Since his ordination 40 years ago, Highgate parish priest Fr Peter Bianchini has had a passion for the ongoing formation of clergy.
During that time he has been heavily involved in various programs to assist clergy, including taking on the role of director for the Perth Archdiocese in the Clergy, Life and Ministry Council.
It is just one of many councils operated by the Australian Bishops’ Commission for Church Ministry, and consists of about 30 directors from almost every diocese in the country.
Fr Peter told The Record the council’s book of reference is Pastores Daro Vobis, Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation on priesthood.
“In that, he calls for councils of priests, he calls for the ongoing education of clergy,” he said.
“So our goal is about formation and ongoing education of clergy – intellectually, spiritually, even physically and emotionally.”
The council receives direction from the Bishops’ Commission for Church Ministry, which may ask the council members to produce documents on specific topics.
“One of the big jobs that we’re looking at at the moment is to have new guidelines for the permanent diaconate,” Fr Peter said.
“Topics that the council mentions not only come from the Bishops themselves but they come up from any member of the council, but also our regional meetings.”
Fr Peter recently travelled to Adelaide for the 2014 regional meeting, along with diocesan directors from the Northern Territory, South Australia and other parts of WA.
“Our formal meeting always starts with personal reflection, so we talk about ourselves and what’s going on in our own lives,” Fr Peter said.“It just gives them an opportunity to care about each other, we spend half a day doing that, then each would give a report.”
As the diocesan director for Perth, Fr Peter’s report is based on the meetings of the clergy held in the Archdiocese regularly. He also reports on the annual seminar and retreat for priests held during the year.
The national director for Clergy, Life and Ministry, Fr Brian Moloney, also attends each regional meeting.
“The national director talks about what he’s picking up nationally, he travels quite a bit, he goes to just about every meeting… so he meets the priests of Australia,” Fr Peter explained.
Topics such as priestly morale are raised frequently, Fr Peter said, and such issues are then raised at the national meetings of all the diocesan directors.
Constant priestly formation is another task the Clergy, Life and Ministry council is responsible for.
“Pastores Daro Vobis is very strict on that,” Fr Peter said. “Priests, their whole life should be ongoing formation.”
Part of the council’s role in priestly formation includes encouraging and facilitating clergy to go on sabbaticals.
“This last year we have just re-written the sabbatical policy, but it hasn’t been promulgated yet,” Fr Peter said.
“It’s all part of getting clergy to study or go away and be renewed. We’re really trying to encourage them to go away and we support them in doing that financially.”
The council also examines the role of deacons, as well as running programs to welcome overseas priests through ‘acculturation’ rather than ‘inculturation’, Fr Peter said.
“We spend a lot of energy on working with overseas priests, and problems with the national deacon document,” he said.
In the past four years, the Clergy, Life and Ministry Council has gradually introduced diocesan nurses to assist elderly and retired priests.
“We talked about it at council level and other dioceses started to support it and so we now have a national nurses group and they just look after priests,” Fr Peter said.
“What we’ve discovered is priests are pretty stubborn and pretty odd, it’s amazing what people who are female can get out of these guys.
“The Bishop might have been trying for 100 years to get someone to go to a nursing home and he won’t go, but the nurse comes along, sees him a few times, and suddenly she’s got him going to a nursing home.”
Although Fr Peter has now retired from the council, he said he would continue to attend the regional and national meetings until a successor from the Archdiocese is appointed.