Kairos Catholic Magazine: Ecclesia in Oceania

At the start of the millennium the Pope issued a wonderful document, Novo Millennio Ineunte, to the whole world. Now, at the start of the New Year, he has written – by email! – a special letter to all the people of Oceania. Ecclesia in Oceania is the Papal Exhortation that brings to formal conclusion the proceedings of the Synod for Oceania held in 1998. It is a beautiful letter full of hope and encouragement. ‘The Church in Oceania gives glory to God at the dawn of the third millennium and proclaims her hope to the world’ (1). The Pope ponders the missionaries and educators who first brought the faith to our region and asks how we can become a second wave of missionaries to bring people home to the Church. The Pope shows himself aware of the enthusiasm of Australian Catholics and the sort of social and geographical difficulties they face. He speaks of our beautiful lands and seas, which can also be so dangerous and he describes the variety of our people as both a gift and a challenge to communication and mission.

What does this document mean for Australians? What is the Pope asking us to do? He begins with four big ideas. First, he points out we tend to talk often of ‘community’, but for Christians community must be based on communion. Our communion is our being one in faith – something that is supported by our unity with the bishops and their unity with the Successor of Peter. The Pope asks that in challenging modern individualism we build up not only communities of service and reconciliation, but also a communion of faith in Christ and his Church.

Secondly, the Pope reminds us there is no use sitting back and lamenting dwindling numbers of churchgoers. The Church is a missionary Church: in other words, individuals and parishes can and should be actively involved in bringing people to the faith and in serving the wider community in Christ’s name. In former times there were often others who would do this – religious, lay missionaries. Now, with huge numbers growing up not hearing the name of Christ, it is time for us all to take part in mission.

The Pope has always been a great supporter of the rich range of cultures that make up the Catholic communion, regularly enjoying the different expressions of faith of many sorts of nations, including ours, on his tours. He reminds us ‘the Word made flesh is foreign to no culture and must be preached to all cultures’. (16). Nevertheless, the Gospel also challenges cultures and criticises them where they go astray. This is what Christ did, and what the Church continues to do. For this reason cultural innovation at Mass and in the Church’s life should be introduced gradually and in careful dialogue with the Universal Church. It would be very serious if forms of worship that are unauthentic and not true expressions of Catholic faith misled people.

The final theme is evangelisation, something very close to the Pope’s heart. Since the first Easter morning when the women went flying in all directions, carrying the news of the unbelievable truth, Christians have wanted to speak of their faith to the whole world. The Bishops spoke at the Synod of how difficult it can be for the Church’s voice to be heard in our highly secularised society. The idea of the sacred, the knowledge of God, and even of these very words is fast vanishing. The Pope urges the Bishops to renew the Gospel message in the region so that people can have real confidence in it. We have every right to speak out to the world for we have been sent, commissioned by Christ and led by the Holy Spirit. We are to proclaim by word and deed that our faith is no fairy tale or fable; it has supported millions of individuals and countless cultures for hundreds of years, something no secular creed can claim.

With these four ideas – communion, mission, cultural respect, evangelisation – the Pope sets the Church in our region on its course for the third Christian millennium. As he writes, meditating on the fishermen Apostles: ‘Now is the time for the great catch!’ (52).