship or funeral rites may be supported or even supplied by the resident pastor of the local Anglican, Uniting or Lutheran Churches."

Pretty breathtaking really!

The problems with lay-led communion (and other) services in my view, are three-fold, namely theological, pastoral and practical. And then of course there are the outright abuses.

First, the theological problems.

The problem with communion services: the theological issues

The key theological objections, in my view, to lay led communion services is that they tend to undermine our understanding of the theology of the Eucharist, of the priesthood, and of the hierarchical constitution of the Church.

When Vatican II and many other documents talk about the Eucharist as the source and summit of our lives, it is not just talking about the laity's reception of the sacrament, but rather of the whole of the Mass, and most especially of the sacrifice of the Mass - a sacrifice that does not take place in a communion service! As the Compendium of the Catechism puts it:

"The Eucharist is the very sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus which he instituted to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until his return in glory..." (No 271).

Communion services make it far too easy to forget this vital dimension of the Churches life.

Secondly, by putting a layperson in the lead, it is all too easy for such services to promote congregationalism, the belief that the ministerial priesthood is altogether unnecessary. Indeed, Fr Kevin Murphy of Ballarat as an articles featured over at (a)Catholica Forum with more than a whiff of these errors implied in them.

Pastoral issues

The second perhaps even bigger problem with lay led Communion services is the danger that, in the absence of the availability of the sacrament of reconciliation, they may be bringing death rather than life to these communities.

Reception of Holy Communion can of course be a wonderful source of grace: provided we have the correct dispositions and provided we are in a state of grace (free from mortal sin at least).

St Paul's warnings on this subject (1 Corinthians 11:27-32) remain pertinent!

On building wells!

The third issue is a practical one: stopgap solutions such as lay-led communion services do not promote vocations!

This Christmas the charities have been urging us to give a goat or a duck to help feed a family, or help pay to build a well so a village has a source of clean water: to fund the 'infrastructure' needed to help people out of poverty, in other words. The issue is that even well-intentioned programs that provide ongoing food aid actually tend to entrench poverty rather than solve it, sapping self-reliance and morale, and creating a culture of dependence.

I want to suggest that a similar principle needs to be applied to spiritual poverty: for too long, some dioceses have been promoting what amounts to a hand out mentality, by actively promoting 'lay led assemblies' rather than working to recruit existing priests from overseas and/or encourage their own young men to try their vocation, and thus build spiritual wells for parishes in the form of priests.

Ballarat seems the classic case in point, with twenty empty churches, and but one remaining seminarian.

Then there are the outright abuses...

All those points aside, even if you do think that Communion Services are a necessary option, there is considerable evidence that they are being used in a way that was never intended, and even outright abused in Ballarat.

First, the clear intention of the Guidelines is that such services only be used where it is not reasonably possible to get to a mass. Yet in Ballarat, that doesn't seem to be a requirement!

Consider for example the case of Cororooke, an entirely lay led parish with an occasional 'visiting priest'. Yet it is a mere 9.9 kms (11 minutes) from Colac, which has a Saturday night vigil and two Sunday Masses, hardly a great distance to travel. Indeed, even many city people drive that at least that far to get to mass!

In fact, as I highlighted not long ago, instead of busing people to a church with a Mass, one Ballarat parish bused potential Mass goers to a communion service instead!

One person from the diocese even told me a story of a lay leader inviting a priest to attend their lay-led service as a congregation member! Well, perhaps it was a call for some much needed corrective supervision and catechesis!

The second type of abuse relates to sermons. Canon law explicitly prohibit anyone who is not a cleric from giving a homily. The Vatican Guidelines reflect this, suggesting that:

"In order that the participants may retain the word of God, there should be an explanation of the readings or a period of silence for reflection on what has been heard. Since only a pastor or a deacon may give a homily, it is desirable that the pastor prepare a homily and give it to the leader of the assembly to read."

Unfortunately it goes on to give Bishops Conferences the right to set their own norms, And the 2004 ACBC Guidelines explicitly encourage what amount to lay homilies:

"Preaching, or giving a reflection on the scripture, is integral to the community's hearing of God's Word, to the sanctification of Sunday, and to their baptismal call to evangelisation and mission. Liturgical preaching or giving a reflection on the scriptures is carried out by women and men formed and delegated for this ministry by their bishop."

In Ballarat, one priest (Fr Murphy mentioned above) actually does provide some assistance for those giving reflections through a dedicated website. Unfortunately, it is pretty colourful stuff - for this coming week the essential theme apparently is the difference between authority and authoritarianism!

Pray!

I've focused a lot on lay led Communion services here, but I'm sure there are many good things happening in this diocese, and you can certainly read about some of them over at A Country Priest's blog. All the same, this is clearly a diocese with a big task ahead for the next bishop.

The case for Holy Communion on the Tongue only

2012-01-24T09:57:00.002+11:00

There is a story today that Frs Wise and Speekman from Sale (see my earlier post on their valiant efforts to bring orthodoxy and orthopraxis to the diocese) have started an online petition to restrict communion to on the tongue only.

They've started a blog in support of their campaign, and it already contains lots of interesting material.

Here is the rationale for their efforts:

"During the course of our parish ministry we have become increasingly uneasy with the practice of Communion on the hand. We have come to the conclusion that what started out as a seemingly good idea has actually been found to encourage a certain carelessness, and not only among the laity.

It has also been our experience that because of the inherently 'routine' action of placing something in someone's hand this carelessness is, in fact, very 'catechesis resistant'.

It is our hope that this blog will stimulate discussion and awareness of what many in the Church see as a problem needing urgent reform...."

So do go sign the petition, and take a look at the blog.

Do they never give up! Bishop Morris and the curse of too many lawyers...

2012-01-23T11:56:00.004+11:00

Eureka Street is at it again today, agitating for the cause of Bishop Morris by highlighting to legal opinions prepared (and actually released) late last year (thanks to the person who alerted me to their presence on Eureka Street).

The opinions are long and naturally full of legalese, but the substance of them seems to be that while canon law doesn't provide a process for the dismissal of a bishop it should, and that by the way the one actually used in the case of Bishop Morris is not good enough for them.

I'm not going to bother going though either Fr Hamilton's piece on the subject, or the opinions themselves. I just want to make a few key points.

The legal disease

First, it must surely be obvious to all concerned that prolonging this debate is unhelpful to everyone. The statements made by our bishops after the Ad Limina visit last year were trying to bring some closure on this issue, and we should accept the Pope's prudential decision whether we agree with it or not.

Secondly, I'd note that the kind of creeping legalism reflected in this latest attack is a disease that really needs to be resisted in Australia, and not just in the Church.

There is a big difference between the desire to improve transparency and accountability in the church, and creating make work for the lawyers.

The issue at stake here is not, as Fr Hamilton claims, whether natural justice should have been afforded to Bishop Morris: no one disputes that, and to suggest that they do is just plain scurrilous.

No, the issue is rather the content of natural justice, exactly what it requires.

I for one think that a ten year series of exchanges in which it was perfectly clear what the issues in dispute were is more than enough by way of affording natural justice!

I for one think that to claim that the bishop was denied natural justice, when the subsequent process being complained about was put in place because Bishop Morris actually rejected a request to go to Rome and make his case, is laughable.

The Liberals though, think that the magisterium of one bishop, who doesn't accept that he is not teaching what the church teaches, should prevail over that of Peter. And they think that the bishop (or rather his lawyers) should be able to see and respond to every single piece of paper written about him.

In Australia, the legal empire has been working assiduously to ever expand its reach. They have systematically dismantled the common law regime we inherited and set about inventing their own theories of what 'procedural fairness' requires - which unsurprisingly mostly seems to end up meaning the involvement of lots of lawyers on all sides of any administrative decision-making process.

Well, I guess one has to find something for all those lawyers to do - the number of them after all doubled between 1986 and 2006. Has the quality of decisions improved to reflect this 'added value'? Quite the reverse in many cases I would suggest.

The parish priest process

I'd also note that there is a certain iron in the Judge's opinion, which advocates essentially using the process for removal of parish priests for bishops.

These days, many bishops, especially of the liberal colour don't actually appoint many parish priests, precisely in order to avoid according them the right to challenge precisely these kind of decisions! Instead we have seen a huge growth instead in time limited 'Administrator' appointments...

The Pope and the bishops

The bottom line of the Morris case was always about the liberal claims that bishops are pretty much emperors in their own domain, free to ignore the Church's law and disciples at will.

It's the old Ratzinger vs Kaspar debate writ large on which comes first, the universal church or the local one.

It's the protestant virus that seems to have infected all too many bishops today.

The Pope, by contrast, actually believes that 'one, holy and apostolic Church' bit of the Creed.

In this week of the Christian Unity Octave, let's pray for the Pope, his reform efforts, and the restoration of unity with Peter on the part of dissenters:

"That they may all be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

I say to thee, that thou art Peter.
And upon this rock I will build my Church.

Let us pray.

O LORD JESUS CHRIST, who didst say to thine Apostles: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: look not upon my sins, but upon the faith of thy Church; and vouchsafe unto her that peace and unity which is agreeable unto thy will: Who livest and reignest God for ever and ever. Amen."

Reading Scripture in the light of the tradition...

2012-01-22T07:40:00.002+11:00

For those interested in reading Scripture in the light of the tradition, I want to highlight a fabulous resource that has been drawn to my attention, namely the two year patristic lectionary developed for the excellent Benedictine Pluscarden Abbey by Durham University's Centre for Catholic Studies.

Reading Scripture in the light of the tradition

I've argued on a number of occasions that we shouldn't just read Scripture as if we were sola scriptura Christians (or sola NT Wright or any other modern theologian Christians!), but rather need the context provided by the tradition.

This website basically provides the tools to do this, setting out a two year cycle of linked Scripture and patristic and other orthodox commentaries on it.

The Office and patristic commentaries

Stephen Holmes introduces the resource on the website as follows:

"...Scripture has always been read in the Church in the context of tradition. With the development of the Divine Office (services of prayer celebrated at different times of each day) the daily cycle of Scripture reading came to be accompanied by commentaries from the fathers of the Church, as St Benedict wrote in the middle of the sixth century, ‘Let the inspired books of both the Old and the New Testaments be read at Vigils, as also commentaries on them by the most eminent orthodox and catholic fathers’ (Rule of Benedict, IX). The main surviving early Latin collections of readings from the fathers, or patristic lectionaries, are those of Alan of Farfa and Paul the Deacon from the eighth century. These formed the basis of the patristic lectionary used in the Roman Breviary and many other Latin Breviaries. Over time the readings from the fathers were cut back in length with no thought to their meaning. Attempts were made to improve the patristic lectionary by Cardinal Quiñonez in the sixteenth century, the monks of Cluny in the seventeenth century and Archbishop Vintimille of Paris in the eighteenth, but the inadequate patristic lectionary of the Breviarium Romanum (1568) and Breviarium Monasticum (1612) continued in use until the Second Vatican Council (1962-65)...

The aim of the Two Year Patristic Lectionary is thus:

•To have each patristic reading either related to the Scripture reading or to the season of the Church’s year.
•To have a reading for every day of the Temporal cycle (i.e. including days such as Christmas, Ascension, Sacred Heart).
•To have the vast majority of the ‘patristic’ readings from the Fathers of the Church, although following medieval precedent writers such as Origen have been included. This gives it ecumenical value.
•To use readings from the one year cycle in the Divine Office and the two year cycle of Word in Season whenever possible.
•To include the texts of a complete two-year Scripture cycle, as approved by the Holy See, for use with the patristic readings..."

A wealth of readings

It is essentially aligned to the Ordinary Form LOTH, but comes with summary tables that would make it readily adaptable for those wishing to find patristic readings linked to the traditional Office, with enough material to spread over a couple of years.

So this week in the 1962 Roman and Benedictine Office of Matins for example, the Scripture readings for the first half of the week are from Galatians. Under year two in the first half of Ordinary time, you can find patristic readings to go with these including from St Augustine, St Ambrose, St Jerome, St Gregory of Nyssa and Tertullian.

I rather like the fact that while the readings draw heavily on the standard fathers, there are a rather wider selection of the Fathers than is normal, including many monastic classics such as John of Climacus' Spiritual Ladder. And also one or two more recent selections from medieval and later authors such as Walter Hilton's Ladder of Perfection (one of my favourite works!), Aelred of Rievaux, and even Blessed John Cardinal Newman!

Do go take a look.

Sale's Pentecostalist bishop: healing the virtual schism?

2012-01-20T12:59:00.006+11:00

I've been trying to finish each week with a look at a diocese with a good news story to tell, and I want to continue that pattern today with a look at the diocese of Sale in Victoria.

Source: diocesan website

This might seem a rather surprising choice to some in terms of having a good news story to tell, and it is true that is early days yet for this diocese, given that Bishop Christopher Prowse, now aged 58, was only appointed in 2009.

Nonetheless, as we continue to hear reports, both official, from the head of the Congregation of Bishops, and in the form of Australian rumours to the same effect, of priests saying no to offers of episcopal appointments, I think the efforts of someone who said yes and is working to heal the deep rifts in this diocese deserve to be made more widely known.

Sale: the challenge in a microcosm

This is a diocese where the virtual schism within the Australian Church between orthodox catholics and liberals is more visible than in many, made particularly manifest in the long running, but now settled case of Fr Speekman (on which see below), but also through the ongoing efforts of a group of orthodox catholics in the region who publish the excellent Into the Deep newsletter.

Many have disagreed with some of the particular calls Bishop Prowse has made since he took over. Nor will traditionalists or perhaps even many conservative catholics feel comfortable with his Pentecostalist-charismatic style of spirituality I suspect.

Nonetheless, this is a bishop who, in a relatively short period, has taken some very important and positive steps towards restoring catholic life in the diocese and so I think, particularly deserves our support and prayers.

Let me explain why.

The diocese of Sale

Source: ACBC

Sale is the fourteen ranked geographical diocese in terms of Catholic population, with around 96,000 catholics, and takes in 44,441 sq kms.

It takes in Gippsland (East Victoria) and at its western end includes rapidly expanding outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The Cathedral is in the town of Sale (population 13,336 in 2006), but the bishop has shifted (or is in the process of shifting) the diocesan bureaucracy and his own residence to Warragul, which is much closer to Melbourne (104 kms compared to 212 kms from Sale) the main population centre for South West Gippsland.

In terms of priests, the diocese has more or less held its numbers overall over the last couple of decades, mainly due to an increase in religious priests, though a number of parishes were without a priest due to retirements. In 2010 the diocese had 43 priests in total (32 diocesan) and five permanent deacons.

Sale Cathedral, from the diocesan website

Fr Speekman and the virtual schism

The festering sore in the diocese has long been the case of Fr Speekman, whose sermons you can read on his blog.

You can read the chronicle of the whole case through various editions of Into the Deep and other places, but as far as I can work out, the story goes as follows. Fr Speekman is a strong advocate of a return to a genuinely catholic approach to education, who was removed as parish priest of Morwell by the previous incumbent, Bishop Jeremiah Coffey following complaints mainly from school authorities to the effect that his insistence on orthopraxis in relation to the sacraments, and handling of the issue, amounted to bullying.

Instead of backing his priest, the then bishop, Bishop Jeremiah Coffey first removed his authority over the schools, and subsequently deposed Fr Speekman's as parish priest. Fr Speekman appealed to Rome and was successful: the bishop was ordered to reinstate him immediately. The Bishop refused to do so, and instead appealed the decision. He lost again, but once more refused to comply with the (new) order to reinstate Fr Speekman. Instead, the bishop appealed once more, this time to the highest court of appeal, the Apostolic Signatura. Before the appeal could be heard however, he reached the age limit and retired.

There was a widespread hope that the new appointee, Bishop Prowse would withdraw the case. He chose not to do so, however, and the final outcome was that the Bishop Coffey's decisions to depose Fr Speekman were ultimately upheld. Nonetheless, Fr Speekman is back working in the diocese and the Bishop has undertaken to talk to him about a fresh appointment there.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of that particular case and more particularly its handling (and a number of other not entirely unrelated ones), it is pretty clear, as Into the Deep has chronicled in detail, that this is a diocese where liturgical and other abuses, and error have been rife, and where the proper relationships between clergy, laity and agencies in the diocese have become unbalanced. And where the school system in particular is, as in so many places, less than obviously catholic in character.

Correcting these problems is going to take time and a lot of effort. With the case settled there is now a chance to move forward, and Bishop Prowse seems to have taken a number of important steps in this regard.

Bishop Prowse: a focus on mission

Bishop Christopher Prowse of Sale is 58, and was appointed to Sale in 2009. Before that he had been an auxiliary of Melbourne. Bishop Prowse holds a doctorate in Moral Theology from the Lateran.

In terms of spirituality, I gather Bishop Prowse is an advocate of the charismatic movement: he described the late Bishop Grech as a "Pentecost Bishop", and I suspect he'd like to be similarly described. Certainly his two pastoral letters so far have both been issued for Pentecost Sunday, and reflect something of a pentecostalist flavour.

While I have to admit I rather cringed when I read that in the lead up to one of these pastoral letters, a series of regional forums were held where people were asked to stand up and 'testify' to the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, an evangelical fervour of one variety or another is particularly called for in this diocese, and while I would quibble about some of the particular pitch, they do go to important issues.

In his Inaugural Homily, Bishop Prowse said:

"We find too many Catholics absenting themselves from the practice of their faith or even becoming non-believers ...We find Catholics in public life or the scientific world confused or ignorant about Catholic teachings on ethics or conscience ...This new situation demands that Catholics today are to be well formed in their Catholic faith and well informed of the world around us. It is not the time to be 'dumbing down' Catholic identity. Quite the opposite is called for ..."

The Bishop's first pastoral letter (Pentecost 2010) focused on giving the diocese a more missionary orientation, with a refreshingly direct presentation on the reasons to evangelize not just our own parish communities, but also those who are no longer practising Christians, as well as those who have never been Christians.

The second proposed as the pillars for the diocese's direction a deepening of devotional life, linked to an active missionary life, based in the family.

Liturgy

This is also a diocese that has to get big brownie points for its promotion of the Traditional Latin Mass, clearly intending for it to act as something of a corrective to some of the problems that have crept into the celebration of the Ordinary Form there!

Bishop Prowse appointed the priest who has long said the Latin Mass in the diocese, Fr Andrew Wise, as dean of the Cathedral. And through Fr Wise's efforts, the first Solemn EF mass was celebrated there this year for the anniversary of the dedication of the cathedral in the presence of the bishop, and attracted a strong crowd of around 120 people.

Better still, it provided an opportunity for great catechesis on the liturgy and the continuity of the tradition, with a series of articles (and pretty piccies) over several months in the diocesan newspaper preparing and promoting the Mass, and then explaining why it is celebrated ad orientem in response to questions afterwards!

There is a weekly EF Mass on Saturday mornings in the Cathedral, and now a Saturday night EF vigil mass said by priests from the Melbourne community.

The diocesan liturgy support publication also looks to be quite good, and new guidelines for funerals were put in place to prevent excessive use of secularist elements.

Priests

Bishop Prowse has also been extremely active in recruiting priests. A recruitment trip in 2010 resulted in an impressive six arriving in 2011 from Nigeria, Sri Lanka and India, to supplement a number of missionary priests already in the diocese.

There is an active focus on promoting vocations, and he has also recruited some seminarians from overseas.

The diocese had four seminarians in 2011.

The devotional life, discernment and the social justice paradigm

I mentioned there were one or two theological positions articulated in the bishop's pastoral letters that I'd quibble with, and there are two important ones I want to particularly highlight because they cause ongoing tensions between traditionalists, conservatives and charismatics that we need to overcome.

Let me make it clear that I'm not suggesting there is anything erroneous about these positions, they are all areas open to theological debate.

The first issue is the perceived tension, on the part of some, between a commitment to traditional devotions, and practical charity and engagement in the public square on the other. When one of the common themes that emerged from the forums was the importance of deepening the devotional life of the diocese through things like Holy Hours, Exposition, well celebrated liturgy and so forth, Bishop Prowse responded in his Pastoral Letter that:

"I am delighted to see the emphasis spontaneously given to this foundational aspect of our shared Catholic life...But, may I make this observation? It was not self-evident to me in listening to the comments offered during the Forums how this vital devotional life was to be translated into developing a social conscience and expressing itself into works of charity, especially to the poor and oppressed...A strong devotional life in the diocese without equally strong practical expressions of caritas towards our neighbor will not do. Catholics are not members of a pious sect or devotional clique..."

