Australia Incognita

What to do about Wilcannia-Forbes!

2012-02-15T09:00:00.068+11:00

I noted that I planned to do a few follow-up posts on some of the dioceses I’ve done posts about.

To start that process, today a post from guest blogger and long-time resident of Wilcannia-Forbes, Malcolm Smith, together with some other information and commentary supplied offline by other readers who have asked to remain anonymous.

All this is particularly timely as rumours have started that a new appointment of an overseas priest to this diocese (or some version of it!) is about to be made...

The Investigative Committee

I’ve received a number of comments about the unsatisfactory nature of the Bishops Investigatory Committee process set up to look at the future of the diocese following the rejection by priests of an initial proposal for its future.

First it is not entirely clear who the Committee consists of, and what the reporting process for it is (presumably it reports to the ACBC? on some particular timeline??!). Mr Smith, for example, who made a submission to it summarised below, did not even receive an acknowledgment of his letter.

There is in fact a rumour that a draft report does in fact now exist, but it has certainly not been made public in any form.

Secondly, there seems to be a sense, at least from some in the diocese, that it those running the Committee have adopted a heavy-handed and intimidating ‘father knows best’ style. I’ve also been told that the Committee has been less than willing to take an honest, hard look at just how the current situation came into being, arguably a necessary prerequisite to moving forward.

Back in July last year, Monsignor McGuckin assured parishioners' that their opinions would be considered. But some continue to feel that they have been left in the dark over the troubles in the diocese for too long.

Departures and arrivals: prayers please

I've also been told that the diocese recently lost a very popular, able and orthodox priest (albeit one who may have suffered from a racist element) to another diocese in the wake of the lesbian school child affair. So please pray for the replacement rounded up by Cardinal Pell, the recently ordained Fr Greg Morgan, who had been assistant priest at Liverpool.

More generally, the debate over this is going to come back into the public domain very soon.

The Advocate, recently ran an item on an upcoming Compass program on the diocese to be run before Easter, featuring local Fr Paul Clark amongst others.

Of course, this could be headed off at the pass by the appointment of a new bishop, and I recently read a rumour that a South African bishop is about to be appointed. Any truth to it? I don’t know!

Please do pray for a good appointment/satisfactory resolution of the diocese's future!

Some proposals for reform

And now, the short term aside, what needs to be done?

Today, some proposals that I think have applicability to many dioceses, from guest blogger Malcolm Smith. This is, in fact, an edited version of his submission to the ‘Bishops Investigative Committee’.

In his submission, Mr Smith urged the Investigative Committee to look at best practice elsewhere in Australia and overseas: what has worked. And in his submission he made five key points: the need for strong leadership on the ground; the need to revive a genuinely sacramental based parish structure; the importance of reintroducing genuine catechesis in schools; the desirability of providing some feedback to the laity of the diocese on what is being considered for the longer term, and what is being done to help in the short-term; and to protect the use of the term Catholic more vigorously.

Here are his proposals:

"1. Strong leadership at the local level

I see the future of the Diocese at a junction that only re-invigoration and determined work will keep alive, one that will need tremendous leadership over the coming decade as our older priests retire. Local administration and an understanding of local problems are paramount for the future of the Diocese, and needs to be retained for practical reasons and in line with Church teaching.

Long distance bureaucracies inevitably fail in any organisation, no matter how good the intentions are. Local control has to be retained. This is not to say that making the Diocese smaller in co-operation with adjoining Diocese should not be explored, in particular with Wagga Wagga which seems to have a fair number of priests in training.

We also need strong, unequivocal statements that reinforce the Church`s teachings. Key areas that need to be emphasized here include the Real Presence, and the dangers of moral relativism. If moral relativism can be shown for what it is and its destructive effects on life the battle will be half won.

Seeing more of a Bishop would also be a great help as well. Although administration is important pastoral care and firsthand knowledge are more so, especially in a diocese this size.

2. Abandon priestless parishes

I don`t believe a large percentage of younger baptised Catholics feel they have any spiritual or sacramental needs except for marriages, baptisms [so their children can access the local Catholic school] and funerals. This is not my feeling: any church survey over the last 10 years backs this up.

However, just because people may feel this way doesn`t make it right, and having a priestless parish, a contradiction in terms, is certainly likely to make it worse.

Larger centres, such as Dubbo, which will always have priests are not too far away for me. I would go there rather than attend a lay run event in our own Church, but I have that choice, the willingness and ability to do this. Many don`t or won't.

I would say never in the history of the diocese have the spiritual needs of Catholics been greater.

A request from the Bishop for prayers for increased vocations and the best outcome for the Diocese, through the schools and at Mass, perhaps dedicating a month to this intention during the year.

3. Re-introduce real catechesis in schools

Never has the demand for Catholic education been greater. But this is not because they are catholic, but because they are not state education.

As school enrolments have risen, where is the corresponding increase in Church attendance? There is none because religious education over the last 30 to 40 years has been a failure.

Unless a return to the basic catechism is embraced there will be no change. As Cardinal Pell once said “at least they will know what they’re leaving” if it doesn`t work. The shared experience method which is used by this Diocese should be reviewed; it is based on the work of Thomas Groome whose theological inadequacies are well-known.

4. Transparency and accountability

I would be greatly aided knowing that the Committee explored every possible avenue to keep the diocese going, even in a smaller form. I’d also like to be assured that the committee has done everything it could, including begging or borrowing priests from elsewhere, to help until there are once again ordinations in the Diocese. Although there has been some resentment shown to overseas priests, some of it bigotry, we are going to continue for a while to need their help. It is no different to the Jesuits going to South America and this fact needs to be re-iterated. We need to help these priests, if we are lucky enough to get any, to fit in.

5. Restrict use of the term Catholic

The term Catholic in any organisational title must be in fact as well as name. Cath-news or anti-Cath news as it is known in many circles is a classic example.

Is there yet hope for Wilcannia-Forbes?

As a diocese we at least need to try before we end the long history and good works that have been done here in the past.

I hope the committee explores every avenue that offers a ray of hope in ensuring the survival of the Diocese in one form or another.

Just as a parish cannot be a parish without a priest, a diocese cannot be a diocese without parishes.”

And on the subject of treasures lost and saved: communion on the tongue in Brisbane!

2012-02-15T08:37:00.003+11:00

I've previously suggested that one of the key steps to cleaning up Brisbane Archdiocese would be to abolish its 'Liturgical Commission'.

Today, Ms Harrington thereof stars in Rorate Caeli, which highlight an article in the archdiocesan newspaper attacking communion on the tongue as unhygenic and placing 'too much emphasis' on Our Lord's divinity. It is an attack, inter alia, on the petition being championed by Frs Speekman and Wise.

Is it within the power of an Apostolic Administrator to move on this? Surely someone can, at the very least, be gagged to prevent them using their position to attack centuries of tradition, Church law, and the rights of the laity to receive on the tongue...

In any case, if you haven't already signed the petition on this subject, go and do so!

On treasures lost and saved....

2012-02-15T08:26:00.000+11:00

There are three stories that have been dominating the blogs in particular countries of late: and now at least one of them has been resolved positively! So herewith a quick update. The three stories are:

in the US, the Obama Administration's attempt to require employers to include contraception, abortion and related 'services' in health insurance;
in Italy, 'Vatileaks', a series of leaks claiming corruption and more in the Vatican bureaucracy; and
in England, outrage over the proposed sale at auction by the Benedictine monks formerly of Ramsgate of a number of sacred vessels and ornaments originally associated with their former residence, which was designed by Augustin Pugin.

I've rather been ignoring these, but they are each very important in different ways, so here is a quick summary of the current state of play. Let me take them in reverse order.

The Ramsgate auction

The Ramsgate story was yet another sorry episode in the continuing decline of the English Benedictines, who over the last year have faced major sex abuse scandals at both Downside and Ealing Abbeys in relation to their schools, and has seen a number of monasteries sell up and move to smaller quarters.

The Ramsgate monks were a case of the latter situation: the monks have moved out of the monastery associated with the splendid St Augustine's Church that Pugin, well-known here for his Australian work, designed and built next to his own house, and ensured was furnished with appropriately splendid sacred vessels. The proposed sale also included a number of other donations made to the churches they ran and the monastery itself.

The proposed sale prompted widespread outrage, and a major blog campaign concerned over both the ownership of the goods, the desire to preserve Pugin's legacy associated with the Church, and the risk of profanation.

And as a result of the pressure applied, all has now been resolved satisfactorily. A week or so back it was announced that some goods associated with the Pugin legacy has been withdrawn from sale. Now the Bishops Conference, in conjunction with Farnborough Abbey, have announced that the rest have been withdrawn, and will be kept in catholic hands. That's good news indeed!

The story of the proposed sale - and now rescue - of Church treasures is interesting from several perspectives. That it could even be contemplated testifies to the continuing wreckovation mindset that has been at work in the Church over the last several decades. That it should prompt a successful social media based campaign aimed at protecting the patrimony is a more positive sign of the times!

Vatileaks!

The second, equally unedifying story, alas, is yet to be satisfactorily resolved. It concerns ongoing leaks from the Vatican including allegations of corruption and more.

The story started with a letter from the now Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.

It turned into a full-blown Dan Brown novel, with claims of an assassination plot against the Pope.

And it continued with a series of leaks that have been described as a 'mutiny of the monsignors' directed at Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone.

