The Perth Catholic community is invited to attend the commissioning of the Archdiocese of Perth Plenary Council delegates during Mass at 11am on Sunday 4 October at St Mary’s Cathedral.
The Mass will be celebrated by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, who also holds two other significant roles as President of the Plenary Council – as appointed by Pope Francis – and Chairman of the Bishop’s Commission for the Plenary Council.
Perth Archdiocese Plenary Council Coordinator Tony Giglia expressed the importance of coming together to pray for the delegates as they take on their vital role by “Listening to what the Spirit is Saying” in preparation for their participation in the two Plenary Council assemblies.
“Being participants in this Commissioning Mass, gives us a chance as an Archdiocesan community to celebrate the significance of what this means for the Church in Australia,” Mr Giglia stated.
“It is our chance to hold the delegates in our embrace and give them our prayerful support and encouragement as they receive their blessing and commit to their roles.
“The commissioning of the delegates will now take place on the date of what would have been the opening of the first Assembly of the Plenary Council under the original arrangements and timeline – so there is some significance to the date,” he added.
The postponement of the first assembly was announced on 6 April 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first assembly will instead be held in Adelaide from 3 to 10 October 2021, with the second national gathering to be held in Sydney on 4 to 9 July 2022. The delegates among the group are scheduled to travel from Perth for both assemblies.
With the appointments of the delegates made during the coronavirus-led restrictions period, Mr Giglia explained the first local gathering of the Perth Archdiocese delegates took place on Tuesday 4 August.
At that gathering – which was centred on prayer, reflection and discussion – Archbishop Costelloe introduced the group to his paper, A Journey of Discernment: The Plenary Council, and spoke to them about the essence of that paper, encouraging them to reflect on the contents of the paper,” Mr Giglia said.
“One of the things that came out of that meeting was the desire by the delegates to do more work themselves on the practise of discernment and to deepen their understanding of what God is asking of us in Australia at this time.”
“It was a great privilege being able to sit down with the Archbishop and hear him talk about the paper he had written as a ‘gift’ to the Plenary Council and to us, the faithful,” he continued.
Mr Giglia mentioned that between now and the first assembly, the delegates will take the time to reflect on Archbishop Costelloe’s paper and are “considering ways and opportunities on deepening their experience of discernment”.
Archbishop Costelloe’s paper can be accessed by Clicking Here