BISHOP Vincent Long, recently appointed Bishop of Parramatta, previously Auxiliary Bishop to the Western Region of Melbourne, gave an address, the Ann D Clark Lecture. It was a refreshingly honest appraisal of the Church and affirmation of the ministry of Pope Francis.
I will quote just one small part entitled The Challenge to go to the Margins:
“Pope Francis constantly calls us to move beyond the security of the status quo and take the risk of going to the periphery. The church must be the church of the poor and for the poor. The church must go out of itself in order to be close to those in need. Conversely, the church that does not go out into the world keeps Jesus imprisoned. The church without a missionary impulse is unhealthy. For Francis this missionary impulse has little to do with doing the minimum, with complacency and mediocrity. In fact it has everything to do with taking risks and living with enthusiasm and commitment. Australia is a wonderful country but where it is in terms of its treatment of asylum seekers, indigenous and marginalized people should trouble us.
“If one can detect a direction of Pope Francis’ pontificate, it has something to do with the movement from security to boldness, from inward looking to outward looking, from preoccupation with our status quo, safeguarding our privileges to learning to be vulnerable, learning to convey God’s compassion to those who are on the edges of society and church.
“We must learn to belong to the church of Orthodoxy and yet also to minister in the world of the unorthodox. That is really between the rock and the hard place as they call it. Yet that is the calling of the Christian, because we are meant be at the coal face, in the messiness of it all and at the same time in fidelity to the Gospel. We are a church for the strong and the weak, the wholesome and the broken, the churched and the unchurched, the pious and impious, the normal and the bizarre.
“Pope Francis challenges church leaders to divest ourselves of clericalism and elitism and return to the purity of the gospel. His constant call to the church to be less concerned with itself and to be more outward looking encourages us to walk with people in the ambiguities and complexities of their lives.
“The Challenge to be an Inclusive Church
“For me, one of the greatest challenges the church faces today is to be inclusive, to be a big tent church. Pope Francis urges us to be a church where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live according to the gospel.
“There must be space for everyone, especially those who have been hurt, excluded or alienated be they abuse victims, survivors, divorcees, gays, lesbians, women, disaffected members. The church will be less than what Christ intends it to be when issues of inclusion and equality are not fully addressed. That is why I say that I am guided by a radical vision of Christ.”