My first year as your Bishop

By Bishop Anthony Randazzo

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

On Monday, 30 September 2019 at 12.15pm, I was in my car on the Hume Highway heading to Mittagong. While driving, I received a telephone call from the Apostolic Nuncio who informed me that the Holy Father Francis had transferred me from Sydney to Broken Bay as the fourth bishop of the Diocese. The appointment would take effect on Monday, 7 October, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

They say that it is quite common to remember where you were when significant events cross your path. My appointment to Broken Bay is one that I will remember vividly for the rest of my life. At the conclusion of my first year in the Diocese, I am filled with gratitude to God for calling me here to be among the Lord’s flock as shepherd.

It certainly has been an eventful year, even if the boundaries of day-to-day life have shifted and ordinary is often now viewed as extraordinary.

In a somewhat destabilised world, it seems to me that the one constant in our lives is the love of God, made visible in Jesus Christ (cf. 1 John 4:7-12). Saint Paul reminds us that while we might be in shadow, “faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love” (1Cor 13:13).

We love, because God first loved us (1John 4:19), which means that our identity and belief are always a response to being called into life and mission by God. I would like for us, as a community of the Church, to look forward rather than backward. While our history is important, it is significant because it helps us discern how we will progress as the anointed people of the New Testament.

With this in mind, I would like to share with you six priorities for our Diocese as we look forward to our life of holiness and our mission of evangelisation. It is my hope that these priorities will be points of departure for robust prayer, discernment, and encounter as brothers and sisters of the Lord and as his disciples in the world.

Six priorities for our community of the Church:

1. The person of Jesus Christ, and his message of Good News forms our prayers, thoughts, and works (1 John 1:1-4)

2. The Holy Spirit will lead us in the way of discipleship (Matthew 28:18-20)

3. As one people in the body of Christ, we will build together a culture of vocation for all the baptised (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1877)

4. Together, priests and people, we will be united with the bishop in service of all (2 Colossians 2:3)

5. In all areas of life, ministry, and mission, we will promote authentic Catholic education for the flourishing of human and faith development (Lumen gentium, 25)

6. In the Spirit of Jesus, we embrace justice and mercy to place the poor at the heart of the Church.

I would like to locate these six priorities at the centre of mission for the Diocese, beginning in Advent 2020. At that time, I hope to prepare a Pastoral Letter which might serve as a guide to deeper reflection within the Diocese as well as a stimulus to community engagement beyond.

Might I commend this endeavour to your prayer, because I believe that it will only be effective if we first invoke the power of the Holy Spirit who purifies and sanctifies our work and guides us in the way of the Lord.

Video messages by the Bishop replaced personal visits during COVID-19 restrictions in 2020.

I place the Diocese under the protection of Mary, Star of the Sea, and invoke upon our community the blessing of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.