Now the Vatican is appealing for calm, with this statement from the Vatican Press Office's Director, Fr Lombardi:

"Nowadays we must all have strong nerves, because no one can be surprised at anything. The American administration was affected by Wikileaks, now the Vatican too has its disclosures, its leaked documents, which tend to create confusion and bewilderment, and to throw a bad light on the Vatican, the governance of the Church and, more broadly, on the Church herself.

"We must, then, remain calm and keep our nerve, make use of reason, something which not all media outlets tend to do. The documents in question are of different kinds and importance, drawn up at various times and for differing situations. One thing is the discussion of the improved economic management of an institution such as the Governorate, which has many different activities; another are notes on current juridical and legislative questions, about which it is quite normal that there should be contrasting opinions; quite another are delirious and incomprehensible reports about plots against the Pope's life. Yet, putting them all together helps to create confusion. Serious reporting should be capable of distinguishing the issues and understanding their differing importance. It is obvious that the economic activities of the Governorate have to be managed wisely and rigorously. It is clear that the IOR and financial activities must be correctly integrated into international anti-recycling norms. These are of course the Pope's instructions. At the same time, it is evident that the story about a plot against the Pope, as I said immediately at the time, is nonsense, madness, and does not deserve to be taken seriously.

"There is something very sad in the fact that documents are dishonestly passed from the inside to the outside in order to create confusion. Both sides bear responsibility: firstly the suppliers of documents of this kind, but also those who undertake to use them for purposes that certainly have nothing to do with pure love of truth. We must, therefore, stand firm, not allowing ourselves to be swallowed up by the vortex of confusion, which is what ill-intentioned people want, and remaining capable of using our reason.

"In a certain sense - according to an ancient expression of human and spiritual wisdom - the emergence of more powerful attacks is a sign that something important is at stake. The series of attacks against the Church on the issue of sexual abuse has been justly met with serious and profound commitment to far-sighted renewal; not a myopic response but purification and rehabilitation. We have now taken control of the situation and are developing a powerful strategy of healing, renewal and prevention, for the good of society as a whole. At the same time, there is a serious commitment to ensure authentic transparency in the working of Vatican institutions, also from an economic perspective. New norms have been issued and channels have been opened for international monitoring. And yet a lot of the recently leaked documents tend to discredit precisely those efforts. This, paradoxically, constitutes another reason to continue them with determination, not allowing ourselves to be cowed. If many people insist on attacking us, the issue is obviously important. Whoever thinks he is discouraging the Pope and his collaborators in their commitment is mistaken.

"As for the issue of the supposed power struggles in view of the next conclave, I would invite everyone to note that all the Pontiffs elected during the last hundred years have been people of exalted and unquestioned spiritual merit. Cardinals have naturally sought, and still seek, to elect someone who deserves the respect of the people of God, someone who can serve humankind in our time with great moral and spiritual authority. Reading these events as an internal power struggle depends to a large extent on the moral coarseness of those who provoke them and those who see them as such, people often incapable of seeing anything else. Fortunately, those who believe in Jesus Christ know that - whatever may be written in today's newspapers - the true concerns of those with positions of responsibility in the Church are the serious problems facing the men and women of today and tomorrow. Not for nothing do we also believe in, and speak of, the assistance of the Holy Spirit".

Obama's war on the Church

And the final saga is the ongoing struggle for religious liberty in the US, in the face of the secularist onslaught from the Obama administration, aided and abetted by assorted 'catholic' liberal/progressives, including a number of high profile women religious.

A few days back, Obama announced a 'compromise' that means that Catholic organisations wouldn't be explicitly paying for contraception etc - but would of course foot the bill indirectly as insurance companies were required to provide these services for free to individuals.

Unsurprisingly, the bishops have rejected this as unsatisfactory, and have also raised concerns at the limited number of organisations covered by the proposed exemption - they want any exemption to include any employer who objects to the mandate on conscience grounds.

Equally unsurprisingly, the brief rapprochement between liberals and conservatives on the issue has broken down, with liberal catholics (including Oz cath news, who as a reader pointed out to me, published a fairly outrageous attack on the US bishops yesterday under the guise of linking to an 'opinion piece' from NCR online) praising Obama's claimed compromise option.

There is a long way to go yet on this particular fight.

Lismore: how long does it take to turn around a dead-beat diocese?

2012-02-14T11:27:00.002+11:00

I want to resume today my series on the state of the church, a diocese by diocese review of Australia's geographic dioceses. Today, a look at Lismore, which takes in part of northern New South Wales and is the eleventh largest Australian geographic diocese in terms of catholic population.

Lismore's bishop is Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett, aged 74, currently also Apostolic Administrator of Brisbane Archdiocese. He celebrates ten years as a bishop on February 18.

About Lismore diocese

Bishop Jarrett inherited a diocese that both sides of the commentary fence seem to agree was a mess. It can't have been an easy task for an outsider to take on, even with a year as co-adjutor!

His predecessor, Bishop Satterthwaite, had been in office since 1969, and presided over a decline in the number of priests from 119 in 1970 to 56 in 2001. A number of serious abuse cases have come to light. And the previous bishop left behind him what someone over at acatholica suggested was an entrenched group of 'clerical and lay cronies' who appear to be a source of continuing opposition to the current bishop's efforts.

Source: Diocesan website

Lismore diocese, according to its website is "...home to 105,000 Catholics in twenty eight Parishes living along the picturesque coastline of New South Wales that extends from the Tweed River in the North to Camden Haven in the South."

The largest population centres are Tweed Heads, straddling the Queensland border, NSW sixth largest town (pop 53, 650); Port Macquarie (42, 042); and Lismore itself (pop 31, 385). It takes in some 28, 660 square kilometres, and in 2004 had a total of 56 priests (48 diocesan), 2 permanent deacons and 110 religious.

I understand there is a strong Carmel there, which certainly seems to be attracting young vocations, but the diocesan website does not list the religious orders operating in the diocese.

Leadership

Bishop Jarrett with three newly ordained priests of the diocese, December 2011
Source: Diocesan website

Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett, 74, is a convert from Anglicanism and was a priest of Hobart Archdiocese before becoming Bishop of Lismore in December 2001.

The bishop has worked vigorously to restore the balance, recruiting priests and seminarians from overseas as well as locally. It has been something of an uphill battle though. In the first few years of taking office, the bishop managed to recruit priests from overseas. But in a 2009 statement, with admirable transparency he noted that:

"Twelve months ago it would have seemed that we were managing well enough, thanks to the fact that while we have had no priestly ordinations since 2001 [So he inherited no seminarians, or at least none who persevered], five young priests had come to work among us. There remains the good prospect of new young priests in our five deacons and seminarians spread across the years of priestly formation.

However, since April we have suffered the tragic loss of two of those priests; a third departed overseas to pursue a call to the religious life; and one of our long-serving parish priests moved into retirement. Three others are coping with illness from which we pray they will happily recover. It is only realistic to expect that with the average age of our 29 active priests standing at 56.8 years and with three beyond retirement age or in prospect of it, the health of our priests becomes an important issue in view of the greater burden placed upon them."

But rather than being a counsel of despair in the face of these setbacks, the bishop responded with a call to arms, a call for genuine renewal:

"...we need to look further than the parish and diocesan logistics of territory, personnel, buildings, finance and Mass times, to the reality of what we truly are in each and every parish: the Church of Jesus Christ, a community called to be saints alive with holiness and good works to the glory of the Father, living with a unified spirit compacted about the Eucharistic Sacrifice celebrated by and with a priest in our midst.

The question I ask is this: is it not time now for us as a Diocese to be holding up that mirror to ourselves and to look at the picture in the light of the Gospel, the teaching of the Scriptures, the sacred Tradition handed down to us in trust and the ordinary regulative laws and norms of the Church?"

The bishop went on to call for fidelity and witness to the truth:

...So we get on quietly and unashamedly with the job of positively supporting and living those teachings which draw the incredulity of many of our contemporaries, such as our opposition to the killing of the unborn as a right of choice, artificial birth control/contraception, euthanasia, IVF and the rest. In doctrine we take as our guide the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in liturgy the traditions and norms set out in the Missal and other liturgical books and we support the Church’s social teaching on human rights and the dignity of the human person."

Stirring stuff.

And it seems to be paying off - the diocese currently has six seminarians, and the bishop ordained three new priests late last year!

Bishop Jarrett regularly provides strong teaching on the moral challenges of our times, with recent diocesan newsletters and other documents tackling topics such as same sex marriage, the Greens and giving a Good Friday homily on abortion.

Liturgy

As might be expected from a former anglican priest and subsequently chaplain to the Latin Mass community in Hobart, Bishop Jarrett has provided strong leadership in his diocese on the liturgy. AD 2000 printed his circular on the new missal last year as an important source on proper participation in the liturgy. He has done a lot of work to restore St Carthage's Cathedral, which suffered badly under the usual post-conciliar wreckovation and then was severely damaged by storms in 2007, including commissioning a new rood for the sanctuary.

Bishop Jarrett has been a good friend to the traditionalist community in Australia, regularly saying mass in the EF both in his own diocese and on many other occasions. The EF is available monthly at the Carmelite Convent near Lismore.

Transparency and accountability

The diocese's relatively new website is a rather barebones affair, and those parish websites that do exist not much better (Port Macquarie's for example, where the bishop emeritus resides, is so full of glossy pictures and links of everything in the parish except the actual churches that it took me quite a while to locate actual mass times...).

Still, better than the nothing in the neighbouring Armidale I guess!

How long to turn around a diocese?