The bishop is certainly not alone in regarding some traditional practices as somehow private indulgences and not linked to the churches broader mission.

But the traditional view is of course that we must seek first the kingdom of heaven - and all else will follow from that! By deepening our spiritual lives, we will be sanctified, and in turn desire that sanctification for others.

And while I strongly agree that practical charity and active engagement in our families, workplaces, socially and politically are vitally important, surely not everyone needs to do everything! Too often, conservative and traditionalist Catholics are criticised, it seems to me, for not being engaged on social justice issues when what is actually meant is the particular social justice issues which members of the political left think they should subscribe to: refugees rather than life issues for example. I don't know if that is the issue here, but I do think this idea that there is a dichotomy between devotional life and the whole of the Christian life is a false one: indeed, prayer in itself can be the ultimate form of 'caritas', far more powerful than any practical work of charity.

One would hope that those committed to activities such as Adoration and more would be encouraged and fostered in every diocese across Australia as an important plank in the program to reclaim our land for Christ, and in fairness the Bishop seems to be saying we need to do just this.

Discernment vs governance

The other issue I wanted to flag is the question of proper relationships between hierarchy, clergy, church employees and the laity. There obviously are some real problems in this area in the diocese (and debates more widely on this issue!), so some clear statements are entirely appropriate. But in doing so, we need to ensure a proper balance that avoids what I'll dub neo-clericalism.

In his 'Everything for the Gospel' (2011) letter the bishop says:

Simply, may I make the following point? Let us ensure that our attempts at missionary activity in the name of the Church are deeply anchored in our Catholic faith. The enthusiasm to be a missionary people needs careful discernment and on-going formation. The wind of the Holy Spirit “blows where it chooses” (John 3:8). However, we belong in a hierarchical communion in the Church. We stand ready to discern what is of the Holy Spirit or what is not of God. Here the particular teaching and discerning role of the Pope, Bishops, Priests and Deacons becomes of service to our missionary activities in the name of the Church. We do not want a fragmented Church."

Can I suggest that the use of the word 'discernment' here, in reference to the role of the hierarchy is potentially dangerous.

I suspect this is just a terminology issue, but it is worth noting that while bishops and priests certainly have a teaching and governing role, and the exercise of those powers certainly requires discernment, they surely don't have an infallible charism to decide what is or isn't of God! Rather, they are called, when appropriate, to test such efforts against standard principles, such as conformity with the churches teachings and the advancement of the common good. That, it seems to me, is a rather lower bar. Fragmentation may be in the eye of the beholder, and in fact represent desirable diversity!

Making progress?

These points aside, all up, there are clearly a lot of positive steps being taken in Sale, though they may take some time to fully work through in their effects.

They seem like some steps in the right direction to me.

But I'm just attempting to read between the lines here, so do tell me if you think I've missed the mark.

And in any case, keep all those who have been fighting so long for the restoration of orthodoxy in this diocese in your prayers.

**Hmm, I'm assuming the relative dearth of comment on this one means I've missed the mark, and people think I'm being far too kind given the handling of the Speekman case?!

Sandhurst: position vacant*

2012-01-18T10:52:00.004+11:00

Continuing my series of diocesan profiles for Australia, today a look at Sandhurst (aka Bendigo), Victoria.

Thanks to those who have provided input and comments, and please do continue to do so!

There are four dioceses currently actually vacant in Australia. I've already looked in this series at three of them, viz Brisbane, Toowoomba and Wilcannia-Forbes. Today, a brief look at the fourth.

Source: ACBC

The diocese of Sandhurst, Victoria has been vacant since the death of Bishop Joseph Grech in December 2010.

So what challenges will the new bishop face?

Well, there is clearly quite a big task ahead of him, so please do pray for a good appointment. And for a holy priest to say yes when asked!

Victoria and the vocations drought

I've previously labelled Queensland the black hole when it comes to problems in the Church, but it has to be said that when looked at in terms of the cold hard statistics, Victoria really isn't doesn't look that far behind it!

Victoria is Australia's second smallest State geographically (after Tasmania) but second largest in terms of population, with around 5.5 million people, divided between four dioceses: Australia's largest diocese, Melbourne (the metropolitan, with Archbishop Hart, aged 70); Ballarat, where Bishop Peter Connors turns 75 in March; Sale, where Bishop Prowse took over in 2009; and Sandhurst.

The State's relatively high population density perhaps explains why its very high priest to people ratios haven't yet caused a total collapse in the system. And of the four, Sandhurst's ratios are the worst the worst.

Bishop Grech

The late Bishop Grech had an international profile for his work in the charismatic movement, as well as a national profile for his work on migrants and refugees. Speakers at his Requiem, however, wondered whether the diocese had perhaps suffered a little as a result of this.

Certainly he inherited a fairly dire situation, and not much seems to have turned around during his time in Office.

Bishop Grech took office in 2001, inheriting a diocese with 60 priests (2000). By 2010, it had only 39, giving it one of the highest priest to catholic ratios in the country, at 2,641 (by comparison, the ratio in Wilcannia-Forbes was 1 priest per 1, 619 catholics for the same year, while Sydney's ratio is 1:1,326).

He had however recruited ten seminarians (some from overseas on five year contract arrangements), and there have been, as far as I can discover, four ordinations over the last decade (including one late last year).

Mass attendance rates in the diocese are below the national average (1.8% of the catholic population, 1.6% of mass attenders in 2006).

Diocesan style...

The diocese has a magnificent cathedral - the third largest in Australia - that will be well-known to many traddies because of the annual Christus Rex Ballarat to Bendigo pilgrimage.

Despite that, its reputation as a diocese is very much on the liberal side of the fenceline when it comes both to education and catechesis, ecumenism and liturgy.

Telling perhaps that the diocesan newspaper, The Sandpiper, headline for the last pilgrimage was "Christus Rex struts into town" and on the website at least, though providing a good selection of piccies, manages to avoid completely avoid mentioning the word 'traditional' or Extraordinary Form...!.

Indeed, the diocese has been aggressively promoting lay leadership of parishes. We can only pray that the appointment of a new bishop will provide an opportunity for a rethink on this!

The diocese has a strong Latin Mass community, with regular Sunday masses now held in both Bendigo and Wangaratta.

It also has a very traditional looking Poor Clare (Colettines) monastery, and small contemplative community of men at Dookie.

So, Sandhurst residents and others in the know, what is the real state of play there?

Freedom of religion takes another hit in Australia

2012-01-17T07:17:00.001+11:00

Yet another story today, of the relentless attack on the right of Christians to practise their faith by Muslims.

And it is taking place right here in Australia.

The right of Christians to restrict use of their facilities to Christians

The Salvos have, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, a retreat centre. The Centre's booking form apparently clearly states that the Salvation Army can cancel any booking should a group's use of the facilities be ''inconsistent with Salvation Army beliefs or purposes''.

So it shouldn't have been surprising that a tentative booking made by the Lebanese Muslim Association for a summer camp for boys would be rejected on the grounds that the only acceptable guests were those practising Christianity!

The Association of course, has screamed 'discrimination'. Well yes, but justified discrimination!

The Salvation Army, unfortunately, rather than fighting the good fight has backed down, apologised, and claimed that staff 'misinterpreted' the guidelines.

Yet another shot in the war on freedom of religion

So what's next, Christians will be forced to allow those who flagrantly reject the teachings of the faith to send their children to our schools? Oh wait, that's already happened, courtesy of Bishop Manning, Apostolic Administrator of Wilcannia-Forbes.

Or perhaps that Christians will be compelled to turnover their clearly underutilised churches to Muslims to use as a mosque? Or perhaps that churches will be compelled to allow same sex 'marriages' on their premises? Yep, already happening overseas....

Wake up friends, there is a war against Christianity going on here on two fronts, viz with the secularists on the one hand and the Islamists on the other. And if we don't start fighting it, we will have lost before we even fire a shot.

Living a Year of Grace: why do we have to hate being catholics?

2012-01-17T05:22:00.004+11:00

One of the things I find most distressing in the Australian Church today is the continued insistence of diocesan bureaucrats and others that we shouldn't be proud to be catholics, and that the way things 'used to be' was all bad until wonderful Vatican II came along to save the day.

In my view, it results in meaningless twaddle that undermines, rather than promotes the faith. Maybe its a paradigm that plays well with the brainwashed members of the older generation (though I doubt it), but it just makes me cringe and want to run away.

'Living a Year of Grace'

A classic example of this seems to be the new Lenten Resource produced by the Archdiocese of Canberra and authored by its Coordinator of Spirituality & Faith Formation, Shawn Dwyer.

Living a Year of Grace is apparently intended to be a warm up to the Australian Year of Grace, but if this is a sample of what is yet to come, then I'm going into hibernation until the Year of Faith, which sounds like it might actually be about Catholicism, starts!

I haven't read the whole thing, just sampled the free download sent out to promote the resource.

But just those few pages are more than enough!

Promoting false ecumenism

The first alarm bells have to ring when the email advertising the leaflet declares that it "is suitable for use by any Christian faith tradition".

Any? Anyone at all that even vaguely claims to be Christian?

So you know it is going to be utterly content free, surely a difficult thing to achieve when we are talking about a series focused on the theologically dense Sunday Gospel readings for Lent!

But then you get to the text.

Right in the first few pages there is a little discussion dissing converts, with the clear subtext being that conversion from some other form of Christianity to Catholicism is a bad thing (I guess this is meant as a sop to those ecumenical readers, but really, putting yourselves down is embarrassing, not appealing), about mere 'belonging' rather than actual conversion to the truth:

"We have all heard Catholics who either describe themselves, or are described by others, as ‘converts’. Get them to talk about what they mean by this and invariably it will come down to ‘he or she used to belong to another church (or to none at all) and now he or she is one of us’.[That is they have rejected error and found truth. Because the Catholic Church is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic.]

Interesting.
Belonging is very important to human beings so it is not so surprising that we automatically focus on this consequence of the conversion experience...[Odd to see a liberal catholic rejecting the importance of the catholic community! Odder still to imply that conversion to the Catholic fiath is a merely human response, rather than a result of grace! But in any case, surely joining a genuine community, formed of those to whom the tradition has been entrusted and handed down to, rather than some group that has either rejected part of the tradition or entirely made up its own largely human 'faith tradition' is actually a good thing!]. In fact, we are going to find throughout this program that conversion is at the very heart of our relationship with God. We do not convert in order to belong – we belong because we are constantly responding to the grace of conversion." [True, but neither can we be Christians apart from the Church! This all sounds a bit like that protestant youtube video that has gone viral, you know the one - 'Why I hate religion but love Jesus'.]

Rejecting eschatology

There is, though, a second, not quite so ecumenical moment in these first few pages of the sample text, when the author describes a discussion with some Jehovah's Witnesses. Apparently they don't constitute a 'Christian faith tradition' for the purpose of this resource, which is fair enough. Good to know that there is a line being drawn somewhere!

Except that the point of departure between Catholics and the Witnesses for the author appears to be the idea that there will in fact be a Second Coming, that there is a final judgment, and that fear of God might be a good starting place for us in thinking about conversion in the here and now!

Now I know from my own encounters that the Jehovah's Witnesses are more than a little over the top on this issue and have some fairly weird ideas around what is going to happen, but that really doesn't mean we have to go to the opposite extreme!

I suppose it is fairly standard liberal avoidance stuff that I've talked about recently at length. One can perfectly understand why liberals want to water down the meaning of John the Baptist's call to repentance, but still, disappointing to see regurgitated in this context. The message is all focus on the now, and carry out 'random acts of kindness' . The sub-text is, let's try and forget about death, judgment, heaven and hell.

Schmaltz rather than the patrimony

The whole resource appear to promote the fallacy that lectio divina doesn't actually require any contextual knowledge of Scripture, that rather, if we just read a passage through and pray over it long enough it will miraculously become meaningful.

The sheer arrogance of this anti-intellectual approach seems to me to run counter to the approach to Scripture set out in the Catechism, and drawn out in Pope Benedict XVI in Verbum Domini that suggests starting from the literal meaning of the text, as the basis for the other senses of Scripture. It rejects the idea of looking at what the Tradition has to say about the meaning of the text in favour of 'sharing a word or phrase' that seems meaningful. And it bears no resemblance whatsoever to lectio divina as it was actually practised in the monastic tradition.

As the nineteenth century Benedictine Solesmes foundress Cecile Bruyere observed in her book on the Spiritual life:

"The knowledge of doctrinal truth is the root of prayer, hence its great importance; it is likewise the safeguard against many illusions of the imagination, the corrective of pious dreaming and of false mysticism. It is absolute presumption to expect to obtain, by immediate light from God, that knowledge which we can and ought to acquire for ourselves as part of our work in this world."

Then there is the accompanying CD, which apparently features the music of Stephen Kirk. It is the kind of muzak that goes well with a content free approach I guess.

The nature of Grace

I have to say, though, the thing I find most upsetting of all is the straw man approach to 'what used to be taught' as Catholic spirituality, such as this paragraph from Archbishop Coleridge's introduction to the booklet:

"Grace is a concept with which we may have become unfamiliar. Grace is not a thing. Too easily we fall into the trap of thinking of it (if we think of it at all) as something we wait for from a God who may or may not dispense it. The thought that God doles out grace only in response to the correct approach from us is one that once dominated Catholic spirituality. [Really? Where? Why even say this - why not just present the positive picture of what grace is, and quote the Catechism for example, and/or use St Augustine's famous restless hearts quote?] Unfortunately, our rejection of this miserable interpretation of grace has found many of us backing away from the concept all together – to the detriment of our understanding of what it is that God is bringing about in our lives."

Maybe I'm just too young (though I'm over the half century mark now!), but these kind of characterisations of 'what used to be' invariably seem to me to be utterly unrecognizable. They bear little or no resemblance to anything I've ever heard or seen taught, or what I've read in any pre-Vatican II texts or Catechism. Indeed, the only place I see these kinds of misrepresentations of what catholics 'used to believe' is in places like the acatholica forum or on the rabid comments on anti-cath news.

And even if some nun somewhere or other did once upon a time distort the faith in order to convey some truth's overly simply, the 'it used to be terrible/but now we've fixed it' paradigm just seems inappropriate many years on!. Not to mention somewhat at odds with the concept of the hermeneutic of continuity!

Bring on the Year of Faith.

Which country are you....

2012-01-16T16:58:00.000+11:00

I was looking up some stats on the net and came across an entertaining ranking of Australian states in terms of population, geographic size and population density on Wikipedia that includes in each case, for comparison purposes, a country of similar size.

Canberra (ACT), it seems, is just like the Bahamas (well, population wise anyway), while Jervis Bay Territory (a popular vacation spot) has a similar population to the Vatican!

The West, it seems is Namibia-esq in terms of population (and similar to Kazakstan in terms of size!), while South Australia gets Qatar, Nigeria and Mongolia...

The comparisons lend themselves to endless jokes, but perhaps ones that might offend migrant readers from the relevant countries (not to mention residents of the various states), so I will refrain...

Tasmania: can a spiritual desert yet be revived?

2012-01-16T10:49:00.008+11:00

Richmond, Australia's oldest surviving catholic church

Continuing my look at the state of the Church in Australia diocese by diocese, I want to look this week, if I can, at the rest of those dioceses that are either currently vacant or likely soon to be.

So if anyone else wants to pass me suggestions on things to highlight in Sandhurst or Ballarat, or on the recently filled Armidale that would be great.

And a big thank you to those who have contributed one way or another to this piece, as well as commented on or offline on other dioceses. I'm particularly grateful to the person who provided me with some material on Wilcannia-Forbes that suggests I'm not too far off the mark on that one!

So today, to Tasmania.

The archdiocese of Hobart, which takes in all of Tasmania, is one of these: Archbishop Adrian Doyle of Hobart turned 75 last November, and his resignation has apparently been accepted, so one can expect to see some change soon.

A spiritual desert ready to spring back to life?

Physically, Tasmania is the least desert-like of any Australian state, enjoying a temperate maritime climate with four distinct seasons.

Spiritually, however, is a whole other matter.

The patrimony is still there, carefully preserved in many cases, in some of Australia's oldest, most beautiful, and amazingly, least wreckovated churches, such as Colebrook. But the people, mostly, are not.

It has spiritual oases, like the small but valiant Latin Mass Community, and the vibrant Carmel in Launceston that has had several solemn professions in recent years.

An early start on spirit of Vatican IIism!

Tasmania, however, has long been one of the most liberal dioceses in Australia, and that has had dire consequences for priestly vocations and the spiritual life of the laity.

The number of priests has consistently fallen since Vatican II, from a peak of 119 priests, including 70 diocesan in 1966, to 53 in 2006, and further since then.

More than a few of its clergy have signed up to dissenting petitions on church matters in the recent past.

Overall, the diocese has 1.7% of Australia's nominal Catholics - but only 1% of those who actually attend Mass.

Perhaps the most telling story is the explanation given a few years back on why four churches in central Tasmania needed to be closed and sold. The then parish priest pointed out that Central Tasmania parish notionally had around 4,500 catholics within its bounds. Only 100 of them, however, were actually practising catholics. That same parish - which covers around a third of the State geographically - now has no priest whatsoever, following the failure to renew the contract of a Nigerian missionary priest.

Tasmania has, perhaps, suffered the ravages of 'spirit of Vatican IIism' longer than most dioceses in Australia, since Archbishop Guilford Young, appointed Archbishop in 1955, prided himself on introducing the new theology in the form of Rahner, and reforms to the liturgy, even before he attended Vatican II.

About the archdiocese

Hobart is an archdiocese for historical reasons: it has the two oldest catholic churches in Australia, St. John's, Richmond (1837) and St. Joseph's, Hobart (1841). The diocese established in 1842, and was raised to the status of an Archdiocese by Pope Leo XIII in 1888, the plan being to make Launceston a separate diocese. Popular protest, however, resulted in the plan being dropped.

As noted above, it also has a number of other architectural gems, many of which have escaped at least the worst of wreckovations, with many churches retaining the Tabernacle in the centre, as well as kneelers (though my mother is still angry whenever reminded of the removal of the roodscreen and altar rails from St Joseph's, where I was baptised!).

St Joseph's, Hobart

Hobart is the sixteenth ranked geographical diocese in terms of Catholic population, with 87,691 souls in 2006. The apple isle has a relatively low proportion of catholics in the population however, only 18.4% by 2010 (compared to 26% nationally), and is relatively homogeneous, with most people still of British descent.

Geographically, the diocese takes in the whole of Tasmania plus some of the outlying islands, amounting to some 67, 914 sq kms. In practice, around half the population live in the Hobart metropolitan area, while Launceston accounts for another 106,000 of the State's total population of 507,626 in 2010.

Leadership

Source: Archdiocesan website

Archbishop Doyle was appointed Coadjutor in 1997, and succeeded in 1999.

In that time, the number of diocesan priests has fallen from 41 to 34, and the overall number of priests to 53.

A few years ago Archbishop Doyle recruited three Nigerian priests to work in the diocese. Their experience was chronicled in a Compass Program entitled The Mission, which is well worth watching for a picture of the clash between cultures, and most especially between orthodoxy and Australian liberalism! Two of the three are still in Australia.

There have also been at least some trying their vocation in recent years - the diocese has three seminarians at Melbourne's Corpus Christi Seminary, and now has two permanent deacons.

Liturgy

The current bishop, Archbishop Adrian Doyle, has reportedly steadfastly refused to allow a weekly traditional Latin Mass there, despite the existence of a committed band of Tas traddies, who nonetheless manage to have a monthly sung Mass at St Canice Church in Sandy Bay, said by Fr Gerald Quinn CP.

I'm told that liturgical abuses of various kinds are a regular feature in this diocese, including in the cathedral. And you can read about some of the (good and bad) kinds of things that happen, focusing mainly on Launceston, over at Psallite Sapienter

Lay-led communion services are positively encouraged.

