Members of the Diocesan Pastoral Council (DPC) have last week come together at the Salvatorian Spirituality Centre for their second meeting.
Chief, Mission Enhancement and Outreach, Dr Debra Sayce said the gathering was united in prayer, reflection and discernment as the Members continued the Archdiocese’s journey towards becoming a more synodal Church.
The day began with prayer led by Perth Auxiliary Bishop Nelson Po, who reflected on Ephesians 4:7-16, reminding participants that Christ has given different gifts to His people for the building up of the Church.
Bishop Po encouraged members to recognise their baptismal calling and to use their gifts generously in service of communion, mission and evangelisation.
A central theme throughout the meeting was the scriptural motto proposed by the Archbishop: Your word, Lord, is a lamp for our steps and a light for our path (Psalm 119:105).
Drawing on this theme, the Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB emphasised that all discernment within the Church must be firmly grounded in the Word of God and guided by the Holy Spirit.
In one of two keynote addresses, Archbishop Costelloe spoke about his recent visit to Rome for discussions marking the tenth anniversary of Amoris Laetitia.
Sharing how the Amoris Laetitia meetings were conducted over seven days in a Synodal style with bishops, cardinals, priests, religious and lay people gathered in small groups at round tables, Archbishop Costelloe recalled the discussions were conducted using the Conversations in the Spirit methodology, with each person expected to exercise the same sense of responsibility in terms of listening to others with an open heart.
“What we are trying to do here in our Archdiocese through our newly constituted Diocesan Pastoral Council is to play our part in making sure that we too are doing our best to open ourselves to the voice of the Spirit which Jesus promised would be with his Church, guiding her into the fullness of the truth,” Archbishop Costelloe explained.
“We have come to understand that through baptism we are all empowered to be able to discern together the voice of the Spirit calling us forward. We seek to read the signs of the times – the realities of our present day and concrete situation – in the light of the gospel and in harmony with the ever-unfolding and deepening understand understanding of that gospel which the Church over 2000 years has come to appreciate more fully.
Archbishop Costelloe emphasised that we are all equally the inheritors of the call to be faithful in finding way to proclaim what Pope Francis would call, The Joy of the Gospel, or Evangelii Gaudium, to the people of our time and place.
“To each other; to our brothers and sisters in the Catholic community; to our brothers and sisters in the wider Christian community here in this corner of Australia; and to the wider society in which we live,” he said.
“All of this speaks to us of the call to discernment, something which you might recall we discussed at our last meeting,” Archbishop Costelloe explained.
He spoke about the verse from Psalm 119, “Your word Lord is a lamp for our steps and a light for our path,” as the possibility of a motto of the Diocesan Pastoral Council.
“Those words, of course, come from the Hebrew scriptures but they find their fullest meaning when we are told in John’s Gospel that the Word of God was made flesh and lived among us (cf. Jn 1:14),” Archbishop Costelloe said.
“Every issue we consider, every step we propose to take, every decision which we may jointly make or which the Council may propose to me as the Bishop – all this must be first evaluated in the light of the gospel,” he explained.
Council Members also reflected on of Pope Francis’ Final Document: For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission, which emphasise discernment, participation, co-responsibility and mission.
Through prayerful conversations in the spirit, Members listened attentively to one another and sought to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to the local Church.
The meeting concluded with a renewed commitment to walking together as a synodal Church, guided by God’s Word and attentive to the voice of the Spirit as the Archdiocese continues its mission of faith, communion and service.