In another post, a commentator raised the question of how long it takes to turn around a diocese.

I suggested at least ten years before you start to see real impacts. Perhaps even that is optimistic. In the end, success probably depends on ordaining a sufficient number of new, orthodox priests to provide a counterweight to, and ultimately replace, the rapidly ageing 'Gaudium et Spes' generation that tend to dominate the Australian priestly demographic at the moment. And training priest typically takes around seven years; encouraging them to consider a vocation and helping them through the initial discernment process a few years on top of that.

Of course one would hope to see, in any diocese, some positive signs much more quickly: things like new priests brought in from overseas; seminarians recruited; the appointment of a good Vicar General and a clean-out of the diocesan bureaucracy if necessary; orthodox priests (if they exist!) moved from the non-core roles they have typically been sidelined into back to the mainstream, and so forth.

Perhaps there are some strategies and approaches that will work faster than others. But changing hearts and minds requires time for grace to do its work!

St Valentine, defend us from same sex marriage!

2012-02-14T08:15:00.003+11:00

c14th St Valentine and his disciples

Today is the feast of St Valentine feast, a day that has become hopelessly overtaken by secular, highly sexualised crass commercialism, so nice to see a kit has been released by the ACBC, taking up a suggestion from Canberra woman Trish Jarzynski, aimed at using the feast to honour marriage.

The bishops argue that in reality, St Valentine was a priest-martyr in the early Church who was caught illegally celebrating marriages around the year 269 - marriages had been suspended by the Emperor Claudius II in the interests of recruiting young men for the army!

The saint was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner – until Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor – whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stoned; when that failed to kill him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate.

Same sex marriage

All particularly timely, as the news comes that three separate bills have entered the House of Representatives aimed at legalizing same sex 'marriage', aided and abetted by the Prime Minister. Julia Gillard, in yet another broken commitment.

But don't think the Coalition are any better - yesterday's Australian reported backbenchers will be given a conscience vote and that Mr Abbott is allegedly 'relaxed' over this.

The only good news is that the commentariat acknowledges that they don't seem to have the numbers yet, and it will be a long fight, all the way to the High Court.

Preparing for Lent/II

2012-02-12T20:46:00.003+11:00

Last week I mentioned that we are now in Septuagesimatide, a traditional time of preparation for Lent.

A few blog posts are starting to pop up on the web around this theme, some of them suggesting some interestingly penitential practices such as putting a pebble in your shoe (sounds potentially crippling, I have enough foot problems as it is!).

So personally, I'm all for going for something traditional!

Fasting and abstinence

The most obvious starting point is fasting and abstinence.

I'm not talking here about going back to an early medieval regime of one meal a day with no dairy products or eggs - some may be up for that, but why not start by doing what our parents did a mere forty years ago or so! Accordingly, today I want to talk about getting ready for some fasting (in the modern sense of no snacking, and restricted intake) and abstaining from meat.

The requirements used to be:

fasting and abstinence on all Fridays, and all Saturdays;
partial abstinence (one meat meal only) and fasting on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays (except Ash Wednesday), and Thursdays.

What are we required to do for Lent?

First a little refresher on Lenten practices.

Canon 1250 of the Code of Canon Law provides that the days of Lent (ie Monday to Saturday during Lent excluding Solemnities) are days of penance. So you have to do something penitential on these days. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of required fasting and abstinence.

In addition to fasting and abstinence, most people traditionally did something extra for Lent. I mentioned the tradition of reading a spiritual book right through right through, a practice which derives from the Benedictine Rule, but didn't get many suggestions for suitable books. But if you have some, please do share!

St Benedict also suggests adopting some other ascetic practices for Lent, and one of the traditional favourites is saying the penitential psalms.

Abstinence...

Still, going back to fasting and abstinence, I did my pre-Lent shopping in preparation for giving up meat last Friday. Giving up meat altogether, in my view, requires a bit of planning to ensure you will include enough protein, iron (women need double what men do) and zinc in particular.

Remember that giving up meat and cutting back on the size of the meals is the penance - the food itself doesn't have to be boring or taste nasty as well - Lent goes on for quite a long time!

So, what I do is:

buy or make and freeze a few meals that can be just heated up for those times when you don't feel like doing much cooking! There are plenty of cheap and easy options like vegetarian baked beans, Asian vegetable curries, quiche and so forth to choose from;
stock up on nuts - they are an excellent low cholesterol source of protein and minerals etc. Think salads (waldorf with walnuts and celery for example), curries (cashews work well with almost any vegetable(s) or as a thickener), stirfries can be flavoured with peanut butter or peanuts (OK technically they are a legume not a nut, but...), or Asian style noodles served with a sprinkle of ground peanuts;
go for as wide a variety of grains, dried beans and bean flours (chickpea flour makes a great flatbread), lentils and peas etc as possible. Most vegetable sources of protein lack one or more amino acids, so variety is important;
stock up on cheeze - think vegetable gratin, fried haloumi as a treat for kids, pizza, etc;
stock up on canned fish. I'm not much of a fan myself, but there are dishes which can make the canned variety more palatable such as sweet potato and mackerel cakes; kitcheree with hard boiled egg, peas, rice and mackerel; chickpea/corn/salmon cakes, pasta dishes, etc!;
think about recipe ideas in advance, particularly focusing on good protein combinations - corn fritters (corn is in season at the moment and growing in my garden at least, and if you cook them in a sandwich maker are quite low fat!); dhal (lentil curry) and rice; tacos and beans; etc;
think about foods that are high in iron etc. If you have basil growing in your garden or can buy it, make pesto with some pinenuts to further boost the iron content - good on pasta, but also as a sandwich spread or flavour booster for a vege soup. Mussels are also a very good source of iron and minerals, and no more expensive than meat (if you are cooking for one, buy the frozen variety, and dole out a few at a time in a pasta sauce etc!). Fresh cockles and oysters are not cheap alas, at least in inland Canberra, but are very high in both iron and zinc - and you can always use the canned variety (soak oysters in milk for a few minutes to take away the oily taste) on pizza, in a pasta sauce, or in a potato soup;
think of one or two treat dishes for those times when you are flagging! Personally I love bread and butter pudding. It's nutritious, and for those with allergies or intolerances, makes gluten free bread palatable, and even works with rice milk! So turn it into a savoury dish using those tomatoes and other veges from your garden together with a few herbs.

Hope that gets you thinking!

And for some good spiritual reading on the Mass texts for Sexagesima Sunday, do go take a look at Fr Hunwicke's Liturgical Notes.

Priests to pray especially for...

2012-02-12T08:56:00.001+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.

It is still clearly incomplete (who, for example says the Latin Masses held in Cairns? Marion SA?), 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Fr Waters, Ed Peters and the canon lawyers club on Toowoomba

2012-02-10T16:25:00.010+11:00

A reader has drawn my attention to canonist Dr Edward Peters' couple of posts on the latest round of the Toowoomba imbroglio, and so, since Dr Peters doesn't allow comments on his blog, after some reflection I thought I'd make a few comments here on his posts.

There are basically three issues being debated now in relation to Fr Waters' opinion on the Morris Case, which I want to look at one by one:

should Fr Waters have spoken up publicly at all on this matter given that doing so has helped stir the pot further on an issue our bishops have asked for healing on?;
was Fr Waters misrepresented by the Age in what he said?; and
the substance of the claim that Bishop Morris was denied natural justice, on which Dr Peters has made some interesting points worth drawing out.

A disclaimer

First let me say I'm not a canon lawyer or claiming any particular expertise in this field, so read my comments in that light. I've done a masters level introductory course on canon law meant to teach the principles of how canon law works and provide an overview of the current Code, and read a bit, but that's it.

Nonetheless, I do think what the experts like Fr Waters have to say can be subjected to what I like to call the 'plausibility test'. Every field has its own jargon and understood modes of operating. All the same, if you venture into the area of public debate drawing on your expertise, it has to be assumed you are writing in ways that will be understood by your intended audience, be that a particular client or more broadly.

Should Fr Waters' have spoken out?

I've previously suggested that Fr Waters' shouldn't have spoken out on this matter, given that in doing so he was fueling the fire of mass disobedience and dissent in Toowoomba in particular, and Australia more generally.

The Australian Bishops, for example, following the ad limina visit late last year to Rome stated that:

"We express our acceptance of the Holy Father’s exercise of his Petrine ministry, and we reaffirm our communion with and under Peter. We return to Australia determined to do whatever we can to heal any wounds of division, to extend our fraternal care to Bishop Morris, and to strengthen the bonds of charity in the Church in Australia."

Are Fr Waters' (and Eureka Street et al) efforts in this area consistent with that aim? I can't see how myself.

Dr Peters does confirm a key point that I made in response to a commenter on this blog, to the effect that Judge Carter's opinion, being that of a non-canonist, is totally irrelevant from a canonical point of view.

Which raises the question of just why Fr Waters would lend it credibility by adding his own views to it and endorsing some of its conclusions!

Nonetheless, Dr Peters defends Fr Waters's write to speak out, however, as consistent with Canon 212 §3, viz:

"According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons."

That's the provision of the Code that bloggers rely on, so I'm certainly in favour of a broad reading of it!

All the same, one of the points that was stressed in my introductory course on canon law was that this right to speak up is not unrestricted. The second half of the provision certainly suggests that, but the other key provision is Can. 223 §1, viz:

"In exercising their rights, the Christian faithful, both as individuals and gathered together in associations, must take into account the common good of the Church, the rights of others, and their own duties toward others."