That said, there have been some promising signs in recent years.

St. Joseph's Church, Hobart (run by the Passionists), for example, now has an annual Eucharistic procession on the feast of Corpus Christi, at the request of parishioners, going around the Church building, in the public streets, and even past the local abortion chamber. It also has Exposition on weekday mornings from after the 8am Mass until noon, and an excellent variety of confession times (after the daily 12.10 and 1.10 weekday Mass, as well as times on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon).

There is also a strong following for the Divine Mercy devotion, with over two hundred attending Divine Mercy Sunday celebrations including Rosary, Confessions, Exposition and more.

Promotion of a catholic culture?

This is a diocese that appears committed to tolerance and diversity rather than promotion of catholic culture and doctrine as such!

Its 'mission and vision' statements stress that all are loved unconditionally by God.

The 'about us' page on website says:

"Within the greater collective of Catholic agencies, the Church is the largest non-government employer in the State, employing around 5000 people of all faiths, cultures, religions and backgrounds while delivering services in the areas of welfare, training, employment, aged care, education, health care, affordable housing, childcare, charitable works, disability employment, laundry services and retail centres to approximately 70,000 Tasmanians annually.

Working within the Church environment, irrespective of faith or background, sees many people brought together into a communion of life as part of a relationship with others, especially the marginalised and disadvantaged."

New age spiritualities such as enneagram, Jungian' befriending your shadow', (so-called) 'christian meditation' using 'a mantra or prayer word' are widely promoted in the diocese, including by the Emmanuel Spiritual Centre, established by the Josephites at the diocese's request.

And from what I'm told, the level of catechesis is just what you would expect, with children being fed terrible distortions of the faith.

Can a new bishop lead a spiritual revival?

Just as desert sand suddenly turns green and sprouts new life when watered, so too can a diocese spring back to life if allowed to do so. It will not of course be an easy task. Still, those oases do exist as a starting point!

Let's pray for a courageous priest to say yes when asked to take on this task: flumen Dei repletum est aquis...rivos eius inebria, multiplica genimina eius, in stillicidiis eius laetabitur germinans (Ps 64: The river of God is filled with water...Fill up plentifully the streams thereof, multiply its fruits; it shall spring up and rejoice in its showers)!

Can I say a big thank you to those who have provided me with input to this post, and pointed me to useful material. Comments on it, critical or otherwise, will be much appreciated!

State of the Church in Australia diocese by diocese: the list

2012-01-15T09:21:00.007+11:00

I thought it might be useful to provide a list of the diocese by diocese reviews I've written so far, with an indication of those to come. I've arranged them by State/Ecclesiastical province, and then within States by Catholic population size

Introduction to the series

Where are up to - looking forward to the Year of Grace

Queensland

State overview and Archdiocese of Brisbane
Rockhampton, Townsville, Toowoomba and Cairns

Western Australia

State overview and Archdiocese of Perth
Bunbury and Geraldton: Australia's patchwork spiritual economy
Broome and the Social Justice model: is it enough?

Victoria

Archdiocese of Melbourne
Ballarat
Sale: Healing the virtual schism?
Sandhurst: position available, please accept!

Tasmania

Tasmania: Can a spiritual desert yet be revived?

NSW

Archdiocese of Sydney
Parramatta
Broken Bay
Wollongong
Newcastle-Maitland
Lismore
Bathurst
Wagga Wagga: Australia's spiritual powerhouse?
Armidale
Wilcannia-Forbes: the case for more transparency

NSW-Australian Capital Territory

Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn

South Australia-Northern Territory

Archdiocese of Adelaide
Darwin
Port Pirie

Diocese by diocese review of Australia: call for contributions!

2012-01-14T12:54:00.004+11:00

I just wanted to reiterate my invitation to anyone to interested to provide material, or point me to where I should look, on particular dioceses.

This series is certainly garnering a lot of interest (daily web hits are increasing daily, and went over 1100 views yesterday, which is quite a bit higher than my normal hit rate), so I'd very much like to ensure that I present as accurate a picture as possible on what is currently happening in the Australian Church.

Thank you to contributors so far...

First, a thank you to the couple of people who have provided me with some concrete material and links, it is extremely helpful, and will appear in one form or another soon.

And also a thank you to those people who have commented on posts to provide additional information, corrected or challenged my take on things. I do realise that sometimes it is easier to react once you've seen something written down then to formulate it upfront!

I don't expect my take on things will always be quite right, so do feel free to debate. I'm relying on what I've heard and read about dioceses over the last few years, as well as what's available online from diocesan websites and assorted studies. In some cases I know the dioceses quite well, having visited them often, and/or having friends and relatives living there. In many others though, I'm just relying on the limited research time I can devote to this task turns up.

So I do appreciate comments, even just to tell me you think I've got it wrong. Keep them coming!

Contributions welcome

But I'd really appreciate more contributions on the dioceses I've yet to post on, both to speed up the research process, and to ensure I don't get it too wrong!

As I've signalled, I'm gradually working my way through the Australian dioceses (and thanks to the person who suggested a look at NZ - but I'm not sure I'm familiar enough with what has been happening over there, and I'm sure there are some native bloggers who could be challenged to take up the task!) to give a sense of what is happening in each of them, and what needs to happen to position the Church here to convert Australia!

I'm very interested in hearing about both the good news stories and the bad.

I'm interested in hearing about what you see as the strategy your bishop has adopted, and whether or not you think it is working.

And please do point me to specific webpages you think I should look at - you can assume I'll look at the diocesan website, but it is extremely helpful to be told what to look out for, or alerted to other related sites and articles (eg for TLM communities, monasteries, particular parishes, etc)!

In particular, please do email me about things like:

the great parishes in your diocese, and what makes them great;
key initiatives that you think are important, such as Adoration, bi-ritual parishes, monasteries attracting vocations, etc;
priests who you think would make good bishops!;
the size and activities of your TLM community;
the problems! I'm not normally going into detail on particular cases of liturgical abuses etc, but if there are widespread problems that you think exist in a particular diocese, I do need concrete examples so I can get a falvour of what the nature of the problem is.

Priests and bishops who have said the EF

And by way of a PS, please don't forget I'm also looking to update my list of priests who have said the EF - those who have generously responded to the laity's desire for the EF especially deserve our prayers!

Wagga Wagga: Australia's spiritual powerhouse?**

2012-01-13T11:18:00.001+11:00

I wanted to end the week on a positive note, so, in this continuing series on the state of the Church in Australia, state by state, and diocese by diocese, a look at what is probably still Australia's best diocese, Wagga Wagga.

Wagga Wagga is of particular note because over the last decade it has been a positive powerhouse when it comes to ordaining priests, pulling way, way above its notional weight!

Indeed, the most recent episcopal appointment in Australia, for Armidale, was a parish priest here, and other names from the diocese have been suggested as possible future appointments.

So how has the diocese achieved this?

The answer seems to be that this is one of Australia's few genuinely 'conservative' dioceses (well for Australia anyway; and yes, I'll get to other dioceses who might aspire to that title eventually!).

Demography and geography

Wagga Wagga is one of Australia's smaller dioceses, both in terms of geography (fifth smallest), albeit not that small by world standards at 24,000sq kms, and population (no 21 of the geographical dioceses), with 64,800 catholics in 2010.

Wagga Wagga itself is NSW's largest inland town, and is a relatively prosperous University and military town, and its location halfway between Sydney and Melbourne aid its position as a regional hub. The town's population is relatively homogeneous: 3.4% are indigenous (above average), but only 6.4% born outside Australia, compared to a nation-wide average of 21.9%.

The diocese also includes NSW's second largest inland town, however, the industrial town of Albury (in reality the town straddles the NSW-Victorian border/Murray River, forming the conglomerate of Albury-Wodonga), where most of the modest population growth over the last decade has been of migrants (and incomes are below the NSW average).

Around 30% of the population of the diocese are catholic.

An enviable record: the contribution of Bishop Brennan

When the current bishop, Bishop Gerard Hanna, took over in 2002 from Bishop William Brennan (who retired for health reasons) the diocese was in very good shape, defying the trend in dioceses across Australia.

Bishop Brennan had long insisted that catholic education actually be catholic; had invited in the excellent Ganmain Dominican sisters sisters; and had just reopened the diocesan seminary. Under his tenure the number of priests actually increased: in 1980 there were 51; he was appointed in 1984; at the time of his retirement in 2002 the number had increased to 57 (46 diocesan).

When Bishop Brennan retired, the Catholic Weekly reported that:

The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr George Pell, said last year that Wagga Wagga diocese had experienced a "Catholic revival" under Bishop Brennan. "I think it is time to publicly salute that achievement," he said. "The Wagga diocese is probably the best diocese in Australia. Its seminarians and priests are a testament to Bishop Brennan's courage and faith."

Bishop Hanna: keeping up the good fight

It takes genuine commitment and effort to maintain, let alone build on an enviable situation, though (a case in point being Melbourne, which does not seem to have maintained the momentum it had gained under Cardinal Pell), and Bishop Hanna, now aged 70, has managed this.

He seems to active supports the many and diverse religious activities in the diocese, and this effort continues to pay off.

The number of diocesan priests in Wagga Wagga has increased from 46 when Bishop Gerard Hanna took office in 2002, to 59 in 2010, resulting in a total of 72 priests for the diocese and an impressive priest to catholics ratio of 1: 900. The diocese has consistently had a good number of seminarians (11 at last count).

Liturgy

Not surprisingly, Wagga Wagga diocese has above average mass attendance rates (1.2% of Australia's catholics, but 1.4% of mass attenders).

It has no Sunday assemblies without a priest!

But it does have regular Sunday Latin Masses in both Wagga Wagga and Albury (and I'm led to believe, elsewhere), said by diocesan priests.

Another notable feature of the diocese is the Divine Mercy Shrine at Tarcutta (yes, I realise there are some well known non-diocesan ringers in this video!):

Insistence on actual Catholicism!

A look through the curriculum for the seminary (set out in detail online with admirable transparency) and a read through the diocesan newspaper will give you a pretty good flavour of just what the strategy in this diocese has been: in short, an insistence on orthodoxy and orthopraxis!

Source: Diocesan website shot of students and staff, 2011

The seminary: Actually having a diocesan seminary - a rare thing these days, absent even from large dioceses such as Adelaide - has clearly been an important key to Wagga Wagga's continuing success. As the Perth experience also shows, a seminary (at least under the right rector) can create its own momentum, and certainly makes the diocese's commitment to the ministerial priesthood crystal clear.

The seminary has attracted seminarians from neighbouring conservatives dioceses such as Lismore and Armidale as well. It is affiliated with the Urbaniana University in Rome for its STL program, and also has close links and degree credit arrangements with the excellent Charles Sturt University. This is perhaps the only seminary in Australia (but do tell me if I'm wrong on this) that actually genuinely complies with the formal requirements for the learning of Latin (a semester doesn't cut it!), with students normally doing at least two years of the subject.

Diocesan life: The December edition of the diocesan newspaper Together is a breath of fresh air compared to practically every other diocesan paper in the country (well of those available online in some form at any rate!), taking the mission to evangelize and educate in the faith seriously.

It has articles on the wonderful Tyburn nuns and their new video, abortion (the appalling Melbourne case of the 'wrong' child being aborted), the myth of overpopulation, and on opposition to same-sex marriage. The articles on things happening in the Church in Australia, such as the Year of Grace and of course the appointment of their own Fr Kennedy as a bishop, local activities in support of the missions, and much more.

But perhaps the most uplifting article for me was on the 'Youth Expo' attended by over one hundred young people from the diocese and across Australia, held in Albury. The picture for the story is of a Blessed Sacrament Procession. And the expo included daily Mass and perpetual Adoration. The talks included topics such as ‘The Sacrament of Confession’, ‘discerning your vocation’, ‘Catholic in the public Square’, and ‘Our Lady Star of evangelisation’.

Saint Mary McKillop College: The diocese also includes within its borders, a notable experiment in creating a more genuinely catholic school, in the form of the Saint Mary McKillop Colleges. The parental and student contracts, which deal with the faith environment, are well worth a read!

Source: School website

***Adoration

An absolutely critical factor for the diocese, drawn to my attention by a commenter, is Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, established some twenty five years ago with the intention of praying for priestly vocations.

Calvary Hospital Chapel, supported by a vibrant group of Adorers, has Exposition every weekday from 8.30 am until 9.00 pm, on weekdays and then an all night vigil every Friday night.

We need more of this kind of thing!

I don't want to suggest that this is in any sense a 'traditionalist' diocese, it clearly isn't.

It engages in many of the same issues as others across the country, and has developed links, for example, with places like the Broken Bay Institute, hardly a bastion of conservatism!

It is hard to be sure from the outside, but it seems to me that this diocese has essentially been conservative in the JPII mode (adapted to Australia), rather than adopting a Benedict XVI style semi-traditionalism.

Either way, it has managed to maintain a very strong catholic ethos, and to cultivate a strong vocation culture.

We need more of dioceses like Wagga Wagga....

What's happening in the world today...Friday, Jan 13

2012-01-13T06:49:00.000+11:00

Feasts: Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord, Class II & end of Epiphanytide/Christams season (EF)

The School Funding debate...

Continues to rage, with an opinion piece in the Australian by Judith Sloan, and continuing claims elsewhere as to quality.

Freedom of religion...

Muslim man returns to Australia after Saudi sentence for blasphemy during his pilgrimage to Mecca was reduced to 75 lashes...
In the US, Supreme Court has upheld the exemptions from employment discrimination legislation for churches.

On criticising bishops...

In the US, the debate on what our duty of respect and obedience to bishops entails has broken out again, largely prompted by the attempts of the Archdiocese of Detroit to crack down on Michael Voris' Real Catholic TV. It is a perennial debate when it comes to the blogosphere.

On the one hand, conservatives typically argue for an ultramontanist attitude, maybe not quite 'pay, pray and obey', but pretty close:

Monsignor Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington argues that criticism from conservatives and traditionalists mirrors that of liberal dissenters;
Ed Peters, on his Canon Law blog: "Widespread, knee-jerk distrust of ecclesiastical authority is perhaps the most crippling legacy left to the John Paul II generation of Church leaders by the past. This distrust is, of course, unfair to that new generation—who have done nothing to deserve it..." [really?!]

On the other hand sit those who point to the continuing problems and real risks of evil continuing to go unchallenged within the Church, and the much longer tradition of the laity calling all to their duty. No prizes as to which side I sit on!

In my view the path to rebuilding appropriate respect and obedience is the adoption of much greater transparency and accountability. Unexplained decisions like that to go after Michael Voris - but not liberals who also use the name catholic but clearly aren't - may (or may not, the canon lawyers are still arguing!) technically be within power, but is particularly unhelpful at a time of widespread dissent to its teachings.

Wilcannia-Forbes: the case for transparency and accountability!

2012-01-12T12:41:00.003+11:00

In this series on the state of the Church in Australia, I want to turn today to the longest running episcopal vacancy in the country, viz Wilcannia-Forbes.

And a sorry saga it is too, illustrating, I think, quite a number of the governance problems in the Church today.

The case for greater transparency

I'm certainly not advocating democracy within the Church. We have a hierarchical structure for good reasons.

But I do think the laity are entitled to know what is going on, to be given the necessary information on which to come to an informed view, and to have those views listened to attentively (even if they are rejected) when consideration is being given to major changes that affect them.

That doesn't seem to happen with any degree of consistency, and Wilcannia-Forbes nicely illustrates the problem.

First there is there strange story of the resignation of its last very liberal eco-nut-astronomer bishop, Bishop Christopher Toohey, who initially resigned in 2009 for "health reasons". It was only two years later, in 2011, that he admitted that he had actually resigned because he had 'hurt some young adults'.

The second is the question of how such bishops get appointed in the first place. As evidenced also by a much more recent appointment of a Sydney parish priest to the episcopacy, the mate's network approach to seeking input on possible episcopal appointments badly needs an overhaul!

Then there is the ongoing stoush over the future of the diocese itself, where the laity seem only fairly belatedly to have been actually engaged in the issue of what should happen to it.

The Catholic Weekly reported that in his consecration speech back in 2001, 'Bishop Chris – as he will no doubt be known, given his cheerful, down-to-earth nature – said, commenting on his new ministry: “Everything will be all right. Trust me.”'

It hasn't been, and any trust he was given has proven to have been misplaced. And like it or not, that has consequences for attitudes to the Australian hierarchy more generally.

The ins and outs of this story are still less than clear - occasional potshots get fired in the media which are no doubt meaningful to the players, but rather less so to those outside the tent. Still, let me attempt to reconstruct it as best I can...

Wilcannia-Forbes: an ongoing battleground

Source: ACBC website

Wilcannia-Forbes has been vacant since the (at the time) mysterious resignation of its "eco-bishop" Christopher Toohey in 2009. In 2011 he released a statement regretting hurting "young adults" and stated that he would not be returning to ministry in any form. He nonetheless remains a member of that increasingly elite club of bishops emeritus (yes, that is sarcasm!).

Wilcannia-Forbes has, for many years now, been a battleground between liberals and conservatives in the Australian Church.

In part that has been because of the predictable clash between the liberal views of Bishop Toohey and the conservative views (particularly when it comes to enviromentalism!) of the Metropolitan, Cardinal Pell. And of course, the diocese has a number of fairly conservative dioceses as neighbours, particularly in Wagga Wagga and Armidale.

Like many dioceses there seems to be the usual mix of orthodox and liberal clergy within the diocese.

Geography and demographics

Wilcannia-Forbes is the largest, geographically, of the NSW dioceses, taking up half the state, making it bigger than the entire country of France. Even so, it is only seventh largest overall in Australia at 414, 378 sq kms.

Its cathedral is in Broken Hill, which is closer (literally and metaphorically) to Adelaide (at 500kms) with which it shares its time zone, than to Sydney (at 1100kms). Parkes (the next largest town), on the other hand, is 360kms from Sydney.

It is the fourth smallest diocese in terms of population, with 34,000 catholics in 2010.

The difference between it and the similarly sparsely populated dioceses of the booming West, for example, is that like much of regional NSW, the diocese is severely depressed economically and as a result, people are moving out, not in.

The diocese was created at a time when mining made Broken Hill (where it's cathedral is located) a boom town, but those boom times are long gone! Broken Hill, with a population of 18, 854, has itself has shrunk by more than a third since the last mining boom in the 1970s.

The other major town in the diocese is Parkes (made famous by the film The Dish), with a population of 9,826 in 2006.

Many may be more familiar with those pit-stop towns on the route from Sydney to Adelaide, such as Hay and Balranald.

The rural areas of the diocese have been in decline for a long time, but Wilcannia-Forbes suffered badly under the recent drought: the diocese has one primary school (St Joseph's Peak Hill) participating in a low socio-economic status program, and another one (St Theresa's, Wilcannia) that is 98% Indigenous.

The decline is perhaps best illustrated in the town names the diocese draws from: the once thriving inland port of Wilcannia (yes, the Darling River once had actual water!) now has a total population of 596 people (54% of them Aboriginal), while Forbes, which grew to 30,000 at the height of the goldrush, now has around 7,000 people in total.

The problem: poor finances and a lack of priests?

The problem for the diocese, it seems, is a combination of a poor financial situation and a severe lack of priests.

The financial issues it has to be said, are entirely speculation on the part of commentators: none of the pastoral letters or other material made public on the assorted proposals for the future of the diocese actually allude to this issue, let alone provided actual specifics.

Nonetheless, it seems a reasonable conclusion to draw given the general economic state of the region, and the fact that the diocese has some 45 churches to maintain, but only twenty parishes and twenty one priests (2010).

The other issue though is the lack of priests - though the official stats say 21, in reality many of these seem to be retired or elderly (I've seen a wide variety of estimates - from 6 to 15 to 18 - as to how many active priests there are in the diocese). Like many dioceses (though unlike many of its neighbours such as Wagga Wagga), it has had no vocations to speak of and has managed to keep going only by recruiting overseas priests. The diocese had 46 priests in 1970, 32 by 1990, and of the current notional 21, 16 are diocesan.

Proposals for reshaping the diocese

Rumours on the likely future of the diocese have been rife for a long time (going back three decades according to some reports!).

