The Catholic Leader has last week reported that claims the Catholic Church is dying are nothing but “false impressions”, according to Australia’s Papal Nuncio.
Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana made the comments following his visit to Brisbane where he presided at his first Feast Day Mass for St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.
He said the three-day trip inspired him to work “against the apocalyptic impression” of the Church.
“The conviction I have is that (Brisbane is) a vibrant Church and I must speak out against the apocalyptic impression people are giving,” he said.
“I would like to contradict this false impression that we are a dying Church.”
Archbishop Yllana said the Mass for Australia’s first saint, attended by more than 2,000 people at St Stephen’s Cathedral, was a “revealing” witness to the abundant life in the Church today.
“We may have our challenges but we are a vibrant Church,” he said.
“We have tensions but tensions show it is alive.
“I was inspired by what I witnessed and encouraged.”
During his visit to Brisbane, Archbishop Yllana also met with various Catholic education staff, social services and other Catholic agency leaders at a reception at Archbishop Mark Coleridge’s New Farm residence, Wynberg.
He also visited the “inspiring” Carmelite community in Ormiston.
“They always pray for us, in the silence of their unseen life,” he said.
Following his Brisbane trip, the Papal Nuncio travelled to Darwin to “make them feel the Pope is present”.
“He wants them to know that they are not on the fringes or on the margins, but the Pope thinks of them,” Archbishop Yllana said.
He said he “would not be staying in a hotel” but would stay with Aboriginal and Indigenous communities.
Three months into his role, the Papal Nuncio said he would continue to visit Australian Catholics to “say what the Pope would like them to hear”.
Archbishop Yllana said it was “not the last time” he would come to Brisbane. – The Catholic Leader