And a higher standard of that test applies, I think, to the writings of someone holding senior offices in the Church, than to common bloggers whose opinions are all too easy to dismiss!

Fr Waters is, one assumes, well aware that there is no possibility that the Pope will suddenly decide to reinstate Bishop Morris.

But unfortunately by giving an opinion on this subject publicly he has encouraged those who have no such understanding, as the communications of the 'Toowoomba Leadership Group' I've spoken about previously continue to make clear.

If Fr Waters thinks there is a genuine issue of natural justice or other process that needs to be remedied, it seems to me that he has other, far more appropriate venues open to him, such as canon law journals and conferences where the matter can be debated by the experts and any suggested changes to procedures be suggested to the Vatican for consideration.

Was Fr Waters misrepresented?

Dr Peters goes through a number of points on which he thinks Fr Waters has been misrepresented by bloggers such as Holy Irritant, thus justifying Archbishop Hart's statement. He is certainly right in suggesting that the pro-Morris crowd have read up the opinion for all it is worth and a lot more!

He noticeably doesn't, however, refer to the article that Archbishop Hart was actually responding to.

Here is what Barney Zwartz of the Age said:

"...Father Waters found that the Pope had breached canon law and exceeded his authority in removing Morris without finding him guilty of apostasy, heresy or schism (which alone justify such action) and without following the judicial procedures canon law requires."

Here is what the journalist based that sentence on. Fr Waters says:

"The final possibility was deprivation of office, which is being deprived of office as a punishment for an offence. Deprivation may be effected only in accordance with the provisions of the canons concerning penal law. The penal process may be either judicial (a hearing by a Church tribunal) or extra-judicial (an administrative process). However, both the judicial and extra-judicial processes require that the accused be assisted by an advocate; that his good name not be called into question; and that procedural fairness and the right of defence be respected. Moreover, a perpetual penalty may be imposed only after a judicial process, not after an extra-judicial process....

While the unsigned document dated 17 September 2007 on letterhead from the Congregation of Bishops (of which Cardinal Re was the Prefect) made serious allegations about Bishop Morris and the Diocese of Toowoomba, such as the Diocese was moving in a different direction to that of the Catholic Church, and that the Bishop had failed to guide the faithful in fidelity to the doctrine and discipline of the Church, it fell short of the specific accusation of heresy or schism. Consequently, it is most unlikely that a penal process would have been able to find the Bishop guilty, and therefore able to deprived of office as a punishment.

Although the Holy See identified what it believed to be a canonical reason for removal or deprivation (“leadership of the diocese is seriously defective”), it consistently refused to permit a canonical process for either to commence. Instead, the Pope himself wrote, “Canon law does not make provision for a process regarding bishops whom the Successor of Peter nominates and may remove from office.”

In fact, canon 19 of the current Code of Canon Law states, if on a particular matter there is not an express provision of either universal or particular law, nor a custom, then, provided it is not a penal matter, the question is to be decided by taking into account laws enacted in similar matters, the general principles of law observed with canonical equity, the jurisprudence and practice of the Roman Curia, and the common and constant opinion of learned authors."

Was the journalist really misreading Fr Waters? Because that sounds awfully like a claim that the Pope was in breach of canon law to me!

Now we have to presume that Fr Waters knows and accepts that the Pope is not bound by the Code - but why didn't he actually say this? Why did he not correct the statements in Justice Carter's opinion on this point? Similarly, Fr Waters would be aware of cases, including some very recent ones, where bishops and priests have been removed for causes other than apostasy, heresy or schism. Yes Fr Waters is careful in his wording. But the inference Mr Zwartz drew seems to me to be one open to any reasonable person reading an opinion directed at non-canon lawyers.

Some seem to agree with me on this, a former student of Fr Waters' doesn't. Frankly, in my view, if Fr Waters is being misrepresented by the blogs and Toowoomba crowd, he should have spoken up himself earlier and said so.

The substance of Fr Waters opinion

The really interesting sections of Dr Peters posts, though, are actually taking issue with Fr Waters opinion, so let me draw your attention to a few key points.

On the claim that Canon 19 requires a judicial process, and that the one used for parish priests would have been the appropriate model, Dr Peters disagrees:

"But of course, the dynamic between bishops and pope is, from a half dozen points of view, not comparable to the dynamic between pastors and bishop, and papal-episcopal relations are not susceptible to being neatly circumscribed by a check-list of sequential steps. Similarly, I think Waters’ suggested appeal to Canon 19 is reasonable, even if it eventually proves bootless, as I think it would, because the very rarity of papal interventions in cases like this one leaves the Roman Curia without a substantial praxis to draw upon for guidance."

He also disagrees with the claims that canon law required that Bishop Morris' good name be protected:

"...nothing in the public record of this case suggests that it was a penal deprivation matter (cc. 196, 419), but, if this had been a penal case, that would not have implied, pace Waters, that Morris’ “good name [could] not be called into question”. One has the right not have one’s good name not called into question only during the preliminary penal investigation (c. 1717 § 2) and more generally, to be free only of illegitimate harm to one’s reputation (c. 220). If one’s name suffers legitimately during a case, so be it."

Did he jump or was he pushed?

Perhaps the most interesting point raised by Dr Peters is the question of whether or not Bishop Morris was technically dismissed, or whether his resignation (albeit under pressure) was accepted.

Dr Peters comments:

"Yes, the departure of Morris from office is widely described in the press as a “removal” and yes, the Vatican Information Service apparently used that word at the time, and yes, there have arguably been a “removal” or two of bishops from office under Benedict XVI (indeed, even one under John Paul II). But Morris himself describes his departure as being one of “early retirement” and the Apostolic Nuncio to Australia said the pope had “accepted the retirement” of Morris. So exactly what happened in this case is not clear from the sources available to me.

Now, maybe, “early retirement” is a new canonical institute that none of us extra Urbem has ever heard of, but I doubt it. My guess is that “early retirement” is some kind of ‘avoidance-talk’ from an office-holder who winces at the word “resignation”—even though resignation is exactly what this seems to be—and Rome, prudently or otherwise, let him have his way...."

It makes a big difference, Dr Peters points out.

If the bishop resigned, it was his decision, not the pope's and all this talk of lack of process or breach of natural justice is irrelevant to the case.

Fr Waters' opinion questions, if this were the situation, whether "a bishop in such a situation [as Morris] would be capable of the personal freedom necessary to make an informed decision.” Dr Peters comments:

"That phrasing might comfort Morris’ supporters, but they should know (and I suspect that Waters would agree) that many canonists would reply that other men making important life decisions under circumstances similar to those faced by Bp. Morris are certainly canonically and naturally sufficiently free to make those decisions."

All that said, I'm not sure Dr Peters is right on this point. Certainly the statement of the Australian bishops following the ad limina visit talks about Bishop Morris 'finding himself unable to resign' and talks about "the exercize of the petrine authority" in this area.

The real learning from this case...

Dr Peters concludes:

"Might one suggest that the greatest injustice done to Morris was treating him with such excessive, and perhaps misleading, deference for ten-plus years when what all sides really deserved was a direct confrontation on the facts and a prompt resolution of this neuralgic case?"

Hear, hear.

Feast of St Scholastica

2012-02-10T09:12:00.001+11:00

Today is the feast of St Scholastica, twin sister of St Benedict.

Relatively little is known about the saint, but the tradition holds that she was a nun whose monastery, located near Monte Cassino, followed the Rule and customs of her brother.

There is a curious sexism at work, it seems to me, in the suggestion of a number of modern (and modernist!) scholars who suggest that the inclusion of St Scholastic in the life of St Benedict is a mere literary device, an invention for teaching purposes. Saints, according to some, are not allowed to have sisters, let alone one's who outshine them in holiness!

St Scholastica visits her brother

The first of the two incidents of her life recorded in St Gregory's Life of St Benedict, though, seems to me to ring particularly true in its nice witness to the fact that even in the saints, sibling rivalry can still be at work! Here is the story (trans Marius Ivascu):

"His [St Benedict's] sister, named Scholastica, was dedicated from her infancy to our Lord. Once a year she came to visit her brother. The man of God went to her not far from the gate of his monastery, at a place that belonged to the Abbey. It was there he would entertain her. Once upon a time she came to visit according to her custom, and her venerable brother with his monks went there to meet her.

They spent the whole day in the praises of God and spiritual talk, and when it was almost night, they dined together. As they were yet sitting at the table, talking of devout matters, it began to get dark. The holy Nun, his sister, entreated him to stay there all night that they might spend it in discoursing of the joys of heaven. By no persuasion, however, would he agree to that, saying that he might not by any means stay all night outside of his Abbey.

At that time, the sky was so clear that no cloud was to be seen. The Nun, hearing this denial of her brother, joined her hands together, laid them on the table, bowed her head on her hands, and prayed to almighty God.

Lifting her head from the table, there fell suddenly such a tempest of lightning and thundering, and such abundance of rain, that neither venerable Benedict, nor his monks that were with him, could put their heads out of doors. The holy Nun, having rested her head on her hands, poured forth such a flood of tears on the table, that she transformed the clear air to a watery sky.

After the end of her devotions, that storm of rain followed; her prayer and the rain so met together, that as she lifted up her head from the table, the thunder began. So it was that in one and the very same instant that she lifted up her head, she brought down the rain.