One rumour was that it would be amalgamated with Bathurst. But then that diocese was given a new bishop without any other changes being made.

Another proposal was apparently that the diocese be suppressed and the territory be redistributed amongst the surrounding dioceses. That proposal was voted down by its priests (were the laity even consulted?!) in 2010.

Another suggestion was that the territory be redistributed to some of the Victorian dioceses. That too seems to have gone nowhere.

At last report, at least according to the ABC, a consultation process was underway looking not just at the suppression of the diocese/redistribution of parts of the diocese, but also at how to keep it going, including the closure of some parishes.

Time for a resolution?

The last few years have not been happy ones for the diocese. It has had two Apostolic Administrators, in the form of Bishop Brady of Sydney, and subsequently retired Bishop Manning, whose mandate urgently needs to be terminated before he does any more damage there.

Time for a decision.

And for a little more transparency and accountability to the laity (not just of the diocese, but of others potentially affected) who will end up footing the bill for whatever ends up happening.

News briefs for Thursday Jan 12

2012-01-12T08:09:00.000+11:00

Vatican trialling a new way of keeping recalcitrant bishops in line?
The Pope is shown a rare baby Cuban crocodile at Wednesday's General Audience.
Source: Reuters

Feasts: St Benet Biscop OSB (in some places) - do read, a possible patron saint for traditionalists!

The Pope's General Audience this week (see picture above) was on the Last Supper and the Eucharist.

Fighting the good fight in Australia..

Jihad Watch's Robert Spencer reflects on 'stealth jihad' following his recent tour of Australia
The Australian reports on possible protests against former tennis star Margaret Court at the Australian Open next week due to her campaign against same sex marriage (thanks to reader for the tip). Ms Court has responded with defiance, calling on organisers to ensure the event is not hijacked by activists;
The Adelaide Advertiser has an article on the problems posed by 'splash and dash' baptisms, where baptism is seen as a social event rather than a religious one.

Bishops (and priests) who have celebrated the Extraordinary Form

2012-01-11T18:00:00.001+11:00

The Eponymous Flower blog has come up with an impressive list of 254 Cardinals and bishops who have celebrated in the Extraordinary Form around the world (attendance in choir is enough to get you onto the list!) since Summorum Pontificum.

Here is the list for Australia (ignore the creative spelling!):

"Cardinal Pell (Archbishop of Sidney), Coleridge (Archbishop of Camberra), Hart (Archbishop of Melbourne), Hickey (Archbishop of Perth), Elliot (Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne), Grech (Bishop of Sandhurst, +2010), Jarret (Bishop of Lismore), Porteus (Archbishop of Sidney), Prowse (Bishop of Sale)"

I'm almost sure that this is incomplete (weren't there some Brisbane confirmations a while back for example? What about AB Wilson?). So please do add a comment there and/or here if you know of more....

And while you are at it, I'm calling for any names to be added to my list of priests to pray for , of Australian priests who have said or say the EF, as I will shortly post a (hopefully) updated list...

Australia's patchwork spiritual economy: the rest of the West**

2012-01-11T10:24:00.008+11:00

I want to continue my series on the state of the Church in Australia's dioceses with a look at the rest of the West today.

The 'patchwork economy' is the current Federal Labor Government's preferred description of Australia's current economic situation, a term coined in order to avoid saying 'two-speed economy', viz the booming West vs the depressed rest.

I'd have to say the term patchwork economy doesn't seem to me to quite cut it when it comes to economics, but in terms of describing the spiritual economy of Australia, it does have something going for it.

Categorizing our dioceses

On the one hand, we have those dioceses that have either at least more or less maintained the number and proportion of priests, and/or are making serious inroads in turning things around.

In this group you could put Perth, Canberra, Sydney, Wagga Wagga, Lismore and Armidale and maybe one or two others.

At the other extreme are the ones where things are seriously bad and the church in any recognisable form is all but in danger of disappearing altogether (but for the prospect of new bishops and other changes) - Queensland, Wilcannia-Forbes and Sandhurst (highest priest to people ratio in the country at 1:2641) immediately come to mind.

And in the middle sit a number of more or less average dioceses, where the slide towards secularist oblivion is taking place on a somewhat slower path, barring an upsurge in recruitment.

The two WA dioceses, Bunbury and Geraldton, that I want to look at today, seem, on the face of it, to fit into this latter category. Do tell me if you think I'm calling it wrong, but these seem like very, well, very average Australian dioceses...that is, not exactly on the path to re-evangelizing Australia!

Is change possible?

The issue everywhere in Australia is this: how do we turn things around, how do we re-energize things?

The upcoming Australian Year of Grace points to one important prerequisite for this to happen, viz prayer on our part! I'd also suggest encouraging our bishops to promote contemplative religious life in their dioceses, particularly where there is no current monastery, might be an important dimension of this.

But other important issues include receptivity to what God is saying to us, and willingness to take chances and seize opportunities in that light.

Let's not kid ourselves: making big changes is hard and will antagonize people. Many people have much invested in the status quo and will not easily let it go.

To make changes we have to start by acknowledging the real situation, and understand its real causes (which, as anyone who has studied behavioural research will tell you, will not generally be elicted simply by asking people why they do or don't do something!).

But we also have to understand the tools that can help us make change, and be willing to use them.

The tools for change

In this series I've been highlighting some of the things I think are important potential tools for engagement in mission/evangelization: the liturgy; the support of contemplative religious; episcopal and priestly leadership; transparency and accountability; and effective (and appropriate) lay engagement for example.

But the most important one, I think, is actually genuine commitment to renewal and mission.

Take for example, the problem that is Catholic schools. Many of us think that one of the key tests of their success is that they actually turn out practising catholics. Many of us are upset that in reality they both actively subvert the achievement of this objective through inadequate catechesis and appallingly awful "school masses', and passively subvert it through missed opportunities to engage parents and children in their parishes and to promote a (genuine) catholic culture more generally.

Yet the school system's defenders - such as Bishop Holohan of Bunbury - continue to defend poor outcomes by pointing to parents and parishes as having prime responsibility for the faith of the young.

Well yes, but it is the schools who parents have deliberately entrusted the education of their children to!

And schools can have a major impact on just how children and their parents interact with their parishes (for example with attendance requirements, school masses on a Sunday, and much more).

If we want change to occur, we have, in my view, to abandon the excuses for inaction, abandon the excuses for mediocrity, and look for how we can use every opportunity for evangelization.

In that light, let's look at the rest of the West...

Geraldton

The spectacular Geraldton Cathedral

Of these two dioceses, Geraldton seems in better shape - the last available stats on the Catholic Hierarchy site show it has a priest to people ratio of 1:1428, for example, compared to Bunbury's 1:1730 (and Perth's 1:1324).

The diocese of Geraldton, which takes in much of WA's mid-West, like Broome which I looked at yesterday, is extremely large in terms of territory (1,318, 310 sq kms, making it Australia's second largest in terms of geographic size), but extremely small in terms of population, with a total of 27, 135 catholics out of a total population of 114, 662 (making it Australia's second smallest diocese) in 2006.

Source: ACBC website

There are no contemplative religious orders here, though the diocesan webpage on religious orders in the diocese is well worth a look if only for the novelty value in seeing certain modern religious orders being given a traditional gloss through pictures of their founders wearing actual habits and headgear! If only their current members saw the need to bear public witness to their profession through their habits, lifestyle and dress!

On the face of it, Geraldton is a fairly typical Australian diocese - below average mass attendance (it has 0.4% of Australia's catholics, but only 0.3% of mass attenders), and relatively few vocations (there was one seminarian in 2010).

Leadership: Bishop Justin Bianchini was appointed in 1992, and is aged 70.92. You can find a nice profile of him at The Swag website.

For much of his tenure, the number of priests fell steadily, from 27 in total in 1990 (15 diocesan), to 19 in 2006 (11 of them diocesan).

The diocesan website (which has a good 'about us' page), however, suggests there has been an upsurge in recruitment over the last few years (including one ordination in December), so that there are 18 diocesan priests, four religious, with a further four residing elsewhere in Australia. I assume that this comes mostly from overseas recruitment, as the last ordination before December's was in 2001 according to the Official Directory of the Catholic Church (which is admittedly incomplete as a record).

Liturgy/role of the laity: The diocese makes heavy use of communion services, and parish (lay) "sacramental teams". There is no Latin mass.

Mission: The diocese does seem to have adopted very strong policies on the necessity of preparation for the sacraments, presumably in the face of the prevalence of cultural catholicism.

Transparency and accountability: The diocesan website has good parish based information (including online bulletins), but very little general news or broader activity information.

Bunbury

Source: ACBC website

Bunbury diocese takes in 184,000 sq kms, covering the south-west and southern regions of the State, and has a nominal catholic population of 50,190. Mass attendance is below the national average, with 1% of catholics, but only 0.7% of mass attenders.

The cathedral was destroyed by a tornado in 2005, and its very modern replacement was consecrated last year.

Leadership: Bishop Gerald Holohan, appointed in 2001, is 64. He comes from a background in education.

In 2006 the diocese had 29 priests and, unusually for Australia, 11 permanent deacons. The diocese had three seminarians in 2010, and two priests were ordained last year.

He gets considerable brownie points for attracting the ire of the aCatholicas for an article in the diocesan magazine, a few years back, on why women cannot be ordained as priests.

The website also contains a statement from him on why same sex marriage should be opposed, but it seems to advocate civil union type language as an alternative, and points to other legal protections for homosexuals, rather than actually stating the Church's position as such.

**Transparency and accountability/religious life: Religious orders based in Bunbury diocese don't get a guernsey on the diocesan website, but a number of commenters have drawn my attention to the very devout Carmelites based in this diocese.

The website does not give very much by way of detailed accountability information.

Liturgy: Bunbury has a once a month Latin Mass (said by Fr Rowe of Perth).

Mission: The diocese has an Office of Evangelization, which always seems like a good start at least! The bishop's own articulation of what evangelization is about is about, though, seems to focus very much on the Gaudium et Spes-esq vision of the transformation of this world, rather than salvation as such.

Have I got it wrong?

Please, do send in your comments, corrections and additions, both on this piece (and on the previous ones in the series), as well as any points you think should be raised in relation to the rest of Australia's dioceses...

News briefs for Jan 11

2012-01-11T07:24:00.002+11:00

Source: AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito

Feasts: Commemoration of St Hyginus (c136-c142), Pope and Martyr (EF)

World news

The Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Women Religious has finished, handing in its final report;
The SMH highlights the Pope's comments to diplomats on Monday reiterating the importance of the family and opposing same sex marriage (as a commenter has noted, taking a typically pro-homosexualist slant on the story);

Australia

A Christian convert originally from Iran is missing in Victoria and feared kidnapped by Islamic militants in response to her efforts in converting other Muslims;
The Canberra Times reported yesterday that 200 schools plan to dump school chaplains in favour of hiring secular welfare workers following changes to the Federal Government program. The program, introduced by the previous Liberal Government, has long been controversial, and dominated by evangelicals.

The ugly Australian. When those who should know better....

Federal Liberal MP Teresa Gambaro continues to be under fire for saying migrants should be taught to use deodorant and how to queue (!) to help them integrate.**For a nice response on what migrants really need to know, read The Punch's take on the issue;
A worker for immigration detention services provider SERCO has been suspended after posting facebook comments saying Muslim children in detention didn't deserve Christmas presents, and were being taught by their parents that wife beating was acceptable.

The social justice model: is it enough? The case of Broome diocese...

2012-01-10T10:58:00.007+11:00

Source: Diocesan website

Today in my series of State by State/diocese by diocese profiles a look at the Western Australian Australian diocese of Broome.

Broome is particularly interesting because it is Australia's smallest in terms of population but very large in terms of geographical area, and faces particular challenges due to its high Indigenous population.

Its bishop, Bishop Christopher Saunders, is Chair of the Australian Catholic Justice Commission, so its not surprising that the diocese has adopted a strong social justice focus. But can the social justice model actually work in energizing a diocese?

Broome diocese

Taking in much of Western Australia's North West, geographically it is the fourth largest of the Australian dioceses (after Darwin, Geraldton and Port Pirie) at 770,000 square kilometres. And it is a long way from anywhere else in the country - a two and a half hour flight from Perth, and 1.5 hours by air from Darwin.

Broome is the smallest, though, of Australia's dioceses in terms of population, with a total population of around 35,000 (2006).

Of that a very high proportion is indigenous - in the town of Broome itself, the figure is 20%, in the outlying areas the Indigenous population is much higher. And most of that Indigenous population is very young - in WA the average age is 21 years, much younger then the average age of the population as a whole. The Indigenous community there suffers from the problems prevalent in much of remote Australia associated with the loss of culture, collapse of job opportunities and resulting problems of assorted forms of abuse.

In addition, 11% of residents of Broome were born outside Australia, and 10% of mass goers attend in languages other than English.

The area also has a high transient population due to mining and tourism. The town of Broome is one of the fastest growing in Australia, goes from around 14,400 year to 45,000 during the tourist season.

It also has the highest proportion of Catholics of any Australian diocese, at 38.3%, giving some 13, 749 catholics to tend to.

As far as I can work out there are no contemplative religious orders in the diocese.

Leadership

Bishop Christopher Saunders is aged 61, and he was appointed back in 1995. Originally from Melbourne, he offered himself as a priest for the diocese after spending three years with the Columbans. You can get a flavour of the bishop's preoccupations by the very existence of the diocesan "Office of Justice, Ecology and Peace".

The bishop is a pilot, and frequently uses the Diocese's twin-engine six-seater Cessna 210 to get around. The strong sense of his enthusiasm and commitment (and interesting background) comes out in this article on the Sydney Archdiocese website.

Over his time in office, the number of priests (13 in total in 2006) has remained more or less steady state, and thus failed to keep pace with population growth. It is not exactly blessed when it comes to vocations - it has had one ordination in recent years. The bishop has, however, recruited a number of overseas priests to help fill vacancies.

Liturgy

The liturgical focus of the diocese appears to be, shall we say, innovative (I wish I could reproduce the picture from the diocesan magazine of some "liturgical dancing" by a group of young aboriginals lead by an (African) Wollongong seminarian...)! There is no regularly celebrated Traditional Latin Mass.

Transparency and accountability

The bi-monthly diocesan magazine, Kimberly Connections (available online in PDF form) seems excellent, with a good mix of report backs from schools and parishes, doctrinal material/news of the wider church, the saints and more.

At the same time, it certainly reflects the diocesan focus on social justice both locally and in the context of supporting overseas missions as well. As far as I can see, it looks solidly orthodox, with some nice promotion of traditional devotions such as the rosary (and note the new icon for the Cathedral pictured above)...

Mission, social justice and the role of the laity

The whole diocese is effectively a mission, and it runs an active volunteering program whereby people from across Australia can do twelve month placements helping out in the diocese in practical ways.

Social justice commitments on the part of many dioceses often, in my view at least, looks forced and artificial, driven by and reflecting political correctness rather than genuine practical engagement on the ground. Not so here.

The material available online makes the focus look real and attractive in terms of advancing the Church's mission. And it is not done in isolation from the faith, but seems to be genuinely linked to it.

That said, the diocese has a below average rate of mass attendance (although surprisingly perhaps, unlike many other places, hasn't gone the 'Sunday assembly without a priest route' in a big way - in 2006 there were an average of 2.8 such assemblies a week, involving 33 people) and few vocations.

News briefs for Tuesday Jan 10***update

2012-01-10T08:19:00.001+11:00

What you need to know about that's happening in the Catholic world today:

Feasts: Epiphanytide (EF); Commencement of Ordinary Time (OF); St Paul the First Hermit (OSB 1963).

World news

Another former Anglican bishop, Robert Mercer, was received into the English Ordinariate last Saturday, please keep him and Ordinariates (and would-be Ordinariates!) in your prayers;
Retiring Australian Ambassador to the Holy See, Tim Fischer's comments on the Pope's annual speech to the diplomatic corp at the start of the year have been widely picked up;
Political conservatism and catholicism: are they compatible? The UK Herald's William Oddie looks at Rick Santorum's rise in the US and questions the basis of his position on health care and other issues. The article's summary paragraph states that: "Orthodox American Catholics seem to think that doctrinaire neo-liberalism is the logical consequence of faith: they’re just wrong". So true!;
up to 8 million people participated in the annual Feast of the Black Nazarene in Manila, the capital of the Philippines yesterday, despite Islamic terror threats;
the Vatican has finally, it seems, discovered the internet. Unfortunately, it stills seems to be rather at the low end of the learning curve, having used Wikipedia, more or less unedited, and certainly not cross-checked, to provide potted bios of the new Cardinals for the media. Mind you, a certain prominent Australian journalist and blogger famously fell into this trap too...

Oz news

On your list of charities not to support, make sure you have The Benevolent Society, which has been actively recruiting homosexual couples as foster carers of children for the last three years...;
Equally concerning is the acceptance, reported in The Australian, by a Perth Catholic school, Mercedes College, of "Confucius Classroom" funding from the Chinese Government Asian language and literacy courses. What's next, catholic schools accepting funding from the Saudis to teach Arabic and Islamic culture in the interests of promoting better understanding of them too?! The program was, apparently, rejected by the State system over there because of concerns, inter alia, about political interference and soft-soaping of Chinese internal policies. One might have expected Catholics to have a few concerns over similar issues, such as the horrific one-child policy;
***For those interested in the funding of our acatholic schools, the debate on how much loot they are managing to extract from the government rageth. The ABC media blog has the details.

Oz bishop's Christmas messages (Well it is still Christmastime in the EF calendar!)

Bishop Jarrett of Lismore;
Bishop McKenna of Bathurst (PDF);
Bishop Hanna of Wagga Wagga;
no messages online that I can see for Wollongong, Armidale, Broken Bay or Wilcannia-Forbes.

WA: Building on the boom!

2012-01-09T11:05:00.000+11:00

Archdiocese website: ad limina 2011

Having looked in the last few posts at one of Australia's less happy States in terms of the current state of the Church in Australia, I thought we might cheer ourselves up by turning to one of the more positive stories, viz Perth.

Perth, capital of Western Australia, is these days, I gather, pretty literally the Wild West, with everything and everyone being sucked into the vortex of the mining boom, and resulting shortages of workers that have affected the church as much as everything else, and led to a large migrant population, posing problems of integration. And all those 'fly in fly out' workers must pose considerable pastoral challenges, both in terms of supporting those left behind and the mine workers themselves.

The Archdiocese of Perth itself is huge: it covers 471,118 sq. kms and has a population of about 1.5 million, of whom about 365,000 are Catholics. There are three other dioceses in the state: Broome, Geraldton and Bunbury.

Measures of success: positioning ourselves for mission

There are, in Australia, unlike the US, no dioceses left with pre-Vatican II-esq mass attendance rates around the 60% mark, such as Lincoln, Nebraska for example.

Some, such as Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Parramatta, have above average attendance rates; others, such as Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart have lower than average attendance rates, but unlike the US (the Lincoln mass attendance rate has mostly been around double the national average), as far as I can see the differences, while significant, are not that huge.

But Australia does have some dioceses - two of the most noteworthy being Perth and Wagga Wagga - where the current bishop has managed to go against the trend, and sustain or even improve the proportion of priests to people.

What works?

What's particularly interesting is to see the different strategies that have had some success.

Most of the US vocation success (and high mass attendance) stories are in the extremely traditionally inclined dioceses.

Perth is certainly conservative by Australian standards (though I suspect not really by US ones), with a focus on promoting a strong devotional life and catechesis.

And Archbishop Hickey certainly sits with the Australian conservative bishops such as Cardinal Pell.

It is also true that Archbishop Hickey has given considerable encouragement to the Traditional Latin Mass and traditionally inclined religious orders.

But from what I can see, the strategy he has adopted seems more of a 'let a thousand flowers bloom' approach than a strictly traditionally oriented one, supporting a Neo-Catechumenate Way seminary as well as a diocesan one, and encouraging a wide variety of new religious movements and orders.

Diocesan leadership

Archbishop Hickey was appointed Archbishop of Perth in 1991. He is, alas, over the retirement age albeit still in place, so the challenge for his successor will be to maintain and even build on the relatively strong situation he leaves the archdiocese in.

