PDCC Bishop's Pastoral Letter 2024

Pastoral Discernment Central Coast A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Anthony Randazzo DD JCL to the community of the Central Coast of the Diocese of Broken Bay January 2024

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Pastoral Letter

January 2024

Pastoral Discernment Central Coast

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Pastoral Discernment Central Coast A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Anthony Randazzo DD JCL to the community of the Central Coast of the Diocese of Broken Bay January 2024

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Pastoral Letter

January 2024

My dear sisters and brothers

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1. Our Parishes

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2. Central Coast Pastoral Formation

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3. “Baptism to Year 13” Pilot Program at Warnervale

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4.

The Establishment of the Eileen O’Connor Catholic School, Tuggerah

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5.

The Specific Social Needs of the Central Coast

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Conclusion

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© 2024 Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay, Australia www.bbcatholic.org.au

Pastoral Discernment Central Coast

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My dear sisters and brothers

P

ope Francis has called us to reflect upon what it means to be a Synodal Church, “walking together” in a shared discernment about our mission to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world. This Good News is a word that offers hope, a word that assures every person of their inalienable dignity, a word that creates a future for each of us. It is a word that brings us into deeper communion with one another in Christ and at the same time impels us to share this with others so that they too may know the saving message of the Lord.

As St Pope John Paul II taught us the Church is a ‘communion-inmissionary tension’ reflective of God’s own very life: “Communion and mission are profoundly connected with each other, they interpenetrate and mutually imply each other, to the point that communion represents both the source and the fruit of mission: communion gives rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion.1 Now in more recent times, Pope Francis has proposed to us a pastoral strategy to translate ‘communion’ into ‘mission’. This is ‘participation’ by which the Pope understands: “the involvement of all who belong to the People of God – laity, consecrated and ordained – to engage in the exercise of deep and respectful listening to one another.

This listening creates space for us to hear the Holy Spirit together

and guides our aspirations for the Church of the Third Millennium.

Participation is based on the fact that all the faithful are qualified and are called to serve one another through the gifts they have each received from the Holy Spirit.

In a synodal Church the whole community, in the free and rich diversity of its members, is called together to pray, listen, analyse, dialogue, discern, and offer advice on making pastoral decisions which correspond as closely as possible to God’s will.” 2 Our recent pastoral discernment on the region of the Central Coast in the Diocese has been an exercise of such participation and a specific application of Canon 511: “In every diocese and to the extent that pastoral circumstances suggest it, a pastoral council is to be constituted which under the authority of the bishop investigates,

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Pastoral Letter

considers, and proposes practical conclusions about those things which pertain to pastoral works in the diocese.” In effect the region of the Central Coast has been “incouncil” throughout the process which I initiated in early 2022. In the spirit of synodality, I invited the people of the region to journey forward together as pilgrim and missionary people of God. This project invited us to recognise the circumstances of the region, its opportunities, and challenges.

It was conducted through local community listening and dialogue sessions with the aim to develop more effective strategies for evangelisation within the region, responsive to its context. In July 2022, its Summary Report was finalised.3

way that will best achieve the good of that portion of the people of God entrusted to his care.” It is also to apply my six pastoral priorities outlined in 2021 and to bring these to bear on a particular region of our Diocese with its own character and features:

Over the last 18 months I have been able to pray and to reflect upon the outcomes of the pastoral discernment and to consider those strategies by which pastoral life and our evangelical impetus in the region might be animated most effectively. This is to fulfil my responsibility as outlined in Canon 473 §1, that the Diocesan Bishop “must ensure that everything concerning the administration of the whole diocese is properly coordinated and is directed in the

January 2024

• The person of Jesus Christ, and his message of Good News • The Holy Spirit leads us in the way of discipleship • Building together a culture of vocation for all the baptised • A united message reflecting the voice of the bishop at the service of his people • Authentic Catholic education for the flourishing of human and faith development • Justice and mercy place the poor at the heart of the Church 4 In sharing my response to this fruitful pastoral discernment on the Central Coast, I acknowledge the large presence of over 17,000 Aboriginal people on the Central Coast, especially the Darkinjung people. CatholicCare Broken Bay has now established an Aboriginal