The man of God, seeing that he could not, in the midst of such thunder and lightning and great abundance of rain return to his Abbey, began to be heavy and to complain to his sister, saying: "God forgive you, what have you done?" She answered him, "I desired you to stay, and you would not hear me; I have desired it of our good Lord, and he has granted my petition. Therefore if you can now depart, in God's name return to your monastery, and leave me here alone."

But the good father, not being able to leave, tarried there against his will where before he would not have stayed willingly. By that means, they watched all night and with spiritual and heavenly talk mutually comforted one another.

Therefore, by this we see, as I said before, that he would have had one thing, but he could not effect it. For if we know the venerable man's mind, there is no question but that he would have had the same fair weather to have continued as it was when he left his monastery. He found, however, that a miracle prevented his desire. A miracle that, by the power of almighty God, a woman's prayers had wrought. Is it not a thing to be marveled at, that a woman, who for a long time had not seen her brother, might do more in that instance than he could? She realized, according to the saying of St. John, "God is charity" [1 John 4:8]. Therefore, as is right, she who loved more, did more."

Pray for Bishop Kennedy and the people of Armidale**

2012-02-09T08:01:00.002+11:00

Just a reminder that Bishop Kennedy of Armdiale is scheduled to be consecrated today, so please do keep him especially in your prayers.

Along with the people of the diocese, many of whom have been badly affected by floods....

***And here, courtesy Lu Danieli and Gary Fry (via ACBC media) is some information and pictures of the event.

The two hour ceremony was attended by over 850 people in the Cathedral, including 29 bishops and 90 priests, plus an overflow in a marquee.

Retiring Bishop of Armidale, Luc Matthys ,
principal consecrator , and the laying on of hands,
Cardinal Pell looking on

Bisop Hanna of Wagga Wagga; Cardinal Pell; Bishop Kennedy
and Bishop Matthys

Bishop Kennedy said that he was both honoured and humbled to be chosen as a successor of the Apostles as the Bishop of Armidale.

"As I begin today, the task of chief shepherd of the Church of Armidale, I am heartened in the knowledge that I am not alone. I have my brother Priests, who, as co-operators with the Bishop, also bear with him the co-responsibility of teaching, sanctifying and governing," Bishop Kennedy said to parishioners at the ordination ceremony. "I know that I can rely on the support and prayers of you, the faithful. Please pray that I do what is right and preach what is true. Please pray that the care of the shepherd never be lacking for his flock."

The new Bishop said that teaching and learning in the diocese are fundamental concerns for him, particularly, such that "Catholics know and understand what it is to be Catholic".

Bishop Morris strikes again: spirit of Vatican IIism reigneth!

2012-02-08T11:18:00.001+11:00

Bishop Morris has responded, in The Age today, to Archbishop Hart's letter.

Here it is with my comments:

"ARCHBISHOP Hart stated that Archbishop Charles Chaput (of Denver, sent by the Pope to investigate the Toowoomba diocese) discussed with me the contents of his report (Letters, 4/2). I categorically deny that Archbishop Chaput ever discussed with me what he was going to put in the report. His discussion was always focused on clarifying the questions he had brought with him from Rome and those that had arisen in his inquisitorial examination." [But isn't that exactly what was supposed to be going to his report?! He was given some questions from Rome to seek answers to and he discussed these with the bishop; more apparently arose in the course of his visit and he made these known to the bishop and sought responses from him! So in fact he did discuss what was going into his report with the Bishop...]

Archbishop Hart's comments concerning the process by the Holy See are also inaccurate.

He is correct in stating the Pope did not act against canon law because he is the legislator and therefore decides what is canonical. [Well, that acknowledgment is something I guess.] However, he omits to acknowledge that while the Pope is the Vicar of Christ for the Universal Church, Vatican II clearly taught that each diocesan bishop is the Vicar of Christ in and for his diocese.[Oh dear, spirit of Vatican IIism at work again. See below]

The Pope and diocesan bishops

It is perhaps worth reading some of what Vatican II's Constitution on Bishops (echoing Lumen Gentium) actually says on the respective roles of the Pope and diocesan bishops:

"2. In this Church of Christ the Roman pontiff, as the successor of Peter, to whom Christ entrusted the feeding of His sheep and lambs, enjoys supreme, full, immediate, and universal authority over the care of souls by divine institution. Therefore, as pastor of all the faithful, he is sent to provide for the common good of the universal Church and for the good of the individual churches. Hence, he holds a primacy of ordinary power over all the churches...

3...By virtue of sacramental consecration and hierarchical communion with the head and members of the college, bishops are constituted as members of the episcopal body....

8. (a) To bishops, as successors of the Apostles, in the dioceses entrusted to them, there belongs per se all the ordinary, proper, and immediate authority which is required for the exercise of their pastoral office. But this never in any way infringes upon the power which the Roman pontiff has...

9. In exercising supreme, full, and immediate power in the universal Church, the Roman pontiff makes use of the departments of the Roman Curia which, therefore, perform their duties in his name and with his authority for the good of the churches and in the service of the sacred pastors.

There is lots more along the same lines in the Constitution, and in Lumen Gentium, but you get the point I hope...

The Rome Conference on Abuse - and reporting of it

2012-02-08T10:34:00.001+11:00

An important step forward is underway at the moment, in the form of a conference entitled 'Healing and Renewal'.

You would think a step like this would be seen positively by the media.

Not the Fairfax Press though, who cover the story today under the heading "Abuse Victims Reject Vatican Summit"! When you actually read the story however, it is less than obvious that this is a universal reaction!

The Symposium

The actual event is a four day symposium of experts from around the world, together with 100 bishops and 33 leaders of religious orders, aimed, amongst other things, at helping Bishops' Conferences develop more adequate guidelines for responding to claims, in line with the new requirements sent out in May 2011.

And it has included addresses by a victim, as well as hearing some very strong statements by the Pope, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, and others.

The Pope's message to the meeting reiterated his conviction that “healing for abuse victims must be of paramount concern in the Christian community”, together with “a profound renewal of the Church at every level”, according to the Vatican Radio Report.

Responding to abuse: active listening

Cardinal Levada (Prefect of the CDF) reiterated that:

"The first need of most victims, the Cardinal said, is to be heard and to know that the Church listens to their stories, understanding the gravity of their abuse and accompanying them on the long path towards healing. That’s why Pope Benedict has met personally with victims during his many pastoral visits to the UK, Malta, Germany, Australia or the United States That’s also why, in his letter to Catholics in Ireland, the Pope told victims “You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated.”

It is an important point. Our natural first reaction to claims and criticism is to deflect, be defensive, or attempt to respond to their substance. And that goes double when abuse claims get caught up in, use or confuse other agendas.

But if we want to genuinely communicate, the first step is actually to demonstrate that you understand what the other person is saying, and not just in words: we have genuinely listen to them and show that we are doing that by reflecting back to them what they are trying to tell us. We have to start by assuming that they are genuine rather than not, and try to understand where they are coming from. That is not easy to do!

Changing the culture

The Cardinal went on to say that:

"The Pope therefore “supports and encourages every effort to respond with evangelical charity to the challenge of providing children and vulnerable adults with an ecclesial environment conducive to their human and spiritual growth” and he urges the participants in the Symposium “to continue drawing on a wide range of expertise in order to promote throughout the Church a vigorous culture of effective safeguarding and victim support.”

Let us hope then, that this conference aids the many slow learners in the Church hierarchy to get a better understanding of how to deal with this ongoing challenge.

Over the last year in Australia we've seen a case that on the face of it demonstrates that even reasonably good processes can be made difficult to use if you put your mind to it, while less than desirable ones can be made to work effectively! We've seen a less than obvious commitment, at times, to justice being seen to be done through clearly independent and objective assessments.

So it is helpful then, to learn that Archbishop Wilson is attending the Conference as Australia's representative...

Parramatta diocese: getting serious about what needs to be done** updated

2012-02-07T07:02:00.004+11:00

Today I want to continue my series of diocesan reviews with a look at Parramatta, Australia's fifth largest diocese.

This post is essentially a good news story, because although Parramatta, like many dioceses, currently faces very serious challenges indeed, its bishop is doing something about it, embarking on an engagement process aimed at rejuvenating the diocese that looks to be spot on in its objectives.

Bishop Anthony Fisher OP, 51, was appointed in 2010, having previously been an Auxiliary of Sydney and co-ordinator of the Sydney World Youth Day. Bishop Anthony joined the Dominicans in 1985 after a short period practising as a lawyer. He has a doctorate in bioethics, and continues to put out books and articles in this field.

The diocese

Source: ACBC website

The diocese includes around 330,000 catholics in a total population of 1.1m and has a geographical area of 4,289 sq kms. All up, the diocese currently has 49 parishes and 83 catholic schools.

Parramatta, part of the broader Sydney metropolitan area, is a relatively new diocese - it was carved out of Sydney Archdiocese in 1986. But though it is new as a diocese, it has some of the oldest parishes and churches in Australia.

It has had only three bishops: Bishop Anthony's predecessors were Bishop Bede Heather and Bishop Kevin Manning (currently Apostolic Administrator of Wilcannia-Forbes). And they did not leave it in a happy state.

Bishop Heather (1986-97) retired early in the wake of the alleged cover up/mishandling of abuse scandal. Bishop Manning (who has just celebrated fifty years of priesthood) came to the office with an conservative reputation, but soon belied it, saddling the diocese with perhaps the most modernistic of Cathedral interiors in Australia (though there is some competition for this title these days).

