THE chairman of the Australian Bishops Commission for Church Life has
predicted that the Permanent Diaconate could play a key role in the
renewal of the Catholic Church in Australia.
By Anthony Barich
THE chairman of the Australian Bishops Commission for Church Life, Bishop Michael Malone of Maitland-Newcastle, told the August 6-9 National Deacons Conference in Broken Bay, NSW that in a climate of “loss of credibility, an exodus of people from the pews, rapidly ageing congregations, lack of vocations… and so on,” the permanent diaconate was well placed to play a crucial role in building on the signs of new life being sent by the Holy Spirit.
“The relative youthfulness of the Permanent Diaconate places this ministry firmly in the forefront of that rebuilding process,” he said at the conference attended by over 50 deacons and their wives.
“Because of the challenging richness of the lived experience and of future possibility, the Permanent Diaconate is limited only by our inability to dust off the past and reveal its full potential.”
He also re-iterated at the conference what National Committee for Deacons chairman, Brisbane Deacon Peter Olsen, told The Record pre-conference – that permanent deacons still faced resistance throughout Australia, but said ignorance was largely to blame.
He added that the wives of permanent deacons were a significant part of their ministry’s success.
“For 40 years now Deacons across Australia have been ‘working out’ what the ministry of the Deacon really is,” he said.
“In the light of the lived experience there seems to be a greater appreciation of the richness of the ministry.
“While I have the highest regard for the ministry of the Deacon, I venture to say that the wives of our married deacons have had a large part to play in the appreciation of the lived experience.”
Federal Opposition front-bencher Tony Abbott told the conference that Catholics must be able to expound the Church’s teachings without alienating others in order to bring the Faith to a secular world.
“We have to be very good at expounding the Church’s teachings but not in ways that make them alienating. If we do all that, we will be a force for the progress of the Church rather than a force for regression,” Mr Abbott, a former seminarian, told the conference.
“Living your principles without alienating those who don’t share them is the challenge we all face.”
Mr Abbott – who came under fire during his time as Federal Health Minister for calling 100,000 abortions a year in Australia a “national tragedy” at a Catholic student event in Adelaide, and was stripped of his veto role over the Therapeutic Goods Administration taking control of abortifacient RU486 – said he had always taken his Catholicism seriously thanks in large part to his parents and the example of the Brigidine Sisters and the Jesuits who educated him.
Opening the conference that took the theme “Word, Worship, Service”, Bishop David Walker of Broken Bay said that as sacred ministers, deacons are required to give complete priority to their ministry and to pastoral charity and “do their utmost to foster among people peace and harmony based on justice”.
Drawing on the teachings of Pope John Paul II in this area, Bishop Walker said that pastoral charity “is the virtue by which we imitate Christ in his self-giving and service” – not just a professional activity, but a self-giving which is transformative.
“It is not imposed from without, but cultivated from within,” he said.
The Deacons’ conference also heard addresses from Bishop Anthony Fisher, who spoke on “Service Ministry of a Deacon”, as well as Fr Frank Devoy, the Director of the Office of Clergy Life and Ministry; Fr Gerard Kelly and Deacon Jim Curtain from Melbourne.
Fr Frank Brennan SJ was the guest speaker at the conference dinner.
Delegates also commemorated the 100-year anniversary of the death of Blessed Mary MacKillop on August 7.