Pastoral Discernment Central Coast

Community Engagement Manager as a link with First Nations people and organisations. The agency is implementing its second Reconciliation Action Plan and is actively considering a particular partnership with local Aboriginal Community

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organisations, possibly in the area of Lake Munmorah.5 Catholic Schools Broken Bay has also made Aboriginal Education a priority over the next three years. I have committed our Diocese to develop a diocesan-wide Reconciliation Action Plan in 2024.

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Pastoral Letter

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1. O ur Parishes At the heart of all my missionary outreach lies the importance of local communities of faith. The late American sociologist, Andrew Greely once commented: [The] Catholic parish is one of the most ingenious communities that human skill has ever created. Its over-lapping networks of religious, educational, familial, social and political relationships has created... “social capital,” a social resource in the strict sense of the word because it comes not from individual investments but from relational patterns.

To call the overlapping networks of human relationships “capital” is to say that, as with any capital, more can be accomplished because the relationship networks exist.6 It is worth us recalling Pope Saint Paul VI’s address to the Roman clergy at the beginning of his pontificate and remembered by St Pope John Paul II in Christifideles laici: “We believe simply that this old and venerable structure of the parish has an indispensable mission of great contemporary importance: to create the basic community of the Christian people; to initiate and gather the people in the accustomed expression of liturgical life; to conserve and renew the faith in the people of

today; to serve as the school for teaching the salvific message of Christ; to put solidarity in practice and work the humble charity of good and brotherly works.7 The work of the National Church Life Survey over many years has demonstrated that in those parishes in which there is an ability to communicate a clear vision for the parish, an ability to get people to work together and a readiness to encourage parishioners to use their gifts and skills for the good of the parish, along with the experience of a style of presiding at Mass that is warm and belonging, facilitative of a sense of belonging, faith communities flourish.8 Throughout the Central Coast Pastoral Discernment these insights were reiterated by the many contributions made.

Several of our parishes on the Central Coast are experiencing financial stress – Warnervale, Woy Woy, and Kincumber in particular. Ongoing monitoring of these situations will be required, and various strategies for their financial sustainability will require development.

Pastoral Discernment Central Coast

My diocesan Office for Stewardship will play an important role in this. However, given the pressing challenges I have outlined above, I do not believe that the rationalisation of parishes is the answer. This is not least because of the remarkable growth in population forecast for the Central Coast in the next 12 years. Between 2024 and 2036 the population of the Central Coast is (at time of publication) forecast to increase by more than 50,000 people or around 14.54%.9 This will mean that the number of people resident in the region will grow to around 300,000 to 400,000 in the next 12 years. The area on the northern end of the Central Coast that is expected to have the greatest increase is Woongarrah, in the territory of the parish of Warnervale.

Woongarrah is expected to nearly double in size, to nearly 98%, or nearly 16,000. Lake Munmorah is expected to have an increase of nearly 65%, with Wadalba, Kanwal-Wyongah, TuggerahMardi, Wyong, and The Entrance also with notable increases of between 25% and 50%. In the southern end of the Central Coast, the area around Gosford - West Gosford, an increase of around 60% is forecast, and in Erina more than 22%. These figures have already translated into substantial increases in rents and demand for new homes as the housing crisis impacts the Central Coast. The needs of the Central Coast, therefore, are set to rise proportionately.