Their legacy is a diocese with one of the highest priest to population ratios in the country, at 1:2180 in 2004 (exceeded only by Sandhurst, Townsville, Wollongong and Brisbane).

A diocese where, according to the newly released Diocesan Information Guide, the number of marriages conducted has declined from 831 in 2000 to 512 in 2010, and regular mass attendance was down to 1 in 7 in 2011, and has been falling by about a percentage point a year.

A diocese where, on current trends, the current figure of 47 active diocesan priests will fall to 42 by 2015 and 36 in 2020.

And that represents a huge challenge for one of the fastest growing areas of Australia with the youngest average age of any diocese in Australia as well as being the most ethnically diverse (including 5,000 Aboriginal Catholics, the largest urban concentration in the country) populations.

Liturgy a strength

On the plus side, the diocese has some 48 (!) religious orders operating within its bounds, including the Conventual Friars' noviciate, and the Tyburn Sisters, a fast growing Benedictine Congregation dedicated to Adoration.

The diocese has its own Holy Spirit Seminary which now has eleven seminarians.

The Parramatta diocesan website (reflecting one assumes the churches of the diocese) used to be decorated with pictures of liturgical dancing (see below). No longer!

I've actually seen claims that the Sunday Solemn (OF) Mass at St Patrick's now outshines even St Mary's, Sydney.

Certainly the cathedral has daily Lauds, ( I gather this pre-dates the current regime), Adoration, times for confession each day from Monday to Saturday, and any other regular devotions according to its website.

That said, the bishop remains unusual amongst Sydneyites in as much as he has yet to celebrate publicly in the Extraordinary Form (or the traditional Dominican Rite) as far as I know. And the Cooees have, in their inimitable way, certainly questioned the current bishop's liturgical tastes!

Nor is there (as yet) a regular Extraordinary Form Mass in the Cathedral, despite a campaign being run to effect this by a group of lay people.

Still, the diocese has quite a number of places where the EF is regularly said. It helps of course that the FSSP Australian HQ continues to be based in the diocese, not to mention the Conventual Fransciscans noviciate.

Transparency and accountability

I mentioned earlier that Bishop Anthony has just announced the start of a strategic planning process for the diocese, complete with its own blog. You can hear him talking about it here.

This looks to be really impressive stuff, the first diocese in fact I've seen that seems to be genuinely engaging its people by looking at the measures of things that really count, such as the proportion of marriages in the Church, children baptised, education, the vitality of parish life and so forth. Nor is it only concerned about currently practising and lapsed catholics, but clearly has an eye to mission more broadly as well.

And the consultation process gets down to the parish level, seeking advice on how to increase vocations, restore the family as the cornerstone of the Church and society, and more.

Please pray for the success of this clearly needed program of evangelization and re-evangelization.

Comments and an apology...

2012-02-06T14:27:00.000+11:00

I received a note from Mr Barney Zwartz of The Age correcting some claims made about his background by a commenter.

I've deleted the original comment, and provided the corrective material in the post concerned on Toowoomba.

I have to admit that this was my fault - I shouldn't have let the comment go through, even though I was unaware of the falsities contained in it.

Fortunately he doesn't seem to be upset about the matter, and I imagine he gets the same and more on his own publication. But this isn't a secular media outlet where such behaviour might be expected!

So I do apologise again to Mr Zwartz for this.

Comments policy

I would ask all commenters though to keep in mind appropriate standards of behaviour on a catholic blog.

I love getting lots of comments, even (most of the time) the wild and woolly ones. Debate is a good thing, and so is testing out claims. Nonetheless, please do keep your comments to the arguments and actions of people rather than peripheral matters unless you are absolutely certain of your facts and it is really relevant.

I realise that not everyone who comments here is what they claim, and on the whole I don't mind that - I generally hope that by allowing those who are not exactly committed to either Catholicism, or at least the type of Catholicism I'm promoting, to read and engage that will perhaps learn something and eventually change their views! But I will, in future, be more rigorous about rejecting comments that I think are just intended to derail a debate.

And I have switched anonymous comments off again, so you will need to obtain a google or other open ID identity if you wish to comment (note that this still allows you to be effectively anonymous).

The fight for religious freedom...

2012-02-06T13:27:00.000+11:00

I've been very remiss, as several readers have pointed out, in not saying anything abut the fight going on in the US at the moment over President Obama's decision to tear up the conscience clause relating to health care provision in health insurance schemes.

I have to admit that I haven't been following this closely, but it is important, so do jump in with corrections, additions and other links.

No conscience exemption...

You will recall that President Obama managed to get through more universal health insurance requirements in the US a year or so back. Now the Obama administration is insisting that even Church run schemes cover abortion, sterilization and contraception.

Not surprisingly, there has been a massive outcry on the part of the bishops, with 153 bishops, representing over 80% of dioceses, speaking up so far. This is a massive Church: State confrontation.

Secularist ideology

It is hard to understand the politics of this one from afar. Presumably Obama is counting on the support of the many nominal Catholics who in practice reject the Church's teaching on these subjects.

But do those cafeteria Catholics really want to see the Church forced to provide such services? Doubtful I would have thought.

And in fact, pushing this direction is simply increasing the chances that the whole healthcare package will be abolished will be abolished as soon as Obama himself loses or leaves Office.

But this does reflect the increasingly aggressive secularism of the Obama administration, which has been using its influence and aid to harass other countries into accepting tolerance of homosexual practice and more.

It also reflects the increasing rejection in the West of 'conscience exemptions' - already manifested in Australia in the fight over Victoria's abortion legislation and in the Labor Party debate on same sex marriage; in the UK in the requirement that adoption agencies not discriminate against homosexual couples, thus forcing Church agencies out of the business; and in Canada's virulent 'Rights' legislation.

The consensus based on the natural law is breaking down, and increasingly, Catholics are being forced down the path of civil disobedience.

This is an important fight for the Church to win, so do pray and do what you can to support our US brethren. And get ready, and really understand exactly what the Church teaches on resisting immoral laws..

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

2012-02-06T06:13:00.001+11:00

Here is the updated list of the diocese by diocese reviews I've written so far, with an indication of those still to come.
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 and Port Pirie

And on the subject of tradition: Septuagesima!

2012-02-05T20:10:00.002+11:00

Today in the Extraordinary Form is Septuagesima Sunday, the start of the pre-Lent season.

Conservatives: time for some reform of the reform?

Over at Fr Hunwicke's Liturgical Notes you can find an excellent post on the disconnect between the realities of the modern calendar (viz the disappearance of Septuagesimatide altogether from the OF) and the actual words of Vatican II documents:

"The liturgical year is to be revised so that the traditional customs and discipline of the sacred seasons can be preserved."

It is a repost from last year, along with his other notes on the Sundays of this period, but well worth rereading, or reading if you haven't previously!

Why we need Septuagesimatide

In the traditional Office, Genesis is read at Matins, and Mr Hunwicke's post on that text and the Mass propers for Septuagesima Sunday nicely draws out the way in which early liturgical development reflected an approach to the interpretation of Scripture that spoke of the continuing relevance of Scripture to contemporary events:

The Introit is: "The groanings of Death have surrounded me". This recalls the Genesis theme that the pains, labours, and mortality of Man (and not least of Woman) result from the Fall. Yes, I know that the Gesimas were probably introduced by S Gregory the Great at a time of great distress, strife, and chaos in Italy - which does lie behind the sense of agony and helplessness in this and other texts. My point is that it was the Pontiff who discerned a connection between a world ravaged and disordered by the Fall ... and the realities of late sixth century Italy. How can anyone who reads the newspapers doubt that this connection is just as possible now?

Making the most of it: preparing for Lent

Theological preparation aside, these three weeks are also a time to start thinking about what you are going to do in Lent this year: what spiritual reading you might adopt; how serious a fast, and getting ready for it; what almsgiving; what penitential practices.

So since the Australian dollar is once again high perhaps facilitating the purchase of a book from Amazon or such places, perhaps a good place might to start our preparations might be to consider possible spiritual reading!

Since our bishops have decreed that from Pentecost, Australia will celebrate a year of Grace, I'm particularly interested in suggestions that go to that theme.

One obvious starting point would be the lives of saints who illustrate what it is to live the graced life. St Augustine's Confessions perhaps, or St Terese of Avila's autobiography. Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Confessions of a theological radical

2012-02-05T11:11:00.005+11:00

As I seem to have gained quite a few new readers of late, some of whom don't seem to have a good sense of where I'm coming from, I thought it might be helpful to explain a little of my perspective on the Church.

Reader perspectives

Some persist in seeing me as 'conservative' who will necessarily support conservative bishops, and are therefore surprised at my occasional criticisms of them. Well no, I'm not a conservative in any sense of the word, so don't be surprised!

Others seem to think that I should be concerned about the 'reputation' of this blog, and shouldn't attack the positions of people such as Fr Waters of Melbourne because they are "eminent and respected" in the Australian Church. I have to say that I'm really not quite sure just why they think I should be concerned about my 'reputation'! I earn no money from this blog; I am not employed in any capacity by the Church; and I am not seeking favours of any kind from the hierarchy. And even if any of those considerations did apply, I'm not one to compromise on truth where I think it needs to be spoken!

So let me explain where I am coming from.

Benedictine spirituality

The first thing readers should understand is that I do try, though I more often fail than not, to be a follower of St Benedict's spirituality.

