BECOMING
CHRISTIAN
TOGETHER Becoming Christian takes a lifetime. It begins in Baptism. It will be completed when, raised up in Christ, we see the face of God. It is all God’s work, but it needs our “Yes”. It is a deeply personal journey, but one we cannot make alone.
A Pastoral Letter to God’s People of the Diocese of Bathurst
Dear Friends in Christ, At the end of my first year as Bishop, I travelled through the Diocese for seven regional meetings to reflect with you on our local church and where we are going. It reminded me more deeply that we are pilgrims together. We begin to understand our faith and the Church when we see that these are works in progress. “Becoming Christian” means recognising the need for continuing conversion, both as individuals and God’s people. In part, these meetings have been about learning how to talk to one another. We have also discovered something about the practicalities of consultation in our diocese, given the distances involved. It has convinced me more than ever that, as a diocesan family, we need to give special attention to communities that are outside the big centres. Making the Church present there requires the imagination and generosity of all of us. I am grateful for those who participated in the meetings; and also for those who, though unable to come, supported us in prayer. Many Catholics, however, decided not to attend, or did not consider it: and that points to one of our great challenges. The Venerable John Paul II told us a quarter of a century ago that the Church in Australia will not be what Christ wants her to be until indigenous people have made their contribution to her life and that contribution has been joyfully received. We still have a long way to go, but in some parishes and schools a start has been made that we can build on. It was great to listen to young people speak at almost every meeting. They are not the future of the Church: they belong to the Church here and now. Along with the rest of us, they are looking for something beyond the values of an appetite-driven culture. They want nourishment of soul. For their sake and everyone’s, we must make space for their participation. Their ideas, energy and hope can lift us out of complacency and pessimism. The experience of World Youth Day, Manna Fest and Blast shows us a way forward at the diocesan level. I ask all parishes and schools to support these events in practical ways. In addition, I would like to see young people represented in every parish council as well as in works of worship and service where they live. Along with the rest of us, they need to discover more the power of God’s Word and the riches of Catholic teaching, in order to grow in faith.
There were not many young families at the meetings. This is understandable from a practical point of view: and that should make us think imaginatively about how to organise consultations in ways that make their participation easier. However, it was also a reminder that young families are under-represented in many of our Parish Mass congregations. Again, there are practicalities that we could address there, but there may be deeper reasons, too. It was in our families, the “domestic church,” that most of us began to pray. It was our parents who first taught us faith, not with lessons from the catechism, but with the way we saw they lived the values and priorities of the Gospel. If our families, however messy and imperfect, were places of love and forgiveness, we can look back and see that Christ was active there. It is often remarked that our culture and economy are not “family friendly.” Pressures from outside, we hear, can often be too much for marriages and families to bear. But we also know that there is a fragility within so many homes; and unless it can be healed and strengthened, even the most benign social environment will do no good. The renewal of the domestic church has to be our pastoral focus. If we could begin to do that, how many dry branches in the Church would begin to bud with life again! I don’t pretend to know the best way to achieve it, but let us put our minds together to see how we might begin.
Renewal of the domestic church would have an impact on our schools. Catholic schools are sometimes criticised for failing to communicate to their students a sense of belonging to the Church. However, a school is more than classrooms and teachers. It also gets its character from the students and the families who form the wider school community. If that is renewed, so is the school. One year after our diocese began, we were hit by the earthquake of the Public Education Act of 1866, which ended government funding to church schools. For the next hundred years, the construction of a Catholic education system became the focus of the Church’s pastoral energy. In recent decades, substantial (though not full) government funding has returned; yet school fees are rising; and the links between schools and parishes have weakened. Few families in our schools participate in wider parish life. And there are many Catholics, even active parishioners, who send their children to government or private schools, or keep them at home. This needs longer and more detailed analysis than I can give here, but it is important to sketch the outline, because these are questions to be explored. At every meeting, people expressed concerns about a decline in Mass attendance. Although numbers are not our prime objective, the meaning and implications of these figures need careful thought. They have practical implications, of course. If people are not regularly coming to Mass, they are unlikely to be supporting the Church financially, or participating in other works; and the capacity of parishes and the diocese to do things is diminished. But there are deeper considerations, too. In the long history of the Church, patterns of public worship have varied according to time and place. There can be social or political causes of high rates of attendance. But when those factors are absent, what motivates people to come, unless they have sensed and believed that something special is going on at Mass? They may not be able to express a full theology of sacrifice, communion and anticipation: but they do know that here is mystery and power. They do know, in these ordinary-looking neighbours and this ordinary-looking priest; in this Word perhaps too quickly and awkwardly spoken; and in what looks like bread and wine: that here is Christ. We should adorn our churches and prepare and celebrate our liturgies with lavish, loving care. What is going on at Mass is worth all our best attempts at beauty. The way we do this is itself a catechesis on the Eucharist beyond words. But along with that we need to renew our efforts to communicate to children and adults the full meaning of this gift. The introduction of the new translation of the Mass will be an opportunity for such a renewal: and I urge you to take part in the events that are being organised across the diocese for that. Of course, this rests on the communication of faith and new efforts at proclamation and catechesis. At the heart of that is our discovery of the power of the Word of God. To read the Scriptures is not just to read about Christ, it is to meet him in a special way. As Catholics, we read the Bible with heart and soul and mind; and we learn to understand it together. These days, there are many excellent resources, for all levels of readers, who want to get to know the Bible better. But most of us need some structure and some company. In conjunction with the diaconate program, I hope that soon we could set up opportunities for this. This Word, which we both minister and receive, is reconciliation in Christ. To announce it, we seek it. Along with our own sins, we bear the burden of the sins of those united to us in the mystical body, the Church. As the Venerable John Paul II said, “The recognition of past wrongs serves to reawaken our consciences to the compromises of the present, opening the way to conversion for everyone.�
There are many old sins for which we could ask forgiveness as a local church, including our treatment of the first Australians. The most scandalous right now involve crimes against minors by priests, religious and other adults. As Bishop, I have apologised directly to individuals who have been hurt in these ways and I repeat that apology today, to all of them and publically. We do not choose the time and place in which we are called to live this mission. But here we are: to touch this world, heal it and change it, while being touched and healed and changed ourselves. Becoming Christian takes a lifetime. It begins in Baptism. It will be completed when, raised up in Christ, we see the face of God. It is all God’s work, but it needs our “Yes”. And although a deeply personal journey, it is one we cannot make alone.
Bishop of Bathurst Feast of Mary of the Cross 2010