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With this growth, it will be important that all our parishes adopt a missionary footing to develop each community in the most effective way possible. It is of special concern to me that the participation rate of the baptised, particularly in the northern parishes of the region, has dramatically decreased over the years, as the public PDCC Report indicates. To this end, I have facilitated additional clergy personnel across the parishes of The Entrance, Wyong, and Woy Woy. To provide the sense of stability and future across our parishes, I have now appointed Fr Tomy Kuruvelil cfic as Parish Priest of Toukley - Lake Munmorah, Fr Philip Thottam msfs as Parish Priest of Warnervale, Fr Bogdan Skupien as Parish Priest of Kincumber, and Fr Timothy Raj msfs as Parish Priest of Woy Woy. Over these recent months all our parishes have been invited to reflect on the current Sunday Mass schedule to ensure that, given the number of people attending Masses and the resources of the community, each parish may enjoy as vibrant and as participative liturgies as possible. I have asked them to reflect collaboratively across their cluster so that the needs of the region might be reflected in the schedules considered together. Their consultations concluded at the end of 2023. Adjustments to our schedule of Masses to be implemented early 2024.

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Pastoral Letter

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Pastoral Discernment Central Coast

2. Central Coast Pastoral Formation It was observed that our parishes are served by an extensive volunteer participation and engagement that would be strengthened by a program of formation and a coordinated opportunity for volunteers to support and mentor other parishioners. Parish leadership teams, especially, would be advantaged by networking across the region. Further, the importance of an animated youth ministry was identified.

In response, I have identified the precinct of the parish of The Entrance to be a resource from which to develop formation in pastoral ministry. The current Parish Priest, Fr Brian Moloney, has assented to those buildings of the parish site that are in excess of parish needs being used for this purpose. I have now asked our newly established Mission Broken Bay to take two lead priorities into 2024: 1) a costed concept to develop a program of formation for parish volunteers and leaders, and 2) a costed concept for the development of a Diocesan Youth Ministry unit.

I am also happy to share the establishment of an Atrium for the ministry of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at The Entrance, commencing in early 2024. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is designed to support children to nurture their own personal relationship with God, framed by Montessori educational principles.

The pastoral formation programs may work collaboratively with CatholicCare Broken Bay for the facilitation of social care programs, and the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) for catechist training, and also develop additional outreach such as a pastoral resource centre, meeting spaces, spirituality days, and hospitality.

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3. “Baptism to Year 13” Pilot Program at Warnervale In addition to the development of formation programs in ministry, I am committed to initiating the piloting of a “Baptism to Year 13” pastoral and educational opportunity for our children and their families with the Parish of Warnervale and MacKillop Catholic College.

The K-12 school was established in 2003 to cater for the demand for Catholic Education in the rapidly growing Central Coast area. Forecasting demonstrates continual growth in enrolments through to 2028. To date, the College has undergone significant repair and maintenance to address backlog works, and in 2023 received a government grant from the Catholic Block Grant Authority to upgrade the K-6 facilities. This ensures the current end-of-life and temporary accommodation is replaced with a new construction of a four-streamed primary school, to cater for up to 840 students. With the growth in the primary school, Catholic Schools Broken Bay will, consequently, look to revitalise the facilities of the secondary component to accommodate up to 1,360 secondary students. This will ensure that MacKillop Catholic College will be able to cater for 2,200 K-12 students at full capacity.

To realise a “Baptism to Year 13” pathway closely connected to the parish community I have asked that the following opportunities expand the already strong schoolparish relationship and develop to the wider Deanery of this area of the Central Coast: • Early Learning Centre encompassing Out of School Hours Care including Vacation Care – catering for current and new students and families.

• The renewal of the current trade centre to be fit for purpose and expand to support Year 13 programs in partnership with TAFE. • The development of a Senior campus supporting a Year 13 program post Year 12 and partnering with universities and TAFE.

Pastoral Discernment Central Coast

• The upgrade and construction of sports and recreational facilities indoor/outdoor and offering community sports options.

•T he establishment of day-boarding programs in the secondary to extend school hours including tutoring, sporting, homework support, and catering (afternoon tea and dinners for students).

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• The initiation of Year 13 careers program partnering with universities & TAFE, leadership development programs including faith formation, VET courses post Year 12 and offering to the wider community.

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4. The Establishment of the Eileen O’Connor Catholic School, Tuggerah One of the most important needs I have discerned on the Central Coast is for the education of children with special needs. The establishment of the Eileen O’Connor base school for students living with disabilities on the site of St Peter’s Catholic College, Tuggerah is one of the most significant initiatives of our Diocese in its 37-year history. It will enjoy satellite classes throughout our Diocese and provide additional educational choice for parents and families.