St Benedict firmly opposes making any 'distinction of persons' based on who a person is, as opposed to what they do and say. He advises his abbots as follows, for example:

"Let him not make any distinction of persons in the monastery. Let him not love one more than another, unless he find him better in good works and obedience. Let not a free born monk be put before one that was a slave, unless there be some other reasonable ground for it...because, whether slaves or freemen, we are all one in Christ, and have to serve alike in the army of the same Lord. For there is no respect of persons with God. In this regard only are we distinguished in his sight, if we be found better than others in good works and humility. Therefore let the abbot show an equal love to all, and let the same discipline be imposed on all in accordance with their deserts." (RB2, trans McCann)

And though St Benedict urges obedience and active support of decisions of the superior once made ('murmuring' is one of the more heinous crimes within the monastery as far as he is concerned), St Benedict also urges us all to listen carefully to the voice of God, and to listen for it not just in the expected places, but wherever it might come from.

Thirdly, St Benedict's is above all a call to live out the Gospel in our own small way, even if doing so has unpleasant consequences in the short term.

Liberals, conservatives and traditionalists

The second point to note is that I am not a conservative as such, but rather more in the 'traditionalist' camp (though I am critical of many traditionalists and apsects of the traditionalist movement too for a variety of reasons!).

One of the ongoing debates within the Church is over the use of labels such as 'conservative', 'traditionalist', 'liberal' and some more clearly pejorative variants (you know the ones I mean, 'Taliban Catholic', 'Temple police', etc etc).

A commenter recently took me to task for using terms like conservative, suggesting I think, that really we should just talk about being catholic. It is a position I've taken myself in the past, and is often taken by those I'd describe as conservatives, but in the end I've concluded it just can't be sustained.

The reality, it seems to me, is that there are different schools of spirituality and approaches to catholic living in the Church at the moment that it is convenient to be able to label, for exactly the same reasons that we talk about schools of spirituality based on particular saints or religious orders.  They are useful because they help us understand our differing mindsets and approaches, hopefully helping us to build bridges.

Conservatives vs traditionalists

The important distinction to understand here is that between 'conservatives' or what might be termed mainstream 'JPII generation' Catholics compared to (non-schismatic) 'traditionalists'. The best article on this subject is probably still that by Fr Chad Ripperger FSSP. His 2001 article in Christian Order, called 'Operative Points of View' argues that the difference derives from attitudes to tradition, and I basically agree.

Too many positions taught by the Church today, Fr Ripperger argued, have no obvious connection with what came before, and reflect an undue focus on the current magisterium as opposed to the continuing tradition: it is all about Vatican II and after, not all of the Councils of the Church and all magisterial teaching, in other words.

His summation of the difference between the two groups is as follows:

"Neo-conservatives have fallen into this way of thinking i.e. the only standard by which they judge orthodoxy is whether or not one follows the current magisterium. Traditionalists, as a general rule, tend to be orthodox in the sense that they are obedient to the current magisterium, even though they disagree about matters of discipline and have some reservations about some aspects of current magisterial teachings which seem to contradict the previous magisterium (e.g. the role of the ecumenical movement). Traditionalists tend to take not just the current magisterium as their norm but Scripture small intrinsic tradition, extrinsic tradition and the current magisterium as the principles of judgment of correct Catholic thinking."

Pope Benedict XVI has attempted to address this critique conceptually through his promotion of the 'hermeneutic of continuity', and practically by putting more emphasis on the importance of the Catholic patrimony. But it would have to be said that in many areas of contemporary practice many traditionalists would argue that the existence of continuity remains an assertion rather than a demonstrated reality!

So let me tease out a little more the differences between the three main camps from my perspective.

Three broad camps: (1) Liberals

Liberals are those who believe in the 'spirit of Vatican II', and believe it had radical and revolutionary objectives that have not yet been fully realised. The collapse in the Church in recent decades, they argue, is because conservative forces have thwarted the realisation of that heroic vision, and continue to embark on a desperate 'Restorationist' program.

At one extreme within this grouping, the term 'liberal' is just a polite way of saying heretic. Consider, for example, the recent discussion on Communion on the tongue over at aCatholica Forum. It started from 'well I don't really believe in the Real Presence' and went on to the outright blasphemous.

Then there is a middle grouping, perhaps represented by the majority of Cath News commenters, who are perhaps best characterised as those mostly willfully (and thus culpably) ignorant of the faith. Again take a look at the discussion over there on Communion on the tongue. They don't necessarily outright reject defined teachings of the Church (at least the ones they know about), but won't accept the Catechism as a useful starting point to inform themselves. They question whether they really are required to actually believe a number of key teachings, and have some very interestingly innovative views on a number of subjects which traddies would see as fitting the description of the amorphous modernist heresy fair and square.

I do accept that there are some liberals, who, while subscribing to the view that we need more radical reform in line with the spirit of Vatican II, don't actually subscribe to outright error. But it is a pretty hard juggling act to manage.

Three broad camps: (2) Conservatives

The conservative camp, I would suggest, are those who basically see the documents of Vatican II as the defining point for the contemporary Church. They accord its documents a high degree of weight (some even arguing it all to be pretty much all infallible teaching), and typically think that the Church before Vatican II was in a desperately bad, distorted state.

The current Pope's ideas notwithstanding, for conservatives, the 'hermeneutic of continuity' essentially begins with Vatican II and refers to the interpretation those documents have been given in the implementation process and in subsequent magisterial teaching only.

In the main they are not literalists however. When it comes to the liturgy for example, the fact that the documents of Vatican II clearly do not envisage the widespread use of the vernacular does not strike them as particularly problematic, since the subsequent train of decisions accepts, even promotes this state of affairs.

Again, within this grouping there are a number of more or less clearly defined sub-groupings, including 'neo-conservatives', the 'reform of the reform' crowd, and others. The neo-conservatives (who include a number of prominent Australian bishops), who might best be described as politically conservative and 'ultramontanist' in orientation, are the most prominent.

On the surface it might seem that conservatives are all perfectly orthodox. But a traditionalist would argue that the detachment of much modern theology from the longer tradition has made conservatives easily susceptible to modernist and other radical infections of error, as well as poor prudential judgments. And that's why traditionalists tend to be critical of conservatives.

Three broad camps: (3) Traditionalists

Many traditionalists define themselves in terms of attachment to the Extraordinary Form, but I actually don't think that's an accurate indicator - many who attend the EF would be more accurately labelled de facto conservatives, particularly in the wake of papal decisions such as Summorum Pontificum.

My working definition of traditionalists (and here I am only talking about those who are clearly within the Church, and not the position of the SSPX who seem now to have rejected any prospect of reconciliation with Rome) is rather those who view Vatican II as just one Council amongst many, and one that needs to be put in a proper context.

In general I would argue that traditionalists are those who blame the current collapse of the Church on some particularly ill-judged pastoral decisions taken at and in the wake of the Council (above all the implementation of the Novus Ordo vernacular mass), and question some of the doctrinal formulations in the documents to a greater or lesser degree.

At one extreme are those who think nothing good at all came out of Vatican II or can ever be assimilated from it into the (real) Church. Some members of this group do lurk within the Church, but most are members of outright or quasi-schismatic groups such as the SSPX. This sub-grouping includes the, in my view, nutty fringe that gives traditionalists a bad name.

Far more traditionalists, though, hold to views of the kind articulated by the (thankfully now well on the road to recovery from cancer) Hilary White over at Orwell's Picnic. They may hold at least some positions that are shall we say difficult to reconcile with at least some contemporary ordinary magisterial teaching, but don't outright reject the validity (as opposed to the desirability) of current practices.

And then there is the sub-grouping that I consider myself as belonging to, that can see, amongst the damage, some positives coming out of the Council that will be integrated into the Church in the longer run and remain hopeful that some of the more difficult-to-reconcile-with-the-tradition teachings actually might be able to be.  Indeed, let me make it clear that you won't find anything on this blog that contradicts the Catechism of the Catholic Church; quite the contrary you will find repeated calls to faithfulness to it. The real issue, in my view, is getting past this post-Nicaea-esq period of flourishing destructive heresy...

What does it matter in practice?

It is the liberals in Australia and elsewhere who are most obviously driving the threat of schism in the Church.

In Australia the fight has largely centred on a number of high profile bishops who in recent decades have refused to follow church teaching and law, culminating most famously in recent times in the dismissal of Bishop Morris. But of course, he did not come out of a vacuum, as the famous Statement of Conclusions attests, nor is he alone amongst our bishops in his views and acts.

Similarly, a reader has alerted me to the inclusion of Australia in the list of countries with priests supporting the 'Appeal to Disobedience' movement that started in Austria. Unsurprising I guess given some of the things printed in The Swag and elsewhere over the last year or two, not to mention things like the South Brisbane imbroglio!

All the same, from the traditionalist view which I subscribe to, Church unity and a return to orthodoxy will not be achieved until there has been a major correction of views within the current mainstream of the Church.

That is, traditionalists believe that the weaknesses of the Church today cannot just be attributed to the influence of the liberals.

Indeed, the Pope's recent address to the Plenary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith says pretty much just that in my view, as the Catholic News Agency Reports:

“In vast areas of the earth the faith risks being extinguished, like a flame without fuel,” the Pope told assembled members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who met in a plenary session on Friday.

“We are facing a profound crisis of faith, a loss of a religious sense which represents one of the greatest challenges for the Church today.”

Pope Benedict hopes the Year of Faith, which will run from Oct. 11, 2012 to Nov. 24, 2013, will contribute “to restoring God's presence in this world, and to giving man access to the faith, enabling him to entrust himself to the God who, in Jesus Christ, loved us to the end.”

