The inspiration of a country’s martyrs has transformed a country into a goldmine for religious vocations. This has important lessons for Australia, says Sydney Seminary Rector
By Matthew Hodgson
Anthony Barich
Australia can draw much from Blessed Mary MacKillop’s faith and love to renew the Church in Australia just as Uganda has enjoyed the fruits of ‘grass-roots evangelisation’ based on their martyrs of the 19th century, Sydney Seminary Rector Fr Anthony Percy said.
A pilgrimage to Kampala to witness two of his former seminarians being ordained by the local Cardinal amidst a passionately faithful people taught Fr Percy much about what is required in Australia for the renewal of the Church.
This includes a re-alignment and proper understanding of the true intentions of the Second Vatican Council, he said. It also brought home to him “how much we really need to pray to the Lord of the harvest for vocations” to the priesthood.
In Uganda he noticed a mutual love, affection and support between those in the ministerial priesthood and those who form the common priesthood – that is, between priest and people.
This is a crucial point for Australia where there is confusion in the life of the Church with respect to the vocation and function of both priest and people, he said.
“Both are essential for the good governance and functioning of the Church and for the mission that Christ entrusts to us. It is a true ‘sign of the times’ when both priestly and lay vocation are respected and loved and when the two work together in harmony,” he said.
“One of the retired Archbishops of Australia, Francis Carroll, used to say that the Second Vatican Council tried to move the Church away from being centred upon the Sacrament of Holy Orders to being rooted in the Sacrament of Baptism. This is entirely true.
“However, some people misinterpreted this critical theological shift. They thought that what was intended was a reorientation away from priesthood to the lay state.
“This has been unfortunate, since the Church has desired a renewal of ecclesial life based on the power of Christ’s death and resurrection made present through Baptism. This is true whether one happens to be a Pope, Bishop, priest, Religious or lay person. All are called to the fullness of life in one’s chosen state. All are called to be saints.”
The trip to Uganda saw two former seminarians from the Seminary of the Good Shepherd in Sydney, Deacons John Ssemaganda and Simon Kitimbo, both 29, ordained at Sacred Heart Cathedral in their home diocese of Kampala, by Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala on 4 July.
Fr Simon will be assigned a parish within the Archdiocese of Sydney where he will work for the next five years. Fr John will spend the next three years working in the Harbor City before returning home to take up parish duties in Uganda.
Having spoken to Ugandan priests and Cardinal Wamala, Fr Percy told The Record he believes the country’s abundance of priestly vocations is due to:
l the rise of indigenous clergy early in the 20th Century;
l local and inculturated seminaries;
l strong marriages and families;
l good catechesis in schools and houses of formation;
l Pope John Paul II’s insistence on inculturation of faith;
l the excellent relationship between lay people and the priests;
l the dynamic and powerful influence of the Ugandan martyrs;
l the unity of the Church in Uganda and
l the joy and happiness of the priests.
“The Ugandans are first rate believers. They possess not just any old faith, but real, supernatural faith in the Trinitarian God who acts permanently and with subtlety in our lives,” said Fr Percy, who was present for the pair’s ordination with a Sydney contingent comprising five priests, one Religious, a seminarian, six lay.
“What is clear to me now is that the Ugandan Church has not forgotten, for one minute, what the Ugandans martyrs accomplished in the years 1885-1887.
“The Ugandan Church has taken seriously Tertullian’s counsel, ‘The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians’.
The Archdiocese of Kampala’s strategic plan takes the Ugandan martyrs as the prototypes for what they call ‘grassroots evangelisation.’ All of the martyrs were lay people and this is what inspires the Church now to face the challenges in the 21st Century, Fr Percy said.
“In Australia we would do well to re-read and re-live the life of Blessed Mary of the Cross, Mackillop, and use her example for ‘grassroots evangelisation.’ Hers was a spirituality deeply rooted in the Tradition – love for Christ present in the poor, especially outback school children, and in the Eucharist.”
The fruits of her work today must be more than just Catholics working for social justice, he said, because, at heart, she was a woman of faith and love, yet was also very grounded – a typical characteristic of Australian Catholicism, Fr Percy said.
Blessed Mary MacKillop will be canonised by Pope Benedict XVI on 17 October in Rome.
The experience of faith in Uganda was made tangible, Fr Percy said, during the sacrifice of the Eucharist, when the Ordination Rite took three and a half hours and applause at the consecration, which he found “extremely moving”, as he did the “outpouring of piety through song, music and movement”.
While celebrating the consecration in such a way seems controversial, locals told him it is their way of welcoming a visitor who appears in their midst.
This concept of ‘divine visitation’ is a theme that is strong in Luke’s Gospel.
“We ring bells at the consecration as God has done something wonderful for us,” he said.
“We look beyond the suffering to the self-giving of God in this act.”
While Uganda’s material poverty contrasts with the affluence of Australia, the former’s civil and ecclesial life is built on the foundation of marriage and family, where as Australia as “suffered enormously” from the break-up of marriage and the break-down of the family.
“We simply don’t have the family life that breeds vocations as it does in Uganda,” he said.
“God is God and we are His people. God is able to use any situation to fulfil His purposes.
“So if we pray in the Spirit for the vocations that we so desperately need, then we are doing what the Lord has instructed us to do; and in praying for vocations, something else happens: we immediately raise awareness in the Church of the need for vocations to priestly and religious life.”
He expects the two new Ugandan priests to build on the already “colossal” good they have brought to Sydney.
“I would imagine that they will make many young men think seriously about the priestly calling. They are full of faith, have a good sense of humour and a very deep spirit of service. The people entrusted to their care will know they are loved.
“They bring with them the spirit of the Ugandan Church,” he said. “This will be no small gift to the Archdiocese of Sydney and the Church in Australia. I would hope, too, that they would be able to mobilise Africans who now live in Australia.”