The Auxiliary is Bishop Donald Sproxton, aged 58, who was appointed in 2002. You can here him asking for prayers for the appointment of a new Archbishop, and for Archbishop Hickey (and then offering a reflection on the Eucharist), in this youtube clip:

Priestly Vocations

I mentioned success in promoting vocations.

In fact, Archbishop Hickey has ordained a staggering 95 priests for the diocese since he took Office in 1991 (as at November 2011 it was 94, but then he ordained the first Redemptorist in 24 years in December!).

In 1990, Perth had 228 priests, 116 of them diocesan. In a complete reversal of the standard pattern across Australia, the number of priests there has actually increased substantially, to 287, including 151 diocesan in 2004, enabling the archdiocese to keep pace with population growth and more. And the numbers have continued to grow, with nineteen seminarians for the diocese last year, and more in the Neo-Catechumenate Seminary (whose graduates each do two years service in the diocese).

To achieve this, Archbishop Hickey reopened the closed diocesan seminary, making priestly vocations more visible in the diocese. The diocese also has a neo-catechumenate seminary, which has particularly aided Perth in coping with the multi-cultural influx of migrants. Archbishop Hickey has also said that part of the success of his vocations push is due to promotion of the idea of the traditional priesthood, and insistence that laypeople cannot fill their roles.

Religious Life

The archdiocese's success can also partly be attributed to the rich variety of religious life there, many of whom have a long and rich history in the diocese, but several more of whom are there at the invitation or with the encouragement of Archbishop Hickey.

Contemplative orders with monasteries there include the Benedictines (New Norcia), Carmelites, (Fransciscans Friars and Sisters of the Immaculate (a vigorous new branch of the order favouring the TLM), Norbertines (similarly traditionally inclined), and more.

Traditional Latin Mass

Archbishop Hickey has also been a good friend to the Traditional Latin Mass community of Perth, regularly saying Pontifical Masses for them.

The community there continues to thrive, as far as I can gather, under the leadership of the indefatigable Fr Michael Rowe, now rector of St Anne's Church, Belmont, the archdiocese's Traditional Latin Mass Centre (though it is not obvious to me why weekday Mass times and other information about the community shouldn't be available online!).

Fr Rowe is well known across Australia for his work in organising and running annual traditional retreats (the only regular ones with the TLM in Australia that I'm aware of) in both WA and NSW, and organising pilgrimages and other events.

Transparency and Accountability

I've said some things about liturgy, the role of the laity, orthodoxy and so forth through this post, so I won't repeat those headings but I did want to say something on transparency and accountability, because they have a pretty general application across Australia.

There are certainly some strengths to mention on the transparency and accountability front. Archbishop Hickey, for example, provided a mid-ad limina visit report back to the Archdiocese and another on his return from Rome.

The excellent archdiocesan website contains a good collection of articles on local events, including the kind of local material, though not the broader material, that used to be on The Record website (sorry but the new version is not yet doing it for me, particularly as much of the old content is now accessible only via google cache copies!).

But like most other Australian dioceses, there is little here by way of hard data on outputs, outcomes and finances, not even of the type available from sites like Catholic Hierarchy (which is unfortunately still only up to 2004 in terms of statistics for Perth!).

Pray for a holy successor!

Does encouraging ideas from many sources to be tried out (within limits!) work as a strategy for possible replication? I'd be interested in hearing from Perth residents and former residents to see what they think...

No doubt there are many more things one could draw attention to in relation to Perth - bold action sometimes means mistakes are made, and different tacks that could have been taken.

But this is a diocese that will be left in a healthier state for Archbishop Hickey's successor when he retires than it was when he took it over, no little achievement in these difficult times.

Please do pray for a holy and effective successor, and keep the Archbishop himself in your prayers.

Diocesan reviews: comments and contributions

2012-01-09T10:12:00.001+11:00

I'd like to thank those who have commented on the diocesan reviews I've posted so far, there are some thought provoking issues raised.

Thought provoking comments

I was particularly glad to hear of some good priests who have held the line in some of the most troubled dioceses.

And the accounts of those doing there best to survive the virtual schism that has been Brisbane are also compelling, if not exactly happy reading in the main!

But I'd also like to highlight some of the practical issues being raised, such as the imbalance between the nominal number of Catholics and the physical availability (not to mention convenience of time) of confession. The comment was made in relation to Canberra-Goulburn, but I suspect it applies in most places across Australia...

Do keep those comments coming.

Send in your contributions!

I'm slowly doing the research and putting together the remainder of the profiles (Perth will be up shortly), but please do send me any information or issues that you think should be highlighted in relation to your own diocese or community (you can email it to me offline or put it in a comment on a post).

I'd be particularly interested in:

information about the size, growth or other good activities of Latin Mass communities around the country (some have good websites which I'm well aware of, but there may be some smaller ones that I've missed or aren't online);
advice on 'reform of the reform' parishes, bi-ritual parishes, or other initiatives by good priests;
comments on the state of the liturgy of your dioceses, whether at the cathedral or elsewhere; and
any other major issues you think need to be addressed in relation to your diocese.

What's happening in the news today...(Monday January 9)

2012-01-09T07:03:00.001+11:00

Feasts:

Baptism of Our Lord (OF) - yep, yesterday was Epiphany, today we skip to the other end of the old Octave, leaving out everything in between in the rush to get back to very Ordinary Time!
Yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald reported on Orthodox Christmas celebrations, including the tough pre-Christmas fast

Australia

The Australian has an article claiming that 'public schools lose on funds, with state and federal funding for schools increasing 82% for independent schools, 64% for catholic schools, and only 48% for public schools (google to access it if you are not a subscriber);
In his first media foray as far as I can work out since the Hepworth affair last year, and his withdrawal from a Federal job offer, Msgr Cappo of Adelaide is reported by the Australian to have attacked the Federal Coalition's pledge to abolish the Social Inclusion Unit, and the State Government's dismantling of the Social Inclusion Board which he headed until the change of Premier's in South Australia last year.

Around the world

In Nigeria, curfews have been imposed in a bid to stem Islamic anti-Christian violence;
Appropriating saints: The Courier Mail reports on political battles in France over St Jean of Arc in relation to the six hundredth anniversary of her birth;

Oz bishop's Christmas messages

Bishop Anthony Fisher of Parramatta talks about presents given at the first Christmas, and our own tendency to accumulate goods we don't need:

Year of Faith: putting VII in its place?

2012-01-08T07:39:00.002+11:00

The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) has now released its recommendations on activities for the Year of Faith starting in October 2012 (not to be confused with the Oz Year of Grace starting this Pentecost!).

The basic thrust of it seems to be correcting the reception of Vatican II by adopting the 'hermaneutic of continuty': a strong focus on the actual documents of Vatican II read in the light "under the sure guidance of the Magisterium and in continuity with the whole Tradition".

What to do about Vatican II!

There are, essentially three positions about on what needs to be done about Vatican II:

the liberal view that the true 'spirit of the Council' hasn't really been fully implemented yet because of resistance from evil conservatives, and what is needed is a further push to truly implement the (spirit of) the Council, including abandoning rules like clerical celibacy and more and rethinking theological objections to the ordination of women;
the 'all's well' view of many conservatives, who are broadly comfortable with where liturgy and practise are now given the signs of revival around; and
those who are concerned about the errors that have taken root in the Church in recent decades.

Promoting the correct reception of the Council?

The Pope, of course, sits in the latter group. But while this group is agreed to greater and lesser extent on the existence of the problem, they are deeply divided on solutions.

The SSPX and many other traditionalists, of course, would like to see some of its teachings rejected altogether. That's unlikely to happen any time soon, and the ongoing stalemate in negotiations between them and the Vatican reflect this.

Some would like to try and move on, effectively consigning much of Vatican II to the dustbin of history like some other less than successful Councils - indeed the Pope himself seemed to hint that he held this position to some extent at least, in some of his theological writings some years ago! While this view has considerable merit from an intellectual point of view - it is after all just one Council among many, and it is now almost fifty years on, and some of the pastoral prescriptions, born from false premises and reeking of pelagianism and worse in places, have clearly been a failure - from a practical, pastoral point of view it is probably not tenable.

The third position then, and the one this document promotes, is to focus on the correct reception of the Council. In particular, to place its teachings more firmly within the broader context of the faith.

The CDF argues that the Catechism of the Catholic Church is the primary tool for doing this:

"The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in this same vein, is both an “authentic fruit of Vatican Council II” and a tool for aiding in its reception...The Catechism includes “the new and the old (cfr. Mt 13:52), because the faith is always the same yet the source of ever new light...Here, in fact, we see the wealth of teaching that the Church has received, safeguarded and proposed in her two thousand years of history. From Sacred Scripture to the Fathers of the Church, from theological masters to the saints across the centuries, the Catechism provides a permanent record of the many ways in which the Church has meditated on the faith and made progress in doctrine so as to offer certitude to believers in their lives of faith.”

Time for some corrections?

The note sees the Catechism as a starting point though, not an end point, and it wouldn't be altogether surprising if the Pope were to respond to calls, during the Year of Faith, for a Syllabus of Errors on the misinterpretation of Vatican II.

Indeed the note itself contains some interesting language that points to some of the areas where corrective action is needed.

Consider for example that old hoary 'active participation' in the liturgy, which has consistently been misinterpreted to mean lots of activity rather than genuine engagement. The CDF note talks about promoting instead participation in the Eucharist "actively, fruitfully and with awareness". It is a subtle shift, but an important one, and one that better reflects what the relevant document of Vatican II actually says, rather than how it has been reinterpreted in the spirit of the Council!

Initiatives for the Year of Faith

The CDF note includes suggestions for activities at the level of the universal Church, bishops conferences, dioceses, parishes/communities/movements.

Some one's worth highlighting, to get the flavour of the thing, include:

"...more attentive reception of the homilies, catechesis, addresses and other speeches and documents of the Holy Father. Pastors, consecrated persons and the lay faithful are invited to renew their efforts in effective and heart-felt adherence to the teaching of the Successor of Peter.";
"It would be useful [for episcopal conferences] to arrange for the preparation of pamphlets and leaflets of an apologetic nature (cfr. 1 Pt 3:15), which should be done with the help of theologians and authors. Every member of the faithful would then be enabled to respond better to the questions which arise in difficult contexts – whether to do with sects, or the problems related to secularism and relativism, or to questions “arising from a changed mentality which, especially today, limits the field of rational certainties to that of scientific and technological discoveries,”[26] or to other specific issues.";
dioceses are to have events marking the opening and closing of the year; a study day on the Catechism for priests, religious and catechists; bishops are to put out pastoral letters on the faith; activities for the ongoing education of priests on the Catechism; dioceses are to review their own activities; and a fresh focus on better catechesis in schools...;
at the parish level, priests are to offer cycles of homilies on the faith or on topics such as “the encounter with Christ”, “the fundamental contents of the Creed”, and “faith and the Church".

There is a lot more in this document, which also invites the faithful to meditate on the Pope's Apostolic Letter introducing the year, Porta Fidei.

News briefs for Saturday 7 January

2012-01-07T07:52:00.001+11:00

Tim Fischer and family with the Pope
Source: Osservatore Romano/The Australian

Feasts: Saturday of Our Lady (EF); St Raymond of Penafort (OF); once was, Octave of the Epiphany.

Vatican news

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed 22 new Cardinals, bringing up the number of potential papal electors to 125 - no Australians or Africans but two Americans and a Canadian (ABs Dolan, O'Brien and Collins). Notable absences from the list include the Archbishops of Dublin and Westminster, and AB Fisichella of the New Evangelization Council. John Allen has a useful analysis of the appointments.
At the ordination of two bishops, Pope Benedict XVI spoke on the qualities and task of a bishop. Here are some key extracts:

"...The bishop too must be a man of restless heart, not satisfied with the ordinary things of this world, but inwardly driven by his heart’s unrest to draw ever closer to God, to seek his face, to recognize him more and more, to be able to love him more and more. The bishop too must be a man of watchful heart, who recognizes the gentle language of God and understands how to distinguish truth from mere appearance. The bishop too must be filled with the courage of humility, not asking what prevailing opinion says about him, but following the criterion of God’s truth and taking his stand accordingly – “opportune – importune”. He must be able to go ahead and mark out the path....

...The bishops’ task is praedicare Evangelium Christi, it is custodire et dirigere, it is pauperibus se misericordes praebere, it is indesinenter orare. Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, going ahead and leading, guarding the sacred heritage of our faith, showing mercy and charity to the needy and the poor, thus mirroring God’s merciful love for us, and finally, praying without ceasing: these are the fundamental features of the episcopal ministry. Praying without ceasing means: never losing contact with God, letting ourselves be constantly touched by him in the depths of our hearts and, in this way, being penetrated by his light. Only someone who actually knows God can lead others to God. Only someone who leads people to God leads them along the path of life."

Australia's Ambassador to the Vatican, former National Party leader Tim Fischer, has wrapped up his term with an papal audience (to access the full article, google the Australian), leaving the Pope with a book on food security (!).

Australia

A study reported on by the Sydney Morning Herald suggests that a significant minority of church goers/attendees at religious events are agnostics or atheists, attending for the sense of belonging and similar reasons;

Culture and science

Jennifer Byre of the ABC's Book Club reviews a new book in the SMH on Copernicus, with some observations on why his theories did not incur the controversy later generated for the same ideas by Galileo;

World

There has been another attack on a Church in Nigeria, with gunmen killing

Diocese by diocese in Queensland: change coming but will it be enough?

2012-01-06T13:16:00.004+11:00

A theory of behavioural and organisational change that I think has some considerable merit, suggests that the first stage of change is to strip away the comforting stories we tell ourselves to avoid actually doing anything and face up to harsh realities. In that light, a few days ago I gave a general introduction to the state of play in Queensland, together with some comments on the Brisbane Archdiocese. Today I want to take a brief look at the other four dioceses that make up the state.

I noted that one of these (Toowoomba) is currently vacant, another (Rockhampton) likely to become so shortly. Signs of the divine light in dark and chaotic places particularly appropriate to remember on the feast of the Epiphany! But the two other bishops are still quite young (relatively speaking)...

So what are the prospects for real change?

Toowoomba

Toowoomba is of course currently the most infamous of the four dioceses, and encompasses 487,000 sq kms, 76000 catholics and had 45 priests in 2006.

It is currently under the care of Bishop Brian Finnigan of Brisbane as Apostolic Administrator. Bishop Finnigan is a canon lawyer and a former Secretary of the Australian Bishop's Conference originally ordained as a priest for the Ballarat Diocese. He is aged 73(.42) and has been a bishop since 2002.

Just how much of an uphill battle anyone faces in bringing Toowoomba under control is perhaps best illustrated by the diocesan website.

At the time of the Ad Limina late last year, the website was still full of some fairly hatefuol pro-Morris propaganda. Bishop Morris' response to the statements of the Australian bishops even went up - but not the actual statement on his dismissal by the bishops! Bishop Morris' response and some of the worst of his rants have since been removed from the site. Yet nine months after his dismissal his biography still appears under the heading of the 'current' bishops, assorted materials arguing the toss on his dismissal are still on the site - yet the two statements by the Australian bishops on the subject are not.

Moreover, the website's home page now includes this telling statement:

"This web resource concentrates on the most important institution in our church - the local church. It is to our local church that people come in order to celebrate Eucharist, support one another, be educated, socialise, be Church."

Yep.

Cairns

Leadership: The bishop of Cairns is Bishop James Foley aged 63 and he has been there since 1992. Bishop Foley is originally from Brisbane, and has a doctorate from Louvain University. He taught for a while at the old Banyo Seminary as well as at the University of Queensland and the Australian Catholic University.

Under his leadership the ratio of catholics to priests worsened significantly, from 1592 catholics per priest in 1990, to 2139 in 2006. And of course that understates the situation since Cairns nominal catholic population of 59, 912 grows much larger during the tourist season.

The website lists 14 active priests, 7 retired, and 6 recently deceased. The last ordination, as far as I can discover, was of two permanent deacons (Rev Deacons Alban Hunt and Ralph Madigan) in 2009. And you have to go back a long way before that, to 1994, to find any priestly ordinations. Does anyone know if Cairns has any seminarians at all?

Liturgy: There is a once a month (first Saturday) Extraordinary Form Mass said in Cairns at Our Lady Help of Christians Church.

One of the great positive stories of the last year from Cath News though, was the upbeat piece on the value of the new Missal from frequent contributor there Cairns priest Fr Laurie Bissett.

One shudders however to think what the description of liturgy provided for the annual synod as' very meaningful' implies...

Transparency and accountability/lay engagement: Cairns has no contemplative religious, and a rather bare bones website (which is full of broken links). That said, parish and organisation reports to the annual synod, available online, include descriptions of activities, outcomes and some statistics.

Mission and catechesis: There are links to the Catechism and the website has a page on and links to Catholic Mission Australia. Parish reports include a strong focus on outreach. The bishop also wrote an article in defense of traditional marriage for the Australian back in August.

Orthodoxy and orthopraxis: Oh dear. The website links, inter alia, to Amnesty International, which supports abortion. It also promotes the Siloam Centre as a source of spiritual direction and other centres - a place promoting dangerous new age practices such as Enneagram. It has a strong charismatic and peace/justice focus in its web pages and links.

Townsville

Leadership: The bishop of Townsville is Bishop Michael Putney, aged 65. He has a doctorate from the Gregorian, and has taught there as well as Banyo and the University of Queensland.

He has a strong focus on ecumenism and is currently President of the National Council of Churches.

He was rumoured to have been in the running for the Archdiocese of Brisbane vacancy, to the considerable consternation of those concerned about his orthodoxy.

In 2010, Townsville had 30 priests (24 diocesan), one up from 2001 when the bishop took office, and 75,600 catholics. The number of diocesan priests does seem to be recovering somewhat however: according to Catholic Hierarchy in 2000 there were 28; numbers dipped to 20 by 2003, but have since increased to 24 (though the diocesan website links only 19 priests in total currently active, plus 10 retired and two working outside the diocese). I assume the increase comes from priests that have come from overseas: the last actual ordinations seem to have been back in 2006!

The diocese has no contemplative religious, and no Traditional Latin Mass.

Transparency and accountability: The diocesan website is attractive, easy to navigate, and seems pretty comprehensive. It offers easy to find links, including lots of good looking material on becoming a catholic. The parish pages list not only mass and reconciliation times, but also parish activities, schools, etc. Not much by way of actual outputs and outcomes information however...

Mission and re-evangelization: The diocese has adopted the (US) Little Rock Scripture Study program which looks like it was designed to combat fundamentalism from a Catholic perspective. Interesting looking initiative.

Orthodoxy and orthopraxis: The diocesan 'House of Prayer'', like Cairn's equivalent, seems to be addicted to the propagation of unwise (or worse) new age practices.

Rockhampton

Rockhampton is actually the largest of the regional Queensland dioceses in terms of number of catholics, with 99,7244 in 2010, but comes in third in terms of geographical size, taking in some 415,000 square kilometres. It has a small (but dying) community of Benedictine nuns (originally from Jambaroo).

Leadership: Bishop Brian Heenan of Rockhampton was appointed in 1991, and is due to retire this year. His time in office has been one of decline from the diocese, following the pattern of much of Australia, with the number of diocesan priests collapsing from 53 in 1990, to 35 in 2010. The ratio of catholics to priests has almost doubled in that period, from 1254 catholics per priest in 1990, to 2319 in 2010.

Liturgy: Thanks to the service of retired priest Fr Martin Durham, diocese does have a regular Extraordinary Form Mass in a number of locations, including on Sundays! And it is nice to see these being advertised as normal masses in the parish schedule.

For the rest however, some statements from the diocesan website make it clear that the governing principle of this diocese has been the counsel of despair when it comes to the priesthood:

"Whilst the long distances between the towns that are served by a small number of clergy means that many of the worshipping communities do not have the luxury of Mass celebrated in their community every week, there is great lay involvement. Most of the worshipping communities celebrate the Liturgy of the Word with Communion weekly."

And on the bishop himself:

One of Bishop Heenan's most obvious gifts is his pastoral nature. His care and concern for one and all is evident in his travels throughout our wide diocese. Faced with the dwindling number of priests, the emphasis of Bishop Heenan's epicopate [sic], and one which will be his legacy, is to train and educate local communities and empower them into active ministry.

