Homilies and Addresses 2007
Address at the Church Administrator's Conference

Given by Archbishop Denis Hart
at The Church Administrator's Conference at the Hilton Hotel, Melbourne
on Wednesday, 18th April, 2007 at 7.30am

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

A very warm welcome to Melbourne to each of you from far and near, so much involved in the work of Church administration and service.  Together with our distinguished guests – Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa in Honduras, Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, and Professor Donna Orsuto – we are gathered to reflect on the role that we fulfil and the challenges we face.

Having spent twenty-eight of my forty priestly years with administrative responsibilities at diocesan and national level, I wish to turn to the calling which so many of us share in the modern story of the Church and pick out a few of the challenges which we face in shaping the future.

Pope Benedict said, “Love of neighbour grounded in love of God is first and foremost a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful, but it is also a responsibility for the entire ecclesial community at every level; from the local community to the particular church and to the Church Universal in its entirety.  As a community, the Church must practise love.  Love thus needs to be organised if it is to be an ordered service to the community.”  (Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 20)

He later says, “The Apostles decided to reserve for themselves the duty of prayer and the Word and designated for other tasks also necessary in the Church a group of seven persons.

The social service, which they were meant to provide was absolutely concrete, yet at the same time it was also a spiritual service.  Theirs was a truly spiritual office, which carried out an essential responsibility of the Church, namely a well-ordered love of neighbour.  Thus, the ministry of charity exercised in a communitarian orderly way became part of the fundamental structure of the Church.”  (Benedict XVI ibidem 21)

Although what was established in Acts referred to the diaconate, our whole service in the Church through administration and financial work, or whatever kind of outreach, is an essential part of the care which you as close collaborators of your bishop exercise in the Church. 

Here we have tried to focus the spiritual aspects of this collaboration through regular recollection days for our staff and the building of a workplace, which shows respect for the individual, the compassion of Christ, and being one with the threefold action of sanctifying, teaching and caring in the Church.

THE WORLD OF TODAY

Many changes have come in society in the last forty years.  Increased secularism, emphasis on the individual, the abandonment of ethical principles, challenges to the family, attempts to drive religion to the periphery.  In society governments are driven by pragmatism to cave in to those who shout the loudest.  Understanding of the nature of the human person and its destiny are swept aside.  Individual liberty is vaunted without acknowledging that our conscience is a proximate norm, which needs to be informed by the Scriptures and the teaching of the Church in order to function adequately.

MOVING FORWARD

To move forward we must realise the truth on which faith is founded: in the Gospels, and the teaching of the Church.  We carry these high in our attempts to address the very different modern society, to which we have much to offer.  This must be the light of the Church’s received wisdom and the responsibility, which she must fulfil as the teacher of truth and the gateway to eternal life.

THE STATEMENT OF CONCLUSIONS

In November 1998 the Australian Bishops met with representatives of the Holy See to seek a way forward for the Church in Australia, addressing the crisis in our ability to know the truth, a reducing of Jesus Christ to mere humanity, an individualism that elevates conscience to the level of the absolute, and problems in morality and ecclesiology.  This meeting was significant because of the optimism felt both in Australia and from the Holy See that it is possible to move forward.

In the ensuing years, despite the difficulties, and through the work of many bishops and their collaborators, progress has continued to be made.  The positive response of youth to the World Youth Days shows that the climate is changing.  In the words of Pope Benedict, “Before any activity, before the world can change, there must be worship.  Worship alone sets us truly free; worship alone gives us the criteria for our action.”  (Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the Curia, 22nd December 2005)

UNDERSTANDING THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL IS ESSENTIAL TO THE LIFE OF THE MODERN CHURCH

In his Address to the Curia in December 2005 Pope Benedict reflected on the reception of the Second Vatican Council in the ensuing forty years.  This helps us to understand where the Council and subsequent history must be the springboard for our future service.  He asked, “why has the implementation of the Council in large parts of the Church thus far been so difficult?”  “It all depends,” he said, “on finding the correct key to the interpretation and application of the Council.”  Here the Pope contrasts an interpretation of discontinuity and rupture on one hand, and of renewal in continuity on the other.