“The renewal of faith,” the Pope announced, “must, then, be a priority for the entire Church in our time.”

The Pope went on to talk about the effects of false ecumenism, warning of:

"...the risks of indifference and of false irenicism” – which give the appearance of unity, without regard for truth.

In today's world, the Pope observed, there is an “increasingly widespread” perception “that truth is not accessible to man, and that, therefore, we must limit ourselves to finding rules to improve this world.”

“In this scenario,” he noted, “faith comes to be replaced by a shallow-rooted moralism,” which can cause the dialogue between Christian groups to become superficial.

The challenge

Part of the problem, in my view, is simply poor catechesis or indeed its outright absence. Even amongst the best bishops and priests, many continue to fail to teach on some subjects, while the worst teach in ways that actively mislead. Catholic schools continue to fail in their duty to assist parents in forming their children in the actual faith.

Part of the problem is that it is genuinely hard for catholics to work out what is and isn't the faith since purveyors of outright error such as Fr Richard McBrien, Sr Joan Chittester, Paul Collins and others have not had their works outright condemned, nor have they had their excommunication declared by the appropriate authorities. False ecumenism has resulted in many outright protestant ideas and dangerous spiritual practices being regularly presented as if they were Catholicism, and even actively promoted by dioceses and 'catholic' institutions.

And part of the problem, in my view, is the subtle subversion of the faith and lack of proper pastoral support structures that is the result of poorly carried out liturgy, the absence of the traditional devotions, and the destruction of the spiritual infrastructure (including monasteries, lay guilds and much more) that has occurred in recent decades. Even most traditionalists have unconsciously or consciously accepted as normal a 'catholic' culture that is actually bereft of many of its traditional elements.

We need genuine renewal...

In short, we need a genuine renewal, a genuine rediscovery of the Tradition presented in ways suited to our times. We need to build a new theological and pastoral structure suited to the twenty-first century.

We shouldn't seek to do the impossible, and return to some imagined past.

We shouldn't accept the continuation of our impoverished present.

And we certainly shouldn't be seeking to reignite the failed, destructive revolution of the 1960s and 70s!

So I for one, will continue to advocate for the agenda for renewal for all in the Church proposed by the current Pope, one that I hope will be given a good kickstart by the upcoming Year of Faith.

Of course I hope that this blog contributes to the cause of evangelization both within the Church and outside it.

But I don't judge its success on superficial indicators of 'influence', and I won't be changing its pitch in the interests of values such as perceived 'niceness', tolerance, or appeal to some particular group.

**Comments and debate on the propositions I've put here are welcome. But please, remember to give yourself an identifying moniker, to and keep your comments polite and on the arguments themselves, avoiding ad hominems.

Archbishop Hart speaks up on Morris

2012-02-04T17:07:00.003+11:00

Good to see a response today, from Archbishop Hart of Melbourne, to the outrageous attacks on the Pope's authority in the article I posted on on earlier in the week from The Age/SMH.

Here is his letter to the editor:

''BISHOP'S sacking reveals the Inquisition's heavy hand remains ready to strike'' (Comment & Debate, 2/2) regarding the removal of Bishop William Morris is unfair and inaccurate. I understand W. J. Carter, QC, is an eminent civil lawyer. Father Ian Waters' canon law reflection is based solely on the Carter report.

The Holy See conducted a pastoral process of dialogue with Bishop Morris over 11 years involving senior officials of three offices of the Roman Curia, meetings in Rome and a meeting with Pope Benedict.

An archbishop of an overseas diocese appointed by the Holy See to investigate the matter said he discussed the contents of his report with Bishop Morris in Toowoomba. Last October, in Rome, Australian bishops were informed of the efforts made by the Holy See to achieve a mutually acceptable resolution. The Pope has final power throughout the church. Father Waters is misrepresented by the statement that the Pope breached canon law and exceeded his authority.

Denis Hart, Catholic archbishop of Melbourne, East Melbourne

I really think the last sentence of this letter should have been omitted. I'm don't think that Fr Waters deserves to be championed in this affair - the reality is that at the very least he has lent considerable aid to the cause of dissent. And while the journalist certainly took some poetic license with Fr Water's words, I'm not convinced he was really misrepresenting the gist of what he said. The reality is, he should be removed from the positions he holds in the diocese, not defended.

There are other points that could have been made too, on the other issues raised by the article.

Still, at least some kind of official response has been made to the most outrageous claims in the article.

It is a start.

A bishop for Sandhurst: Bishop Les Tomlinson

2012-02-03T22:00:00.071+11:00

The vacancy in the diocese of Sandhurst has at last been filled, by Bishop Les Tomlinson, aged 68, up until now Auxiliary of Melbourne. His installation ceremony will take place on 1 March.

Sandhurst, you will recall, has dire need of a good bishop - it has a very high priest to people ratio, below average mass attendance rates, and has been aggressively pursuing a lay leadership of parishes strategy.

Bishop Tomlinson has a reputation for being a 'nice bloke', but not, I gather, for being in the conservative camp.

Bishop Tomlinson's background

The press release provides the following background information on him:

"Bishop Les Tomlinson was born on 27 August 1943 at Mildura Victoria, the third child of Edward Tomlinson and Alice Rogers. Primary Education was at Sacred Heart School, Mildura, followed by Secondary Education at St Joseph’s College, Mildura.

Prior to entering the seminary Bishop Tomlinson undertook clerical work in Irymple and at Melbourne. At the beginning of 1968 he commenced studies for the Priesthood at Corpus College Werribee. At the invitation of the then Archbishop James Knox, he became one of the initial class of St Paul’s National Seminary Kensington NSW.

Bishop Ronald Mulkearns ordained him to the Priesthood for the Archdiocese of Melbourne at St Joseph’s Church, Red Cliffs on 18th August 1972. Following ordination he was Assistant Priest at Mitcham for three years before being loaned to the Archdiocese of Hobart for three years. Returning to Melbourne he served as Assistant Priest in North Dandenong and Sunshine before being appointed successively as Parish Priest of Carlton, Rowville and Ormond.

Bishop Tomlinson was Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral for four months prior to being appointed Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, in April of 2003, an appointment he has held to the present. Pope John Paul II named him as a Prelate of Honour on 27 May 2003. Bishop Tomlinson is also Secretary of the College of Diocesan Consultors, Chairman of the Personnel Advisory Board, Deputy Chairman of the Diocesan Planning and Development Fund, Deputy Chairman of the Diocesan Finance Council and Chairman of the Catholic Capital Grants Company and the Chairman the Diocesan Planning, Building and Finance Committee. He is Secretary of the Roman Catholic Trusts’ Corporation for the Diocese of Melbourne.

Earlier, he had been an active member of the St Patrick’s Cathedral Works Committee (1994 – 1997), involved as committee member and then Secretary of the Priests’ Remuneration Fund (August 1992 – January 2003). He spent some years as State Chaplain to the Knights of the Southern Cross and as the Spiritual Advisor of the State Council of the St Vincent de Paul Society, Victoria.

On the 5th May, 2009 he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as Titular Bishop of Siniti and Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne and was ordained a bishop at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne on the 17th June, 2009. On the 3rd February, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as Bishop of Sandhurst."

Bishop's statement

The bishop's media statement says:

"I am very humbled by the confidence that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and his advisers have shown in me, by appointing me as Bishop of Sandhurst. I am greatly delighted to accept this appointment.

Having been born and brought up in Mildura, just north of the Sandhurst Diocese, I am no stranger to country life. In reflecting on over almost forty years of my Priesthood, I believe that the richest and most fulfilling aspect of my ministry has been my work as a pastor. I look forward to being bishop and pastor of the clergy and people of the Diocese of Sandhurst.

Just over twelve months ago we were all deeply saddened by the sudden and untimely death of my predecessor, Bishop Joe Grech. Bishop Joe’s gifts to Sandhurst were many, but significantly amongst them was his unmistakable enthusiasm for and deep commitment to the Lord Jesus. As each of us is different, I pray that I can make my contribution to the Diocese through my gifts, to further build the life of Christ in the Sandhurst Diocese.

I am looking forward very much to the move to Bendigo, becoming part of the Church there and fulfilling my role of leadership as Bishop, Teacher and Pastor of the Diocese of Sandhurst."

Vacancies still going....

So what do people know of the bishop/think (please remember to be respectful and polite)?

In any case, one more appointment down, several still to go (or dioceses to be abolished!), viz the current actually vacant sees of Wilcannia-Forbes (vacant since June 2009), Toowoomba (May 2011), Brisbane (November 2011). Plus two more with bishops over the age limit and replacement processes in progress, viz Tasmania and Perth.

And on Tasmania, a reader has alerted me to two interesting interviews given by Archbishop Doyle of late on the state of the diocese. An ABC radio interview of a couple of days ago is in part a response to some comments by Fr Bob Maguire about the alleged romanisation of the Church, but also includes the good news that a new priest from overseas is expected to arrive shortly. The other is an interview on the State version of the 7.30 report from late last year.

Watch out also for Compass resuming shortly (get your dose of liberal fuzziness courtesy of Geraldine Doogue early on a Sunday evening now!), which a reader tells me will include an investigative report on the Wilcannia-Forbes situation before Easter. Hmmm, now if I were the Vatican I'd be trying to pre-empt that with some actual decisions, but...

In the meantime, please keep Bishop Tomlinson in your prayers.

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."

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!

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