In addition, Catholic Schools Broken Bay is to spend some $300 million in the coming period on a range of capital works improving the facilities of our schools, with Catholic Block Grant Authority (CBGA) grants already approved for: - St Brigid’s Catholic College, Lake Munmorah, - Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary School, The Entrance, - Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School, Terrigal, - St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, Tumbi Umbi, - St Cecilia’s Catholic Primary School, Wyong, and - St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Toukley.

There are further plans for: - St Peter’s Catholic College, Tuggerah, - MacKillop Catholic College, Warnervale, - St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, East Gosford, - St Joseph’s Catholic College, East Gosford, - Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary School, Wyoming, and - St John the Baptist Catholic Primary School, Woy Woy.

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5. The Specific Social Needs of the Central Coast At the time of the pastoral discernment particular needs of the Central Coast became more apparent:

1. Disability 2. Homelessness 3. The rise of mental illness.10 4. The high rate of domestic violence.11 5. Juvenile justice: Frank Baxter Youth Justice Centre at Kariong is one of the largest youth justice centres in NSW in which our Church, hitherto, has not exercised a pastoral presence or outreach.

6. Changes in the provision of tertiary education: The University of Newcastle is effecting change in the provision of its courses and developing its Medical School at Gosford Hospital.12 7. T he wound of clerical sexual abuse: Various members of our communities have been sadly affected by the historical crimes of some members of our Church, particularly Gosford, Kincumber, and Toukley.

Our Community of the Church in Broken Bay must be at the coal face of these pressing social challenges about which we are aware on the Central Coast. I will continue to strengthen and advocate for these many engagements so that as a Church we are responsive to the needs of the region and assuming our responsibility to be the ‘field hospital’ Pope Francis urges of us as a Church: The thing the Church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds... And you have to start from the ground up.13 In addition to its conduct of Early Learning Centres on the Central Coast (which it will expand by an additional facility), CatholicCare Broken Bay is already the largest provider of foster

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Pastoral Letter

care and residential therapeutic care services to young people on the Central Coast. Mary Macs in Woy Woy is a tremendous demonstration of our care as a Diocese for those who are homeless and doing it tough and we now have an Integrated Services Centre at Tuggerah. CatholicCare Broken Bay has also now commenced a Memory Innovation Centre on the Coast to assist our elderly and has expanded its Community Visitors Scheme in the region. It is currently establishing new Supported Independent Living accommodation places on the Central Coast for people living with a disability. In the coming period, we are seeking to obtain funding for women’s and children’s refuge, possibly at Warnervale. In addition, CatholicCare Broken Bay is now delivering the “Healthy Young Men” program to young people at the Frank Baxter Youth Justice Centre. The sixweek program supports the promotion of better mental health while learning about healthy relationships. Its aim is to work together to prevent domestic and family violence and youth suicide on the Central Coast.

CatholicCare Broken Bay is also actively exploring the development of a Youth Foyer at Wyong. This is a housing model which sets up disadvantaged young people with the supports and services they need to build a positive future and lifelong independence. It offers young people access to education, training and employment and the opportunity to follow their dreams, and to develop support networks around them. This ensures that young people are educated, employable, and empowered. CatholicCare Broken Bay is also engaging with high schools and TAFE on the Central Coast to encourage more young people to take up entrylevel positions in the organisation itself.

In these various initiatives CatholicCare Broken Bay will work also with Catholic Schools Broken Bay as a Registered Training Organisation now able to offer courses in Vocational Education and Training (VET) for school Stages 5 and 6, so that students can participate in School Based Apprenticeships and Traineeships during years 10-12.

Catholic Schools Broken Bay also now has two Pathways and Partnerships Leaders on the Central Coast providing students with practical opportunities and exposure to current information, allowing them to make informed decisions at each stage of their school journey.

