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Geelong Deanery |
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From the Deanery Co-ordinatorIn late July there was a dinner to honour the priests celebrating Diamond, Golden and Silver jubilees in 1999. The speaker at the dinner was Archbishop D’Arcy of Hobart. He made the statement that we are living in a primitive society with so much accent on litigation. I think that all of us can empathise with this statement. Because of this state of affairs, the component of forgiveness in Jubilee spirituality is extremely important. After all, when St Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone and suggested that seven times seven was enough, Jesus responded by saying not seven times seven but seventy times seven. This is a gospel challenge and our society needs to become more forgiving. Recently I attended a Helder Camara lecture, ‘Reconciliation in a Broken World’, by Professor Schreiter from the Cardinal Bernardin College of Theology in Chicago. During that lecture he made the point that reconciliation is God’s work and can only come about when the victim grows beyond the hurt that has been suffered, accepts an apology and forgives. If the victim doesn’t forgive, we end up with revenge and the punitive society. Just as we as individuals offend others from time to time and need to apologise and need to be forgiven, so also the church has hurt people either by its rules or its personnel. Fr Bruce Duncan CSsR stated in his lecture on jubilee recently that Pope John Paul II acknowledges mistakes made by the Church over the centuries and on 94 different occasions has apologised. It seems to me, therefore, that the challenge for the Deanery for the Jubilee is to find those locally who have been hurt by the church, apologise to them and ask them for forgiveness. Any ideas on how to do this will be gratefully accepted. The Deanery has been saddened and shocked at the charges recently made against Monsignor Murray of indecent assault of a woman 25 years ago. Monsignor Murray denies the charges. He is very appreciative of all the support he has received. Your continued prayers and support for him and the woman involved will be much appreciated. At this time we say farewell to Fr Colin Bourke, parish priest of Norlane, as he goes to study in USA. Fr Colin is a kind, friendly, pastoral priest and we thank him for his care of the parishioners of Norlane for more than 6 years and for his contribution to the Deanery Leadership Team and the church in Geelong. We wish him well. We welcome in his place Fr Philip Gambin from the Missionary Society of St Paul. We hope that he enjoys his stay in Norlane and his involvement within the wider Geelong deanery. We regretfully farewell Frank Thompson from the Deanery Leadership Team. Frank was the representative for the Geelong Catholic Social Justice Committee. Frank’s contribution has been much appreciated. We welcome in his place Kevin Mark and look forward to working with him. I also thank Denise James, our Deanery Resource Coordinator, for all the hard work that she has done in organising input on the various aspects of Jubilee. She is doing a great job and we are privileged to have her in this position. God bless you all. Fr M. Fitzpatrick, Deanery Coordinator |
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