The interpretation of discontinuity eliminated what went before, misunderstood the nature of the Council and had the intention to follow not the texts of the Council but the spirit.

Bishops as stewards of the Lord’s gifts are required to be faithful.  As the stewardship parables in Saint Matthew and Saint Luke indicate, fidelity and the dynamic must come together.

The interpretation of renewal and reform, Pope Benedict says, is found in the famous words of Pope John XXIII, ‘The Council wishes to transmit the doctrine pure and integral without any attenuation or distortion.  Our duty is not only to guard this precious treasure as if we were concerned only with antiquity, but to dedicate ourselves with an earnest will and without fear to that work which our era demands of us.’

It is this which Pope Benedict is proceeding to do.

THE FUTURE

It is clear that this commitment to expressing a specific truth in a new way demands new thinking on this truth and a new and vital relationship with it.  It is also clear that new words can only develop if they come from an informed understanding of the truth expressed and that a reflection on faith also requires that this faith be lived.  The programme John XXIII proposed was extremely demanding, just as the bringing together of fidelity and the dynamic is demanding.

At the end of the Council Paul VI pointed out, “In the great dispute about man which marks the modern epoch the Council had to focus in particular on the theme of anthropology.  It had to question the relationship between the Church and her faith on one hand and man and the contemporary world on the other.”  Pope Benedict in quoting Paul VI, says in 2005: “The question becomes even clearer if, instead of the new generic term ‘contemporary world’, we opt for another that is more precise:  The Council had to determine in a new way the relationship between the Church and the modern era.”

In his address to the Rota on 27th January this year he returns to the same theme on marriage and the family when he says, “We must not forget, however, that in causes of nullity of marriage the legal truth supposes the ‘truth of the marriage’ itself.  Yet the expression ‘truth of the marriage’ loses its importance in a culture marked by relativism, which regards marriage as a mere social formalisation of emotional ties.  This crisis of the meaning of marriage influences the attitude of many of the faithful.” 

The practical effect of the interpretation of discontinuity and rupture with regard to the Second Vatican Council is felt especially acutely in the sphere of marriage and the family.  Yet the teaching of Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict have followed the Council in faithful interpretation continuously with regard to both the doctrine and discipline of marriage and persevered in its efforts for reform or renewal in continuity.

Our work in the Church must always be one which acknowledges the immense treasure contained in the deposit of faith; the constant rich teaching of the Church and the beautiful articulate teaching of our present Holy Father. 

Some of the challenges which continue for us in the future are:-

1. To strive for a deeper degree of holiness and personal conversion.  Pope Benedict has stressed in his recent Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist the truth, beauty, contemplation and action which comes from Christ.
2. Saint Paul challenged us to preach the Word, welcome or unwelcome.  Our ongoing commitment must be to share the deposit of faith and its dynamism with new generations of Catholics.  Since 1999 in Melbourne, and now in Sydney, Armidale, Lismore and Wollongong, a new set of attractive, modern texts for the classroom and teachers’ books with web resources have opened out the faith in clear language.  This is the core of all we attempt in education.
3. We emphasise the importance of marriage and the family, teach life issues and continue to give encouragement to those who struggle with the Church’s teaching.
4. To give high priority to promotion of vocations and to a deep love of the celibate priesthood and an intense spiritual life.
5. We seek to form lay adults imbued with knowledge of the faith and ability to communicate it, with love of the Church and faithfulness to her.

Above all, we have moved on from ideology and from ‘progressive’ or ‘conservative’ labels.  Unity in Christ as brothers and sisters is our supreme invitation.

CONCLUSION

Each of us is given our time in life, the invitation to be faithful in the valued collaboration we give to our bishops, our diocese and to the Church.  If these reflections have helped us to see our service in a new light, then we will be led to follow Christ, the light of the world.

You are the eyes, hands and heart of your dioceses.  May you take this beautiful challenge with faithfulness, love: one with the Church throughout the world, led by our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, to be like the saints – true bearers of light within history, men and women of faith, hope and love.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.