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Pastoral Discernment Central Coast

Conclusion

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y sisters and brothers, through the synodal process of listening and discernment we have undertaken throughout 2022 and into 2023, we have gained greater clarification of both the needs and the pastoral opportunities in the region. It has been an invaluable experience to focus on the regional context, to consider prayerfully and analytically its various dimensions and features, to celebrate those creative and courageous initiatives that are seeking to respond, and to encourage yet further developments for the pastoral mission of the region.

So that the Spirit-led discernment that we have undertaken may remain active, I am committed to a formal review of all the various projects I have outlined in my Letter by the end of 2026, and thereby commit to share with you a report on their development.

I take this opportunity to thank once again all those who have been involved in the pastoral discernment, particularly its Director and facilitator, Patti Beattie. My gratitude also goes

to the many hundreds of participants for their contribution, along with the wonderful collaboration of Tim Curran, Executive Director of CatholicCare Broken Bay and Danny Casey, Director of Catholic Schools Broken Bay. Together with the clergy of the Central Coast and their parish leadership teams, I continue to pray that the work we have undertaken may bear much fruit as we endeavour to participate in the Mission of Jesus Christ in the world.

Most Rev Anthony Randazzo DD JCL Bishop of Broken Bay

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Pastoral Discernment Central Coast

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Endnotes 1 Pope John Paul II, Christifidelis laici, Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World, (30 December 1988), n.32. See also inter alia, Pope John Paul II, Pastores dabo vobis, Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day, (10 March 1992), n.12.

2 Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops: For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission Vademecum for the Synod on Synodality Official Handbook for Listening and Discernment in Local Churches. Conclusion to Section 1.4. Accessed: https://www.cccb.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/ EN-Vademecum-with-Appendices-A-B-CD.pdf 3 See Patti Beattie, Pastoral Discernment Project Summary Report. See https://www.bbcatholic.org.au/ evangelisation/pastoral-discernment-central-coast 4 Bishop Anthony Randazzo, Jesus Christ our Beginning and our End, A Pastoral Letter to the community of the Church of Broken Bay 2020-2021. https://www.bbcatholic.org.au/about/bishop/pastoral-letterjesus-christ-our-beginning-and-end 5 See CatholicCare Broken Bay, Innovation Reconciliation Action Plan, September 2021- September 2023, https://www.catholiccaredbb.org.au/wp-content/uploads/CatholicCare-Diocese-of-Broken-Bay-Innovate-RAP-2021-2023.pdf 6 Andrew Greeley, The Catholic Myth (1990), 154-155 cited in Dixon, “Ingenious Communities: Catholic parishes as creators of social capital,” ACBC Pastoral Projects Office Building Stronger Parishes, (June 2010), 1.

7 John Paul II, Christifidelis laici, “On the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World,” Post-sydnodal Apostolic Exhortation (30 December 1988), n. 26 8 See Bob Dixon, “What Makes People Feel they Belong: New Findings from the National Church Life Survey,” ACBC Pastoral Research Office Building Stronger Parishes (September 2011); Bob Dixon, “Ingenious Communities: Catholic parishes as creators of social capital,” ACBC Pastoral Projects Office Building Stronger Parishes, June 2010.

9 See id Community – Demographic resources: Central Coast NSW https://forecast.id.com.au/centralcoast-nsw/population-summary#:~:text=Between%202021%20and%202036%2C%20the,average%20 annual%20change%20of%200.88%25.

10 See Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence. Alcohol consumption at levels posing: long-term risk; immediate risk, to health by Primary Health Network, persons aged 16 years and over, NSW 2018 [electronic dataset]. Sydney: Health Stats NSW, NSW Ministry of Health; 2019 (accessed 2019 Oct 22).

11 NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, https://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/ 12 See National Centrre for Pastoral Research, 2021 Broken Bay Diocesan Profile, https://ncpr.catholic. org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/BrokenBay_-2021-Diocesan-Social-Profile-1.pdf 13 Pope Francis, “A Big Heart Open to God,” America Magazine, 19 September 2013.

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January 2024