Transparency and accountability: The website is pretty clunky, but the parish sites, which include up-to-date bulletins, make finding masses and other relevant information for visitors easy. Not much information on actual activities or outcomes though.

What are the prospects of revival?

Toowoomba and Rockhampton dioceses really need good, strong, committed, orthodox bishops as soon as possible. Let's pray for men of courage who will say yes if asked to take up this challenge.

As for Cairns and Townsville...

What's happening in the news today (Friday Jan 6)...

2012-01-06T06:52:00.005+11:00

Today's feast: The Epiphany (EF)

The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith has released a communique on a note (to be released tomorrow) on how to celebrate the Year of Faith (not to be confused with the Oz Year of Grace!)

Oz news

A Burnie, Tas priest, Fr Tony Kennedy, has called for the crosses to be taken off Hot Cross Buns already being sold in supermarkets, on the grounds that it debases the religious significance of the symbol.
The Courier-Mail highlights a project involving Caritas to aid the settlement of Congolese women in Brisbane.

Oz bishop Christmas statements

Archbishop Doyle of Tasmania promotes the corporal works of mercy in the Christmas context;
Bishop Connors of Ballarat invites reflection on the blessings fo 2011 and talks about events including Madrid WYD and the Ad Limina visit;
Msgr Marriott, Diocesan Administrator of Sandhurst;
No Christmas messages from Bishop Prowse (Sale); Bishop O'Kelly (Port Pirie); or Bishop Hurley (Darwin).

A blogging Oz bishop...

Just a note that I've added a link to the blog of Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Peter A Comensoli to the sidebar. The bishop is also a twitterer. Good to see...

Heaven now or later: What is the Church's mission?

2012-01-05T12:13:00.007+11:00

Over at Sentire Cum Ecclesia David Schutz has queried my description of the Church's mission in an earlier post as being about 'getting people to heaven'.

I'm not sure that I've entirely understood the nuances of what he is saying, but if I've interpreted his post correctly he seems to be reflecting the contemporary ambivalence about a focus on individual salvation (viz going to heaven), and advocating instead a focus on transforming ourselves and this world here and now.

In this light, it is worth recalling then Blessed Pope John Paul II's warning in Redemptoris Missio, of the dangers of an excessive focus on this world:

"Nowadays the kingdom is much spoken of, but not always in a way consonant with the thinking of the Church. In fact, there are ideas about salvation and mission which can be called "anthropocentric" in the reductive sense of the word, inasmuch as they are focused on man's earthly needs…The kingdom of God, however, "is not of this world...is not from the world" (Jn 18:36)."

Regardless of whether I've understood David correctly, this is one of those key dividing issues in perspective between the more traditionally inclined, and many conservatives and liberals in the Church today, so I thought it would be worth setting out some of the context for the debate.

The selfishness of salvation?

It is, I think, Romano Amerio in his book Iota Unum who has best articulated the paradigm shift in the Church which elevates action now over contemplation, and service of man now over our ultimate salvation. In relation to religious life, for example, he suggests that:

"The new end assigned to the religious life is the service of man rather than the service of God, or rather the service of man identified with the service of God, and it rests upon the false assumption that man’s end is not and cannot be his own salvation, because to aim at that would be a kind of theological utilitarianism."

In essence, the traditional concept is that holiness is measured by charity, not works, and that we should "seek first the kingdom of heaven". Many today however de facto reverse this proposition, interpreting Vatican II's Gaudium et Spes as promoting a notion of holiness based on action in transforming this world.

Sr Carmel Pilcher, for example, wrote a Cath News blog a year or so back, pointing to the importance of religious life not in terms of helping others to heaven, but in transforming the here and now. She even went so far as to say that

"Many [religious] die as they live, not with their own salvation uppermost in mind, but imploring a loving God to be compassionate toward the poor and the needy."

False ideas of heaven?

There are, I think, three key things that lie behind this paradigm shift.

The first is an entirely protestant notion of salvation, namely that we are either "saved" or not, from some definitive moment when we 'accept Christ into our lives'. If we are saved now, then of course, heaven can be realized to some degree on earth amongst the justified at least. This idea also implicitly means that we don't need to keep worrying about whether we are saved, but rather can take final perseverance at the point of death for granted.

Moreover, courtesy of the influence of Rahner's concept of 'anonymous Christians' and that unfortunate mistranslation in the Mass ('for many' vs 'for all'), many modern Catholics seem to think that pretty much everyone is justified regardless of whether or not they ever actually gave any indication of being a practising Christian!

But of course, these notions are entirely contrary to Catholic doctrine. In summary, Catholic teaching:

insists on us as inherently sinful creatures with a tendency to fall back into sin even after baptism and needing to be constantly in a state of conversion;
requires us to be baptised as the normal means to salvation, make an explicit choice to accept God's offer of salvation made possible by the sacrifice of the Cross, and be in a state of grace;
sees salvation - and the process of sanctification - as an ongoing process, whereby we seek to become ever more holy, ever closer to God to the extent possible in this world;
holds that our choice for God is not final until our death, and final perseverance requires a special grace; and
understands that the fullest vision of God we are capable of will be realised after our death in heaven.

The second reason is, I think, an entirely false concept of what heaven is and what we will be doing there, perhaps unduly influenced by the Muslim concept of heaven (remember those virgins in reward to martyrs!) aptly satirised by The Simpson's inter alia (you know the one, unfortunately no longer available on youtube where the protestant heaven was filled with boring people praying, while the catholics were having a wild party...).

The nature of heaven is a great mystery, with Scripture and the tradition giving us only hints and brief glimpses in the form of visions. But I think we can pretty much state firmly that the idea of heaven as a kind of hedonistic paradise devoted to the pursuit of sensual pleasures is not a Catholic one!

The third and most fundamental reason, though, is I think, that if we start talking about heaven (rather than nice safer terms that have become almost euphemisms in modern culture such as the 'kingdom'), then we are inevitably drawn to also think about that other place - you know, the one that if we must think about it, we like to tell ourselves is probably, almost certainly, maybe empty, viz hell!

A difference in perspective that matters

At one level this is not really a doctrinal debate, but a matter of perspective. Yet is a difference in perspective that has profound implications. And it is about where we perceive the world as at in relation to the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The split is, I think, between those who see the kingdom of heaven as essentially already here as a result of the Resurrection, such that the Second Coming will arrive, as Scott Hahn has argued for example, 'not with a bang but a whimper'; and those such as Pope Benedict XVI who tend to emphasis the 'already but not yet' nature of the time we live in.

The second perspective is of course the one I share, and argues, as Pope Benedict XVI puts it in the Spirit of the Liturgy, that though the Eucharist takes us back to the historical Pasch as its foundation, it also points forward to a future which is as yet still mediated by earthly signs: we do not yet see the Lord 'as he is'.

The effects of this difference in perspective are profound.

If you see heaven as essentially already realised in the here and now, then of course the Church's mission must be to work first for justice for all now.

If, however, you see this as rather a time of dawn, still partly in shadow rather than a realized reality, your priorities will be quite different: in the words of American Catholic thinker Robert Royal, the world has a severely limited importance because of what it truly is for us: a brief interlude between two eternities in which all things are passing.

What we do now does matter...

This doesn't mean that we can neglect our earthly duties of course! Rather, I think it means that rather than simply looking to see the immediate effects of our thoughts and actions, the traditional perspective sees all our thoughts and actions also having a spiritual dimension and effect.

My view is that every moment of every day counts, and not just in the ways we can see.

Firstly our thoughts and actions affect others not just directly, but indirectly: if we pray for others; assist at Mass or the Office; or offer our suffering for them, we can, provided we are in a state of grace, add to the spiritual treasury of the Church.

Even when it comes to the corporal works of mercy, what really counts is not just or even primarily their direct effect, but the charity with which we carry them out, which can also aid even those not being directly helped by the good work in question. And the converse applies: sin affects not just ourselves and our relationship to God, but the whole fabric of reality.

Secondly, our thoughts and actions as we strive for perfection affect our future: we can 'lay up treasure for ourselves in heaven'. What this means in practise is, the more perfect we are when we die, the greater the degree of perfection of the beatific vision that will be open to us. Heaven, in other words, is not just an in or out thing, but has varying degrees of 'rewards'. So too when it comes to the punishments of hell - the worse your sins, the greater the punishment! And this means that we can be a little more relaxed about the outcomes we can see. Justice, in the traditional view, may not be realised in this life, but it will be realised!

Finally, though we think about heaven as a reward - and of course it is - we shouldn't think our work for the good is over once we get there. Those in heaven continue to aid us, doing 'good works' by their intercession, and they participate in the heavenly liturgy of praising God that we participate in in shadow.

The nature of heaven remains a great mystery, but we shouldn't let ourselves get sucked into some notion that aiming to live with God, the absolute good, is somehow a selfish objective, or that it isn't the Church's job to get as many people as possible there!

News briefs for Thursday 5 January**

2012-01-05T08:33:00.003+11:00

Feasts: Twelfth Night; Commemoration of St Telesphorus, Pope and Martyr; I Vespers of Epiphany (EF)

The Pope's General Audience this week was on spreading the joy of Christmas: Christmas is the point at which heaven and earth unite...

Cleaning out the Augean stables around the world...

The Pope has accepted the resignation of Los Angeles Gabino Zavala, who it has been revealed, had a secret family in another state including two teenage children...
Disgraced Canadian bishop Raymond Lahey has been sentenced to fifteen months jail on child pornography charges but will not have to serve any additional time. He remains 'bishop emeritus' of Antigonish.

Persecution watch

The Open Doors 2012 World Watch List, of countries where Christians face persecution is out and topped once again by North Korea, followed by Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and the Maldives. Pakistan entered the top ten for the first time, and Iraq remains in the top ten...

Oz bishop's Christmas messages

Archbishop Hickey of Perth's Christmas message focuses on the need for evangelization: "Every year, we celebrate and remember His birth not because He changed the world, but because He is the Son of God who came down from Heaven to show us the way to Heaven, to happiness," he says, and we are all called to do our part in spreading this good news.
Bishop Justin Bianchini of Geraldton talks about the experience of visiting Christian refugees in the detention centre at Leonora;
Bishop Gerard Holohan of Bunbury talks about the way Christ can act in our lives if we let him in, and urges us to seek him through prayer, the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and by reading Scripture.
**Bishop Christopher Saunders of Broome.

Diocese by diocese review - Queensland: The end of the black hole in sight?

2012-01-04T14:21:00.000+11:00

Ordination of Fr Damon Sypher FSSP
May 2011, Sydney

Continuing my series on the state of the Church in Australia, I want to take a quick look at Queensland. Today, a bit of an overview and a look at Brisbane. Then in the next post I'll look briefly at the other four dioceses in this State.

Well trod territory...

Where most of Australia suffers mainly from the yoke of mediocrity, and what fellow blogger Joshua has aptly dubbed 'liturgical minimalism', Queensland I'm afraid, save for some few small oases, suffers from a much more serious malaise.

I'm not going to go into much detail on this one: over the last couple of years, courtesy of the South Brisbane debacle (think twenty years of invalid baptisms) and the dismissal of Bishop Morris over misuse of General Absolutions and teaching on holy orders in particular, most people are only too well aware of the dire nature of the problems of the Church in this State.

And for those interested in the history and nature of the problems in more detail, Vexilla Regis blog has had a lengthy series on this subject over the last several months.

This is an important State though, and as a commenter pointed out, has one of the more successful Latin Mass communities in the country under the guidance of the excellent Fr Gregory Jordan SJ (yes, there are still good Jesuits around!).

All power to the laity asserting their rights!

This is also a chance for us all to laud the efforts of those in that State who have laboured hard and long to assert their canonical right to be assisted by the spiritual riches of the Church, and continue to be reviled for it.

It is surely the greatest of hypocrisies on the part of the liberals that they claim to want to promote the role of the laity - but attack without mercy when the laity who speak up are seen as conservatives or traditionalists!

Indeed, the length of time it took for action to be taken in the face of the most serious abuses of the sacraments remains an indictment on the Church, and attests to the fact that in most places around Australia, genuine transparency and accountability still merit lip service only.

Overview

Queensland is Australia's third most populous state (after New South Wales and Victoria), and at 1.7 million square kilometres is more than seven times the size of the United Kingdom.

The Metropolitan See, Brisbane, takes in an urban conglomeration of over 2.6 million people. Brisbane Archdiocese encompasses some 66,000 sq kms, 621,000 catholics, and 252 (156 diocesan in 2006) priests.

Most of the other four dioceses though - Townsville, Cairns, Rockhampton and Toowoomba - are large geographically, but relatively sparsely populated.

Two of the dioceses - Brisbane and Toowoomba - are currently vacant, with Apostolic Administrators in charge, and the bishop of a third, Bishop Heenan of Rockhampton, turns 75 in August and is rumoured to have had his resignation already accepted.

Priestly vocations in Queensland were virtually nonexistent but a few years ago - but with the erection of a new seminary under close Vatican supervision, and with a former Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith official as rector, things seem to be slowly turning around.

Brisbane episcopal leadership

The Metropolitan See of Brisbane, as noted above, is currently vacant, with the excellent Bishop Jarrett of Lismore as Apostolic Administrator.

Bishop Jarrett has gained considerable experience in turning around a diocese (the neighbouring NSW diocese of Lismore) over the last few years, and one can only pray that we will make similar inroads with Brisbane. Indeed, he would make an excellent Metropolitan, but given his age (74.04), while possible, that seems reasonably unlikely to occur.

One of its Auxiliaries, Bishop Finnigan, is currently apostolic administrator of Toowoomba; the other is Bishop John Oudeman OFM Cap, aged 69.

Traditional Mass in Brisbane

Brisbane has a very vigorous Traditional Latin Mass Community, thriving despite (or perhaps in part spurred on by!) persecution, including (and surely illicit) restrictions on weekday and other masses, hopefully now or shortly to be a thing of the past!

And it has produced more than one vocation, most recently in the form of Fr Damon Sypher FSSP, ordained last year by Cardinal Pell (presumably because Archbishop Bathersby, unlike Archbishops Wilson, Coleridge and others who, to their considerable credit, have made the considerable commitment of time and effort required, declined the opportunity?).

The Brisbane Latin Mass community doesn't have a big web presence or any bloggers that I know of, so please do, someone, let us know numbers and more about what is happening up there!

The big challenge though, presumably, is that Fr Jordan is now over 80, and presumably will wish to retire at some point...

That Liturgical Commission

Given the change of guard going on in Brisbane, it is probably not particularly helpful to look at things like the diocesan website (though it is mostly actually quite good these days, including some strong statements opposing both civil unions and same sex marriage!), but I can't forgo mentioning one of the (several) still festering sores of the diocese, namely its "Liturgical Commission".

The Commission website gets a lot of traffic, I suspect, by virtue of the quite useful ordos it puts up.

But its editorial content and the policies it promotes are altogether another thing.

Take the December 'editiorial' on Liturgy by Tom Elich. It contains an attack on the new Missal and much more. Here is a sample to give you the flavour of liturgical dissent's Australian HQ:

"The way we celebrate the liturgy needs to be accessible and to invite full, conscious and active participation...Does the liturgy undertake its function of evangelisation when its ministers are robed in lace, swathed in seven metres of scarlet silk and attended by page boys? [I'm assuming this is a primarily a reference to Cardinal Burke's Sydney Mass. And it certainly did something to evangelize, given the high attendance at the actual Mass, and the 1400 odd hits on my post on it!] Are we concerned about the new evangelisation when we keep refining small rules for the Church about celebrating an old use in Latin? [I'm assuming he is talking here about Summorum Pontificum and subsequent clarifications. Which wouldn't have been necessary if bishops such as the former Archbishop Bathersby of Brisbane had been more generous in granting access to the Latin Mass to those who wish it...]. Are we looking outwards to others when we eliminate from the liturgy those few religious names which everyone in the society recognises (Good Friday, for example, or Mary MacKillop)? Do we speak clearly to an alienated world when our new translation of the Roman Missal gives absolute priority to the structures and vocabulary of a dead language? Latin is our internal language which struggles to make meaning even for the initiated. An inward-looking liturgy will never realise its potential for an outward-directed evangelisation."

Maybe the Commission should just be closed down altogether?

The Seminary

I mentioned Holy Spirit Seminary earlier. It rector is Monsignor Anthony Randazzo, whom Vexilla Regis puts forward as a potential episcopal appointment, and its Spiritual Director is medieval historian Father Paul A. Chandler O. Carm (well medieval history always wins brownie points from me at least!).

And its staff even includes someone charged with aiding the Latin skills of the seminarians!

On the other hand, perhaps to counterbalance this (?) the staff does seem to include an awful lot of women charged with things like pastoral and human development' formation, along with a religious sister for liturgical formation. Perhaps someone can reassure me that this is not actually what it looks like...

There were two priests ordained last year, one for the diocese and one for Nigeria.

Looking forward...

There is a huge clean up job to be done in Brisbane, and it will take some time.

Please pray for the appointment of a strong Archbishop, and for all those committed to the restoration of orthodoxy in this archdiocese, and especially for Bishop Jarrett as he takes on this difficult role.

Comments policy...

2012-01-04T10:10:00.001+11:00

Dear readers,

Given the controversial nature of some of my posts at the moment, in the interests of promoting debate, I am allowing anonymous comments for the moment (and if there is anything else I can do to make it easier to comment, do let me know).

I would entreat you, though, to give yourself a pseudonym so that as a debate progresses we can all tell who is who (if it gets confusing I'll reject any posts that don't do this), and track you over various posts!

So please do comment.

Just remember to focus on the issues raised in the actual post rather than raise red herrings; to focus as much as possible on what people say and do - their words and actions in other words, or lack thereof - rather than engage in ad hominem attacks (on me or anyone else!), and to keep it polite.

Do bear in mind that this is a site that seeks to promote the catholic faith: those genuinely seeking to understand where catholics are coming from, or seek after truth are welcome to ask questions and debate; those simply seeking to promote error, however, may well find their comments rejected (I'll normally make an exception for anyone whose material posted on other sites I comment on, if they wish to respond directly here).

I do reserve the right to reject any comments (it is my place after all), but I do encourage you to tell me why you think I'm wrong (or right);should or should not say something; or best of all, contribute to the sum of knowledge on the topic under discussion...

News briefs for Wednesday 4 January*

2012-01-04T07:48:00.006+11:00

Feasts: St Titus, Bishop (Benedictine 1963 calendar)

Persecution watch...

The Vatican has released a list of missionaries murdered in 2011 consisting of 18 priests, 4 religious sisters and four laypeople. Most died in South America (especially Columbia and Mexico).

Oz news

A Queensland priest, Fr Paul Kelly, has launched a petition asking that the law be changed to prevent the 'gay panic defence' being used in murder cases (why oh why to priests feel the need to involve themselves in issues of this kind?);
Fr Brian Lucas of the Australian Bishops' Conference gave an interview to the ABC on US Ordinariate developments yesterday - but when pressed on a timeline for Australia said only probably sometime in the next year. Sometime this century then.
An extreme evangelical anti-Islam pamphlet distributed in Queanbeyan (next to Canberra) over Christmas has caused some consternation to the local Muslim community;
Serving as an addendum to my diocese report yesterday, the Canberra Times reports on parish amalgamations and closures in the Canberra-Goulburn diocese (thanks to a reader for the alert).

Refugees and the Indonesian problem

Indonesia is about to relax its already lax visa polices further, leading to a likely increase in boat arrivals here...

Oz bishop's Christmas messages

Brisbane Apostolic Administrator Bishop Jarrett's Christmas message focuses on recovery from floods and other disasters, and echoes Cardinal Pell's call from last year for bi-partisan action to stop asylum seekers from getting onto boats...
The bishops of Cairns and Townsville do not have Christmas messages posted on their website, however 'Bishop Brian' (Heenan) of Rockhampton actually has a rather good Advent message (must have been something in that Roman air during the ad limina!) urging people to take time out from the commercialism around Christmas, prepare a crib, share some Scripture verses with the family, go to confession, and give to Vinnies...

The challenge of renewing the Church...

