OVER the last few months the parish has heard about the 2020 Plenary Council – which is a continuing journey – from a number of sources including the Parish Pastoral Council.
The first tranche of the process is the Listening and Dialogue Encounter – helping us to develop a habit of dialogue as a national Church and within our local communities. As part of this, a group of parishioners met November 4, after the 10am Mass, facilitated by members of the Parish Pastoral Council, to discuss the question – ‘What do you think God is asking of us in Australia at this time?’
The group of 14, think it important to summarise and socialise some of the issues that were raised and discussed by this group in answer to the question above. Hopefully, this will spur further discussions.
Some broad themes which arose related to: how the Church could adapt and flourish in the modern context while staying true to certain ancient and anchored values; how we could give witness to the Church (in particular to the youth) in a plural and increasingly secular world; and the juxtaposition of introspective notions of spirituality and reflection with the more outward looking ideas of social justice and outreach to the poor and marginalised.
Here were some of the specific topics that were discussed. Some were challenging and deeply personal but each topic was received with an open mind and with respect. The group thought God was asking us to consider:
1. The issue of priestly vocations and the lack, especially, of ‘home grown’ priests and how the Church could and should address this. Are the conditions on the priesthood too onerous? Is there scope for married priests?
2. The growing issue of loneliness and isolation which we as people – especially older Australians – face and the Church’s response to this.
3. How we can live and espouse the core principles of ‘love of God and love of neighbour’. For instance, how do we better reflect the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus; how do we better listen to God through scripture and silence as well as reaching out to those in need or on the margins.
4. How we make God the centre of our lives – how can we find ways to be generous to each other and to the Church.
5. The role of the laity and how we foster and nurture lay leadership in the Church as a natural counterpoint to priestly leadership and clericalism.
6. How we better give ‘witness’ to God in spiritual and daily life, especially to the youth. How can we empower the youth to know and love God and Christ. How do we find points of intersection with the youth in circumstances where the youth want the Church to be where they are; to be relevant and modern and visible.
7. Fostering and nurturing the views of many who have a common faith but come from very different walks of life in terms of culture, race, age, sex and sexual orientation. In particular, the Catholic church continues not to give many Catholics proper direction on the issue of sex and sexuality (and as a related issue, divorce) in the modern Australian context.
8.How the Church interacts with pluralism and differing moral values.
As can be seen from the topics above there are a very wide range of issues which your fellow parishioners are calling for the Church to consider and meaningfully engage with during the Plenary Council process.
One parishioner raised the notion of God wanting us to be ‘courageously Catholic’ in contemporary Australia and invited the group to explore what that meant to each of them and the modern Australian church.
The PPC will, in due course, submit the notes above through the National Plenary Council website: http://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/resources/have-your-say/
We all have an opportunity to engage in the Listening and Dialogue Encounter.
We hope the foregoing has been helpful to each of you and encourage you to get together in groups and talk about the question – ‘What do you think God is asking of us in Australia at this time?‘ and then submit your thoughts online. We have until Easter 2019.
The PPC intends to run at least one (perhaps two) more sessions like the one above at the 10am Mass over the coming months. We are also considering allowing a short reflection after homily during one of the upcoming Masses and giving papers and pencils for parishioners for jot down some views which can then be collated and submitted.
The PPC will provide more details of this in due course.