By Bridget Spinks
THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Julia Gillard are “powerful witnesses” of the weight the world places on chastity, marriage and commitment, Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey said at the Perth True Love Waits movement’s 10-year anniversary gathering on 30 April at Sacred Heart Chapel, Highgate.
The ideals of TLW are very different from the ideals of the world, he said.
“They call on celibacy and preserving one’s integrity before marriage and having very high ideals about life and that marriage is all about commitment. They’re ideals we wish the whole world would share but we know they don’t. We have some powerful witnesses.
“The royal couple themselves have made a commitment we hope is sincere and lifelong, but we know that they were living together for many, many years. Not the best witness. Our own Prime Minister does not give the best witness in this particular area either. But they’re prominent figures. Your neighbours might not give the best witness,” he said.
More than 30 members and supporters of the movement had gathered for the anniversary Mass, afternoon tea and presentations.
Current True Love Waits leader Thomas Seeber, and its former leaders who helped in the anniversary’s preparation, hoped that the event would spark a renewal in interest in the movement.
Among those present on 30 April were many of the old guard; initiators of the Perth branch of the movement in 2001 including brothers Stephen and Grant Gorddard who have both since entered St Charles’ Seminary and Teresa Tournay who has since married and gave birth to the couple’s second son Patrick on 2 May.
Teresa, who made the pledge in 2001, said she was involved with the core team members for a few years, which organised monthly open sessions on topics to do with True Love Waits.
She said she had always wanted to wait until marriage anyway but making the pledge, after seeing a presentation on TLW at Antioch (parish youth group), made dating easier. “It made it easier not to have sex because I had made the pledge; it was a public decision to wait,” Teresa said.
She remembered a brochure – 100 Things To Do Instead of It – which was useful in one previous relationship.
“It was fun, there were things like going for a walk or baking a cake,” she said.
There were also newer faces in attendance, supporting the movement on the cusp of a reboot.
Anthony Coyte, who made a significant contribution to the movement prior to Stephen Gorddard taking over, was unable to attend as he now works for the John Paul II Institute of Marriage and Family in Melbourne.
The Archbishop also preached on the laity’s role in participating in the mission of the church as articulated at the Second Vatican Council. He took the occasion to clarify the exact message of the Council.
He emphasised that the role of the laity in being part of the Church’s mission did not involve – contrary to what many people thought – “crowning the sanctuary, taking up many roles in the Liturgy” and “running the church”.
“Yes, that is part of the role of the people of God to participate in the Church’s Liturgy and in her organisation but that is not what the Second Vatican Council was talking about,” he said. “It was saying, ‘You, baptised people of Christ, the priests and the religious probably won’t be able to go out into the world and share the light of Christ the way you can. So, the primary role of the lay people is to take their light out into the world and convert the world;’ not walk proud on the sanctuary – it didn’t use those words, but I said them,” he said.
The role of the priest is to minister to the Church – sacramentally and in the Word of God – and to live their Christian vocation, the Archbishop said.
The role of the layperson is to be a light of “right understanding” and “illumination” in the world, he said.
The ideals of True Love Waits, are “part of that light that the world needs to hear more and more because the darkness of the world is trying to extinguish that light,” he said.
He congratulated the TLW movement on their 10-year anniversary and urged those gathered, “not to let the poor witness out there be the one that the next generation takes on”.
“Let it be yours; the witness of a happy and holy, integral and chaste life and uphold the values of marriage,” he said.