And for an overseas bishop's Christmas message with considerable relevance to Australia, have a read of that by the Bishop Campbell of Lancaster (UK) who, inter alia, questions the reasons for continuing to support schools that are catholic in name only...

The slide to dissent: Eureka Street and Kristina Keneally

2012-01-03T14:26:00.001+11:00

Over at the Jesuit site Eureka Street, they are doing 'a best of 2011' series.

And to kick off the series they have chosen to feature ex-NSW Premier Kristina Keneally's explanation of how she came to dissent from the Church's teaching on homosexuality, together with an altogether offensive 'poem' on the subject (I was tempted to do a parody but in reality it already is one).

Personally I would have put it in the 'worst of'' category.

Deliberate defiance?

But it the choice of items is certainly an interesting gesture to start the year with.

First because it positively begs the bishops to bring Eureka Street and other dissenting official and semi-official websites (yes that is you Cath News) under control.

Secondly because the article itself nicely explains just how seemingly well-educated catholics can go so far astray.

And thirdly to pose the question of why it is that in Australia a catholic politician living in Cardinal Pell's own diocese can continue to defy the Church in her public actions apparently without sanction.

Church websites must uphold Church teaching!

So let me get an early start on 2012 by pointing to the newly approved Australian Bishops Conference Social Networking Protocols which require Church websites to uphold the teaching of the Church.

It is pretty clear that the guidelines do apply here: though Eureka Street carefully avoids using the actual term Catholic as a descriptor (presumably because that is regulated by the church in order to restrict its use to things that are actually catholic!), it describes its focus as consistent with the mission of the Australian Jesuits, and talks about writing from the catholic perspective. More importantly, it is published by Jesuit Communications Australia. Its employees and contractors are thus clearly 'church workers'; its writers who are religious an/or priests are explicitly covered by the guidelines.

And of course Eureka Street is an example of social networking - it is essentially a group blog.

Here is what the newly approved guidelines say:

"Those who engage in social networking as part of their Church ministry should do so in the name of evangelisation; to build appropriate relationships that can encourage and foster growth in faith. This engagement should facilitate a growing in relationship with Christ.

The sharing of information on sites should be of appropriate materials for faith formation or catechesis. Social-Networking sites can be ideal for promotion of Church events or activities and for sharing worship resources in a wide range of formats, be it video, text or sound.

The teachings of the Catholic Church should be consistently upheld in these social networking activities..."

Hard to see how an article that argues against the Church's teaching on homosexuality and same sex marriage could ever meet these criteria!

The path to dissent

The article itself is kind of illuminating, in a sorry sort of way, about just what went wrong in Ms Keneally's formation as a catholic and perhaps important as we look to the efforts over the next year or so to refocus our catechetical efforts.

It is the story firstly of a sheltered life that meant she'd never even heard of homosexuality before she got to University (!) and thus was apparently ignorant of church teaching on it. And one gathers, utterly oblivious to the nature of the homosexual culture she then encountered, seduced by sob stories:

"The first people I knew who acknowledged their homosexuality were fellow Catholics at university, living away from home for the first time, struggling with a very real question of who they were and how they should live.[Fair enough, University does tend to be a time when some are confused].

My lack of knowledge about homosexuality meant I had very few presuppositions to confront. I came to the questions of how to respond to homosexual people armed not with Vatican teachings [Yep! Scripture ad Tradition are reduced to 'Vatican teachings' and 'cultural assumptions'] and cultural assumptions, but simply with the Gospel message of 'love one another as I have loved you'.[Why do liberals always somehow forget the 'go and sin no more' message of the Gospel!]

What I witnessed were people who suffered greatly because of the judgement of their family and community; friends who were more acquainted with loneliness than with romantic relationships [the 'gay' scene isn't actually that big on romance in the main from what I saw of it in the shape of friends I knew at University and after - more on the mindless pleasure, which is in reality the cause of their loneliness]; devout Catholics, some with a true call to vocation, grieving because their own church had no place for them [a vocation isn't a 'true vocation' unless the Church accepts it as such]. I realised no one would choose an orientation that brought such misery [And yet humans choose misery, choose hell all the time...].

False teaching

Ms Keneally's lack of preparation and misguided instincts were compounded though by false teaching on conscience and catholicism, courtesy of the infamous Richard McBrien's tome Catholicism. It is a book that has been heavily criticised by both the Australian and US bishops. Here's why, in Ms Keneally's words:

"In time I came to ask what the Church taught on homosexuality, and why. Richard P. McBrien's seminal tome, Catholicism, explained the Vatican teachings acknowledging the validity of homosexual orientation while condemning homosexual activity.

McBrien also outlined other theological points of view [that are in reality condemned errors, not arguable positions for a catholic to take!], including the argument that homosexual acts are morally neutral, because the morality of a sexual act depends on the quality of the relationship of the people involved; or that homosexual acts are preferable to living a life where one can never give expression to one's sexuality."

She then goes on to articulate the incorrect view of Catholic conscience, suitably taken apart by the then Cardinal Ratzinger on a number of occasions, including this useful presentation.

She also makes the extraordinary claim "that the Church has never explicitly claimed infallibility on a moral teaching".

Really? Is she truly suggesting that none of the Church's moral teachings are 'de fide', and can readily be changed?! I'd suggest a through read of the Catechism, Ms Keneally.

Ongoing scandal...

I won't go through the rest, the arguments are so specious as to laughable.

But the republication of this nonsense does raise the question once again of why it is that politicians who vote in parliament in ways contrary to the teachings of the faith remain uncensored and able to receive communion. Indeed, Xt3 highlighted a link to an 'ask a priest' question on this very topic today...

Cardinal Pell has given repeated public warnings on the subject, covered world-wide. But are warnings enough when the scandal continues?

Canberra-Goulburn: nice words but where is the follow-through? The state of the Church in Australia**

2012-01-03T10:22:00.004+11:00

I suggested there might be some value in a review of the state of the Australian Church by diocese, and it seems only fair to start with my own, namely the Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn.

Of course, that means my own diocese is going to cop some comments that apply just as much to many other dioceses, so do bear this mind and be charitable in your assessments!

But I do think we need to be frank and honest about where we are and what needs to be done.

We need radical reform, genuine renewal

No one can pretend that the Church in Australia is in a happy and healthy state at the moment.

What is needed is nothing short of a revolution in the way we think and do things - a genuine renewal, not a rerun of the failed one of the last fifty odd years.

But even at the best of times, the radical conversion that God constantly demands of us is never easy - if it were, we would all be saints right now! And these are very far from being the best of times.

Thus, my starting point for this series is the conversion of Australia: the 'new evangelization' if you will. It is meant to promote reflection on what graces we need in this coming Year of Grace to achieve internal reconciliation and promote the Church's mission of getting people to heaven.

Just as for individuals, the task for us collectively as members of the Church community, is to turn away from evil and do good.

Turning away from evil in this context, means, I think, rejecting heresy and dissent; cleaning out the Augean stables of homosexual and other infiltration of the clergy by those who reject the Church's moral and other teachings in theory and/or in practice.

Doing good means doing the things needed to make the Australian Church a spiritual powerhouse that produces saints, attracting new members by its beautiful and engaging liturgy, its clear teaching, and its effective use of its members in their proper roles.

So where are we at here in Canberra?

The diocese

Canberra-Goulburn is something of an oddity as a diocese, including Australia's capital city (Canberra), one of its larger inland towns (Goulburn) and a large swath of rural New South Wales. The diocese nominally includes some 159, 670 catholics out of a total population of 569,000 (2006 figures from Catholic Hierarchy website).

It suffered the same pattern of declining numbers of priestly vocations as most Australian dioceses, with the number of priests in the diocese dropping from a peak of 176 in 1966 to 120 in 2006, when the current Archbishop took office.

Episcopal leadership

The current incumbent, Archbishop Mark Coleridge (who took office in 2006) is regarded as something of a 'moderate' in Australian episcopal terms, which means not aligned with the conservative crowd led by Cardinal Pell, but not an outright liberal either.

It had been rumoured that the Archbishop would be moved to Brisbane, but that seems unlikely now with the appointment of Bishop Jarrett as Apostolic Administrator - though of course there are other vacancies in the offing. Another more plausible rumour is that he has the numbers to be the next President of the Australian Bishops Conference when Archbishop Wilson's term expires in the not very distant future.

In the archdiocese he has worked hard to increase priestly vocations, resulting in the diocese starting last year with ten seminarians. He also deserves plaudits for having ordained a number of missionary oriented overseas recruits as priests and deacons (three this year). Unfortunately though, ordinations do not yet seem to be making up for priestly deaths...

Last year was on the whole a good year for the Archbishop - the new Roman Missal (he was chair of the ICEL Committee) was finally implemented; his ongoing battle against the Australian Capital Territory's determinedly secularist Government in its attempt to squeeze the Catholic hospital out of the public health system was finally won; and the coming Year of Grace seems to have been something he developed.

Mind you, his battle with the Territory Government is far from over - he still has a fight on his hands with the over plans to tear down a classic example of canberra tat (so classic apparently, that the local heritage commission wants to preserve this monstrosity of liturgical wreckovation!) in the form of St Patrick's Braddon and replace it with an office block (including a chapel) in the interests of improving the diocese's dire financial situation. While I'm not usually in favour of removing visible church structures and replacing them with hidden chapels in the interests of the pursuit of mammon, I have to say I'm struggling to see any heritage value here!

And the year ended for him on a positive note, with Archbishop's appointment only late last week as a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

Nonetheless, the Archbishop continues to gets very mixed reviews in the archdiocese for a variety of reasons, including some rather flatfooted public statements.

The diocese's millstone in terms of episcopal leadership though is Canberra's vocal Auxiliary, Bishop Patrick Power.

Infamous (or famous depending on your point of view) for an article in the Canberra Times a few years back in support of the ordination of women, and more recently for his support of Bishop Morris of Toowoomba, Bishop Power is one of Australia's leading liberal dissenters.

He has apparently asked to be allowed to resign early, and the local rag suggests July this year as likely timing. Can't come soon enough as far as I am concerned - all the commitment in the world to good causes can't make up for the propagation of error on the part of our shepherds.

Religious life

While priestly vocations have been strongly promoted of late in this archdiocese, religious life rather less so. The diocese had 153 religious women in 2006, mostly ageing 'active' sisters. By way of contemplatives, the diocese does have a small (calced, ?dying) Carmel.

The main source of hope so far as religious life goes in the diocese though is the homegrown (not quite yet a religious order) Missionaries of God's Love. Young, enthusiastic and committed, though charismatic, they make Eucharistic Adoration a central part of their charism.

MGLs with AB Coleridge, Convocation 2011
Source: Diocesan website

And they've made St Benedict's Narrabundah Canberra's star parish, with Adoration most weekdays and nights, a strong charity focus, regular doorknocking campaigns, regular spiritual events, and much more. Their liturgical and spiritual style is, shall we say, not exactly my cup of tea, but commitment counts.

The traditional Mass....

Canberra's Traditional Mass 'Community' is run by the FSSP.

It offers a daily Mass.

There are two Sunday Masses, one on each side of town (though the diocesan website needs to be updated on locations).

But there are no advertised confession times (the bulletin gives that old hoary 'after Mass on Saturdays' spiel that one expects to see at novus ordo churches rather than in traditionalist ones).

No regular catechesis or social events.

And there are no other regularly scheduled EF Masses in the archdiocese that I'm aware of (the once a month in Goulburn seems to have disappeared from the listings), though a few other priests do offer them from time to time.

Now the Mass itself is of course a great gift. But.

This sorry state of affairs reflects in part the FSSP's interesting personnel policies, including three successive experiences of the 'six months apprenticeship then sink or swim, and do it your own way' approach to placement of new-made priests. Mostly they do manage to swim, sort of.  But having to reinvent the wheel on what a traditionalist community should look like and do is not a sensible way to proceed in my view and tends to promote idiosyncratic approaches and responses!

But that is not the only issue here.

Liturgy in Canberra

And while we are on the weaknesses of the diocese, let's consider the liturgy more generally!
Early in his time in Canberra Archbishop Coleridge put out a strong pastoral letter on the liturgy. You will be hard pressed to find much evidence of its impact in the diocese on the ground however.

Even the Cathedral, which has a competent choir, is still addicted to the 'four hymn sandwich' approach, and last time I visited at the Sunday evening mass featured a selection of those appalling 70s numbers.

The sign of peace is still a regular feature of most weekday masses around this town; silence after communion is the exception not the rule; unnecessary extraordinary eucharistic ministers abound in most parishes; and to hear chant outside the TLM is a rarity.

There are a few places one can find the 'Benedictine altar arrangement' and suitable reverence. But there is, as far as I know, nothing even vaguely resembling a 'reform of the reform' parish in this archdiocese (with things like mass ad orientem and in both forms; sung propers and ordinary in chant; communion received kneeling; and no altar girls!) despite the fact that there are a few priests who would be capable of running such a thing.

Catechesis, orthodoxy and orthopraxis

One of the reasons the Toowoomba affair got so out of hand, I suspect, was the sense in that diocese that they were autonomous, and that Rome and even the rest of Australia was irrelevant to them. It is the (in the Toowoomba case liberal) ghetto mentality writ large.

Perhaps one of the reasons this mentality develops is the kind of diocesan website and diocesan newspaper that Canberra-Goulburn has: excellent when it comes to local news, but pays little attention to the wider world unless it directly impacts on it.

The diocese has a great email news service for example - but the stories it features are invariably local ones, and there is little or no promotion of what the Holy Father, or even the ACBC, is saying for example unless the Archbishop is directly involved.

The archdiocese does run a reasonably active program of adult catechesis - from what I've seen of some of the materials and heard of some of the regular speakers, quite whether the content stands up to proper tests is another question altogether. A good example of the nature of the problem is the book reviews regularly featured in the diocesan newspaper The Voice. Even where they aren't outright erroneous, they are often badly slanted - in the December edition, for example a book on why to stay a catholic promoting the liberal palaver that the laity 'need to become adults' was lauded at length, while another book pointing to the importance of liturgical renewal was rejected as someone pushing his own barrel...

But there are good things happening - on New Year's Eve for example, a group organised Adoration starting with Solemn Vespers.

And the Archbishop has signalled a push on confession for this year.

The biggest problem, though, as everywhere, is finding orthodox sermons on a Sunday - outside the traddies (which tend to be somewhat eccentric in delivery and content even if orthodox), I can think of only a few places that are reliably safe (and the cathedral is not one of them - last time I went there I got a paean in praise of (SS) Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln. It surpassed my previous favourite from there on that well known catholic saint, Lord Krishna).

But there are a few relative oases - personally I'm rapidly becoming a fan of the solid and insightful sermons of diocesan Chancellor Fr Julian Wellspring over at his small but friendly parish of St Thomas More (where the FSSP also say a Sunday low mass).

Mission

There are, as I've noted above, some initiatives that hopefully draw lapsed and non-Catholics in, such as the talks of the St Thomas More Forum, and other efforts of individual parishes.

But it is all small scale without looking particularly co-ordinated.

Go the archdiocesan website (an obvious starting point for someone interested), for example, and you won't find anything obviously directed at possible inquirers.

Transparency and accountability

Canberra archdiocese does win brownie points on the transparency front though.

First, the diocesan website has reasonably comprehensive information about mass times, diocesan agencies, and key contacts (save for the strange omission of the name of its Chancellor!).

Secondly, it does put out an Annual Report on its pastoral activities, including a financial summary.

Though I have to say, much of the report is essentially fluff - there is nothing much by way of hard data on things like the number (and more importantly proportion) of baptisms, confirmations, marriages, mass attendance and other actual hard 'performance indicators' of mission. We need this stuff if we are going to get serious...

The role of the laity/promotion of Catholic culture

Here I have to point to a good news story in the form of the St Thomas More Forum - a case of a small but committed parish (see above) taking its patron saint seriously, and doing appropriate work in a city whose major business is Government!

That said, in a city whose primary industry is Government, there is precious little around directed at the more general initial formation and ongoing support of potential and new bureaucrats, ministerial advisers, lobbyists and politicians.

The result is all too much appeasement, and self-serving justifications thereof, of the kind recently set forth in December edition of the Voice by the Diocesan Social Justice Commission on why we should go for 'realistic' political options in relation to pro-life matters.

The recent Archdiocesan Assembly, on the other hand, was, I think, a useful model for lay engagement - more could have been done perhaps to use it as a catechetical opportunity, but it was organised in a way that made it easy for anyone who wanted to be involved. That's no small thing in a church whose diocesan and parish structures often seem pretty impenetrable to me at least! And the day itself was pretty engaging. Whether its engagement effects carry through, and provides the Archbishop with any useful ideas to consider remains to be seen.

In sum...

Canberra-Goulburn strikes me as a fairly typical Australian diocese - some very bad parishes, some reasonable ones, but on the whole pretty dead average.

It has the same problems that most Australian dioceses have, viz the legacy of the spirit of Vatican II: the collapse of orthodoxy and orthopraxis; leading to the collapse from the 70s onwards of vocations to the priesthood and religious life; leading in turn to the decline of practice on the part of the laity.

Of course it has its own particular challenges as well: demographic shifts in rural areas in particular.

There are a few positive signs.

And there are lots of good words said, such as the Archbishop's Christmas Message acknowledgement of the problems of secularism (for some reasons the website doesn't allow the video to be placed on other websites) said.

But all in all it falls far short of what is needed if we are to get serious about reclaiming Australia for Christianity.

In particular, it lacks even one parish that models what I think the Holy Father seems to envisage a new evangelization parish looking like...bring on the New Evangelization!

**Parish closures

And serving as an interesting addendum to this report, The Canberra Times on January 4 carries a story of parish closures, with several parishes being converted to 'missions' supported by religious sisters...

Next diocese...

I hope this piece proved of interest.  This one is somewhat longer than what will probably be the norm for these pieces though!

Please note, dear readers, that I'm not paid to research or write this blog! I am relying on receiving some reader input here, so please do send in prompts for issues and events you think should be covered...

News briefs for Tuesday

2012-01-03T07:19:00.001+11:00

New year 2012
AP/Pier Paulo Cito

Today's feasts: Most Holy Name of Jesus (Optional Memorial, OF)

The Secularist push

Homosexual lobbyists are asking Labor MP Stephen Jones to delay introduction of his private members bill on same sex marriage until the Coalition grants its MPs a conscience vote - if it goes forward now, they probably don't have the numbers, but by delaying hope to change the Coalition's position...
A case claiming discrimination because the body of a homosexual man with AIDS was not 'reconstructed' after an autopsy in NSW due to the presence of the virus was rejected on technicalities (apparently you can't discriminate against the dead!). The dead man's partner and friend didn't want to reveal to family members that he had AIDS, and argued that AIDS was a 'disability' rather than an illness that posed risks to doctors, morgue workers and undertakers...
The Sydney Morning Herald has an opinion piece demanding an end to religious exemptions in Australia, basing its case on the recent attempts of orthodox Jews in Israel to insist on segregation of the sexes and other such incidents;
The SMH also has a quaint piece repackaging Christian values around marriage as 'Eastern' (in this case reflecting China) and a way to reduce the divorce rate. In a piece on research about Chinese and mixed marriage couples in Australia, values such as perseverance, an emphasis on mutual support and working to preserve harmony together with an emphasis on seeing marriage as about having children and financial support of them is presented as 'eastern', and contrasted with the 'Western' emphasis on personal fulfilment and the pursuit of pleasure. There is something sadly 70sesq about having to present traditional values as 'Eastern' for them to get a hearing!
Death of the Church in Detroit? The SMH features a series of photos of abandoned and decaying churches and congregations in Detroit, America, claiming they represent a story of a church struggling to survive due to the priest and parishioner shortage across the USA. Detroit is the diocese that is currently trying to stomp on the efforts of rad trad Michael Voris' efforts to promote (genuine) renewal of the Church...

World news

The SMH has more on the new US Ordinariate.

Oz Bishop Christmas messages

Archbishop Wilson of Adelaide's recent PR push doesn't seem to have included a Christmas message to his flock (or if he has, it is not yet available online), so today a link to Archbishop Hart of Melbourne's. It is short and written (call me old-fashioned but I actually like to read the text as well as hear it so that is a plus as far as I am concerned!) and uncontroversial. One nice feature of the page it is on though is an ad aimed at those interested in becoming a Catholic - though the alternating ad relating to Madrid WYD may perhaps be a tad out of date...

Another Christmas letter you might want to take a look at is from Bishop Finnigan,, Administrator of Toowoomba. It's oddities can perhaps be accounted for by the challenges posed in constructing such a letter! Here is an extract:

"The sorrow of Bp Bill’s departure was mitigated somewhat by the outpouring of affection and gratitude during the Mass of Thanksgiving. Perhaps we can gain inspiration from his frequent declaration that he is experiencing deep peace and loves the Church and wants her mission to flourish. It is pleasing to hear that the process for the appointment of a new bishop is now under way. It is appropriate to pray for the influence of the Holy Spirit in the selection of the new bishop. There is a Mass for the Election of a Bishop, page 1308, in the Roman Missal which could be used frequently or occasionally."

Pray for good bishop appointments across Australia indeed, and for those with the difficult task of trying to restore unity in the meantime!

News of the day....

2012-01-02T06:40:00.005+11:00

Cath News is on holiday at the moment, so I thought I'd try and highlight a few key items - do let me know of anything you think may be of interest.

Today's feast/saints: Holy Name of Jesus (EF)/SS Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen, bishops and doctors of the Church (OF)

Remember: It's still Christmas;
History of the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus (wiki);

International news

In the US the Pope has appointed a former Episcopalian bishop Fr Jeffrey Steenson to head up the newly established US Ordinariate. You can find the decree establishing the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter here. Please pray in support of these former episcopalians entering the Church (and for those that don't seem to have made it yet here in Oz!);
Nigeria has declared a state of emergency in several regions following the Christmas Day attacks by an Islamic sect on several churches that killed at least 49 Mass goers;

Australia

Former Coalition Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has a piece in the Advertiser today on the struggle to practise the Christian faith around the world, and our Christian heritage from an Anglican perspective.

Islam in Oz

A Pakistani in Australia since July 2010 whose visa was cancelled before Christmas denies he is a security threat to Australia. But the Herlad Sun points to his facebook page linking to a known terrorist and reports that he is being questioned by security officials "about phone calls made to Pakistan, NATO attacks, his movements and why he was in the country".

Heresy watch

US National Catholic Reporter chooses a theologian, Sr Elizabeth Johnson, whose work was condemned by the US bishops as their 'person of the year'!

Christmas messages

Many of our bishops put out or recorded Christmas messages. I'll start putting them up (or links thereto).

Today, do enjoy Cardinal Pell's take - while I don't normally agree with his position on climate change, here he (implicitly) takes a few pot shots at ex-priest Paul Collins' nutty eco-spirituality arguments and offers a rather helpful perspective on what is really important, viz getting to heaven.

Looking forward to a year of grace. Where are we up to?

2012-01-01T18:52:00.002+11:00

I mentioned on Friday that I thought it might be helpful to do a bit of a round-up of the state of play in the Church across Australia.

I won't look at every diocese in the same level of detail over the next few weeks, but will try to put together what I can with your help, so do keep sending in your comments on or offline.

I'll start the series with a look at my own diocese, Canberra-Goulburn, then move onto those that I have received comments on first....

What needs to be done?

But first let me set out what I'll be looking for in each diocese.

In Pentecost our bishops will be launching a Year of Grace for Australia.

The issue I want to focus on is, what do we the laity want to come out of this? What do we want to see change?

And what are the barriers or boosts that may be at hand.

Let me offer some introductory comments to get you thinking.

They will not, I think, be uncontroversial, so do drop a note in the comments box to agree or disagree!

And I'm hoping the agenda and critique I offer below might prompt readers to share some good news stories as well....

The breakdown in the diocese of Toowoomba was essentially about the unity of individual dioceses with the successor of Peter. The lesson to be drawn, though, is not just that individual bishops cannot simply ignore Rome's rules.

Rather, it points to the need for every diocese, every parish, and every community to get behind the behind the Holy Father and the positive agenda he has been promoting.

That means, I think, an agenda based around:

recovery of good liturgy;
promotion of sound catechesis that emphasizes the sense of continuity of the Church;
genuine commitment to re-evangelization and mission;
recovery of catholic culture;
promotion of orthodoxy and orthopraxis.

To that agenda I'd add two other items:

working for greater transparency and accountability at every level in the Church so as to genuinely engage and gain the support of the laity in its mission; and
promoting the proper role of the laity in the public square rather than ministry!

Looking back

2011 was, shall we say, a rather mixed year. On the plus side, decisive action was finally taken to fix one of the festering sores in the Church in the form of the Toowoomba diocese. On the negative side, the reactions to that action didn't exactly inspire confidence.

Then there was the sorry handling of the sad and terrible Hepworth case...

And in traddie land, this was not, as far as I can ascertain, exactly a year of expansion.

Petitions to make available the Extraordinary Form were famously knocked back by now Bishop Wright first in his parish and subsequently in Newcastle where devotees of the traditional liturgy now have to make to do with a once a month on Tuesday mass!

Nationally the traditionalist movement seems mostly mired in personality conflicts, with most individual communities solving the problem by doing their best to ignore each other and staying mostly in maintenance mode (or even contracting). But do tell me if there is some positive news somewhere!

Recovery of good liturgy

We have to start with the liturgy - it is after all, supposed to be the source and summit of our spiritual lives.

Too often though, it is something to be endured rather than embraced, and certainly not a source of attraction to lapsed catholics or would-be converts.

In the Ordinary Form, a big step forward was made last year with the new translation of the Missal, in which both Australians Archbishop Coleridge of Canberra-Goulburn (as Chairman of the ICEL Roman Missal Committee) and Cardinal Pell (as Chair of the Vox Clara Committee) played integral roles.

But of course, a good translation by itself is not enough in itself.

First, there is still some way to go on implementation - partly it is a matter of the learning curve; partly of persuading a hard core of recalcitrant priests and laity to actually learn the words and do the gestures.

More though, we need a greater focus on the music used at Mass - dumping those terrible 70s numbers and the recovery of at least the minimum repertoire of chant such as at least one version of the Ordinary (Kyrie etc) that Pope Paul VI considered every parish should be know, as set out in Jubilate Deo.

There is another simple step that would go a long way to helping recover the liturgical tradition of the Church in the Ordinary Form - namely dumping those responsorial psalms and instead using the actual propers (gradual etc) in either English or Latin.

The biggest issue though, in my view, is the recovery of the ars celebrandi. Too many priests have been taught to make mass as casual as possible rather than promoting a sense of the sacred.

Traditionalists are failing our Church on the liturgy!

And this is one area where our traditionalist priests and communities are, in my view, failing the wider catholic community.

Endless posts by priests on the experience of saying an EF mass make it clear that the fastest way to engender a sense of the sacred in the Ordinary Form is for a priest to learn the Extraordinary Form and thus become connected to the tradition of the Church.

So where are the training courses for priests that are put on in other countries? Where are the lessons offered in the seminaries? Where is the work to publicise the local Latin mass and encourage people to try it out? Where are the big special event masses that give ordinary catholics a chance to see what it is all about?

There have been a few such events over the last year of course - the Cardinal Burke Mass in Sydney; the engagement of A Country Priest in the annual Ballarat to Bendigo pilgrimage in particular. But we need a lot more of this.

It is not that a bit of outreach will necessarily increase the size of traditionalist communities - some may join up, but most probably won't.

No, the reason for such outreach activities, in my view, is to open people's eyes to what liturgy truly is and help promote a greater sense of reverence in every parish, where the majority of practising catholics are.

Of course this requires a change of mindset: a rejection of purism and acceptance that incrementalism may be necessary on the part of traddies; and receptiveness on the part of bishops and priests. Hmm, this will certainly require a lot of grace indeed on all sides!

Sound catechesis/orthodoxy and orthopraxis

This sounds like an obvious one.

Yet the latest resource for schools, Together At One Altar perpetuates the sad old 'spirit of Vatican II' line that before Vatican II the laity were excluded from the laity, viva la revolution! It utterly fails to teach about the Eucharist as sacrifice as well as sacrament, or to promote any real understanding of the Real Presence.

And when it comes to that biggest weekly catechesis opportunity, viz the Sunday sermon, too many priests seem to operate on the basis of the kind of rationalisations offered recently by Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ on why they fail to teach the faith.

Many more regularly preach outright error.

None of this will be easy to turn around. It requires a commitment to serious re-education of priests, religious and laity alike to promote orthodoxy and orthopraxis.

A good start would be to focus on promoting the reading of actual Scripture (as opposed to versions of what people think it says or should say!) put firmly in the context of the Tradition.

Mission

The third challenge, namely converting Australia, is equally daunting.

Many of our bishops still seem to embrace the old mode of 'spirit of Vatican II' ecumenism which doesn't see the necessity of actual conversions. It is this mentality that promotes ecumenism and multiculturalism at the expense of mission; has done its best to stymie the establishment of the Ordinariate; and refuses to even try and reach out to SSPX priests in the same way we do to Anglicans and others...

Unfortunately, Australia lacks one of the most basic building blocks to promote mission, namely a vibrant young contemplative monastery or two, and that doesn't look like changing any time soon...

Transparency and accountability/the role of the laity

One of the sadder outcomes of the 'spirit of Vatican II' in my opinion, is the diversion of the laity from their proper role of transforming the world and thus bringing it to Christ, in favour of 'ministry'.

Personally, I regard this as something of a clericalist plot!

Part of the problem has been the collapse, indeed the deliberate destruction of the structures whereby the laity and religious actually did influence what happened within the Church before Vatican II.

The collapse of religious orders, combined with the suppression of the guilds and other lay organisations in particular has led to an unprecedented concentration of power in the hands of many bishops without many of the checks and balances that previously existed.

And attention to this phenomenon was diverted by an emphasis on greater lay roles in the liturgy itself.

Instead of focusing on the substance of what is happening both within the Church and the wider world, the laity have been encouraged to think that what matters is visibility in the actual Church building - hence the promotion of the plethora of Extraordinary Ministers and the like, promotion of lay ministry and other such diversions.

The result has been that instead of priests and bishops focusing on equipping the laity for their proper role, they seem to think they have to do it all themselves, with a never ending stream of press releases and speeches on issues on which they mostly lack the necessary expertise, judgment and training.

What can be done? This problem is certainly not solved by appointing laypeople to the Church bureaucracy - this mostly just results in the individuals concerned being co-opted, rather than genuinely engaging the wider catholic community.

But there are ways of promoting genuine and appropriate lay engagement being tried around the world and in Australia, and we should experiment a little in this area.

More soon, in the meantime, and do send in your comments about your own community/parish/diocese....

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T00:00:00.001+11:00

Vale 2011...

2011-12-31T23:28:00.001+11:00

So recite the Te Deum as an act of thanksgiving for 2011 for a partial indulgence.

Recovering our culture: visit Canberra this summer!

2011-12-31T10:04:00.003+11:00

St Sebastian, Raphaello c1501-2
currently at the NGA, Canberra

Well, the year is ending more or less as it began with the battle over the preservation of Western culture hotting up this summer.

Unfortunately, all the signs are that we are losing...

All Christians are extremists?

Over at the Sydney Morning Herald, that newspaper is continuing it's relentlessly anti-catholic campaign featuring a video program today implying anyone who does more than (as much as?) go to Sunday Mass is raving loony.

The program, called 'Christians Unplugged' looks at three US fundamentalists. Its mostly what you expect from US fundamentalists as far as I can gather (I didn't bother to watch the whole thing) - a mix of perfectly justified concern about the direction of our society and horrors such as abortion, and extremist rants (at least from an Australian perspective!) about the role of Government.

The problem is not so much the program itself but the descriptor that comes along with it:

"A rare look into the lives of what some would call extremist Christians - a world that goes far beyond Sunday mass. We become absorbed in the lives of 3 people whose theology may be shocking. They are members of a growing movement that believes America has become morally bankrupt [are they suggesting it isn't?], Christianity has strayed too far from its roots [certainly an arguably proposition in many cases!], and government has taken over the church's role in people's lives [more contestible but not really far from many mainstream US conservative perspectives]. These believers think it's time to return to the basics, where everyone takes care of each other, and government has little place in their lives. Some of them even believe it is time to form an independent Christian nation. They are unplugged from civilization [viz the pro-homosexual pornographic, paedophilic secularist construct that the SMH supports?], existing as much as they can on the edge of society, living as they believe Christians did in the beginning."

Meanwhile in Canberra: handwritten

Meanwhile in Canberra the remnants of Western culture are being served up in exhibitions that attest to the vital importance of Christianity in shaping our civilisation.

The first is the National Library's fabulous free exhibition, Handwritten, of works from the Berlin State Library, including several early manuscripts, such as Bede's treatise on the calendar interleaved in a copy of St Augustine's City of God, a missal with a twelfth century chant version of Puer natus est pro nobis displayed, several beautiful books of hours and other manuscript treasures.

While one can have reservations about religious works treated purely as art and artifacts, such exhibitions are in reality the only way one can readily access early manuscripts save perhaps in facsimiles and other reproductions, and these ones really are worth the trip to look at. Though I'd have to say that the larger books could have been displayed in such a way as to make more of the page readily accessible to those who can read Latin and have some training in paleography such as myself!

The exhibition also includes manuscript copies of works by a number of great composers such as Handel and Mozart, along with recordings so you can follow along with the score.

Unfortunately at the time I went, rather than focusing on the more interesting exhibits (such as the documents written by Galileo, Copernicus and others) the hordes seemed to be determined to queue earnestly in order to view in order and at length the assorted documents written by various famous scientists, politicians, writers activists and others. Personally, while I thought the little background explanations of who the people were were good, most of the documents themselves, unless one has enough languages and interest in some fairly obscure topics, or some expertise in handwriting, quickly became a bit tedious.

In the end, I jumped out of the queue and went around backwards, focusing my time on the music and manuscript sections at times when they were largely being ignored. So my advice would be, do the exhibition backwards, making strategic strikes focusing on the manuscript and music collections when the crowds are low! The exhibition has timed entry and you can book online (though don't forget to visit the 'Treasures' Exhibition' next door which also has some gems).

Don't forget to grab a couple of the free postcard reproductions, and take a look at the list of transcriptions/translations of the documents available at the online site before your second visit! Because this is one worth going through a few times.

National Gallery: Renaissance Exhibition

The other big exhibition this summer in Canberra is the National Gallery's Renaissance Exhibition, which I got to see courtesy of a Christmas present (at $25 a pop its a cost one might think twice about on a very low income!).

Again a fabulous collection of mostly religious art work from the Academia Carrara, Bergamo, Italy.

In many ways though, this is I think a problematic exhibition because it was treated purely as art, with little attempt to reflect the origins of the pieces. An altarpiece, for example, is displayed at great height.

The National Library makes some effort in its descriptors of the Handwritten Exhibition to explain what you were seeing (the annunciation etc) and at least suggest how the missals, books of hours etc were used. The National Gallery, by contrast, on its supporting material mostly talks about painting techniques rather than the iconography behind the paintings. That can be a little bit interesting, but unless you are an artist, pretty much equivalent historico-literary criticism of written texts: a tedious and obsessive focus on how the work was produced rather than what it is trying to say!

While the blurbs often give the names of the saints or biblical scenes depicted in various paintings, it doesn't attempt to give the stories depicted, or any information about why those particular saints were favoured by the artists or their patrons. Perhaps some of that was in the audio tour tape (which I didn't bother getting) but I suspect not given the interest that my explanations to my companion seemed to be attracting. Nor is the online site much help.

Nonetheless, my suggestion would be, take a quick look through the online gallery before you go, and brush up on the stories of key saints and the reasons for their popularity in Renaissance Italy (think St Jerome and the lion, the Book of Tobit, St Sebastian, St Catherine of Alexandria, St Appollonis and more).

All the same, there are some beautiful works in this exhibition which can certainly transport you as they are meant to do, to thinking of God. And some of my favourites actually included the secular works, especially the pictures respectively of a bored and a supercilious teenager!

Know what you are getting, but still worth seeing.

Hmm, maybe the NLA management could take over the NGA...

Cosme Tura, c1475
currently at the NGA Canberra

Where are we up to? End of year roundup by State and diocese....

2011-12-30T09:33:00.000+11:00

Rorate Caeli today has a post saying that the crisis in the Church is a crisis of the bishops. It is an obvious point in a way: the fish rots from the head as they say, and nowhere I think has this been more obvious than Australia over the last year!

This is a time of change for the Australian Church though, with more than a few bishoprics already vacant and several more coming up soon.

Accordingly, I thought a bit of end of year state of play listing and performance appraisal might be in order in order to focus our efforts for 2012.

So please, do email me offline, or comment on this post, with any points you think should be noted as I embark on a state by state/diocese by diocese round-up of the state of the Church in Australia next week.

Remember to be charitable - I'm particularly interested in the good things individual bishops have done; the things we want to see more of in 2012.

I'm also keen to highlight the great parishes (if there are any!) and priests that constitute our hope for the future - the ones promoting 'reform of the reform', that offer both the Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form, or that are centres for Adoration, charity or other helpful initiatives.

And I'd be very keen indeed to highlight any key initiatives on the part of the laity.

But where there are problems that need to be fixed, let's be frank about them too.

Send in your thoughts and I'll see what I can come up with!

May you have a happy and holy Christmas!

2011-12-25T00:00:00.004+11:00

Happy Christmas!

2011-12-23T22:19:00.001+11:00

Woman dies after Melbourne abortion clinic visit...

2011-12-21T06:57:00.002+11:00

One of the claims of supporters of abortion is that it is all about protecting the health of women.

Dangers to women of abortion

Shame about all that evidence of the adverse adverse physiological and psychological effects of abortion, constantly suppressed as best possible.

And then there is the problem of the abortionists themselves.

It seems almost inevitable that breaching the 'first do no harm' principle either takes a certain kind of person, or if they weren't already there, warps them. Regularly carrying out deliberate murders after all...

Consider the latest news about the Croydon Abortion Clinic.

That's the one remember, where anaesthetist James Peters, who allegedly potentially infected 160 women with hepatitis C, worked.

The one whose owner, Dr Mark Schulberg, has previously been found guilty of unprofessional conduct for failing to gain legal consent to perform a late-term abortion on an intellectually disabled woman, has been found guilty of over-prescribing painkillers, and left a 40 year old woman fighting for her life earlier this year after he performed a late term abortion on her

Another death

The latest is that a woman died on December 14 following an abortion there.

The death of the woman will of course, get a certain amount of publicity. We, as Christians, need to help people see also the thousands of other lives snuffed out there, and see them as equally valuable.

This clinic needs to be closed.

And Victoria's dreadful abortion laws repealed.

The Christmas message: welcome children into this world so that they might help transform it for the better!

In this Christmas season, let's thank God again for the woman who said yes to having a child and thus brought our saviour into the world.

Let's pray for more women to emulate her choice to say yes to life.

And pray for all the children who will never be, and for our society, bereft of the talents and difference they might have made to us all as co-creators with Christ in their own small or large way.

The ABC's Chris Uhlmann: the first right is the right to life!

2011-12-20T07:31:00.000+11:00

I almost fell out of my chair last night when the ABC's Chris Uhlmann, co-host of the ABC's 7.30 Report, mentioned the right to life in the context of asylum seekers.

Uhlmann was questioning Opposition Spokesman Scott Morrison on the Opposition's refusal to cooperate with the Government to allow offshore processing, and questioning how they could continue to resist when lives were at stake given the series of tragic shipwrecks of asylum seeker boats:

Uhlmann: "And you knocked back a government measure which would have allowed offshore processing?

Morrison: We more than did just that, we made it clear to the Government over many months why we believed that the Malaysian policy is a failure, and it has been a policy failure.

Uhlmann: Because you're concerned about people's human rights? And surely the foremost right is the right to life?"

Wow!

Uhlmann does of course have good pro-life credentials - he once ran for parliament as part of an independent group on a pro-life ticket.

All the same, good to see that the 'Green-stalinist lumpenintelligentsia from Balmain-Glebe' don't always win over at our ABC.

And that journalists can occasionally use their positions to stand up for the good.