Darryl McClure, who writes a column in the Geelong Advertiser, former editor, also parishioner, had a column this weekend about footy clubs. Geelong Football League and this is well before my time here but only back in about 1979 or so there was a major upheaval of different leagues and clubs looking towards the sense of survival and strength and so on various clubs decided to merger and amalgamate and so on. The article concerned the whole question of what happens when these sort of mergers which are very common of course in football clubs and in various other circumstances as well, its there in business, its there even in families to some degree and we have blended families and all sort of other situations that emerge in this day and age; where communities that have had a distinct identity for a sense of at worst of survival at best a sense of giving of their best say “Hey we can do this better if we work together”.
Its something which has of necessity of course a sense of pain in the sense that identities change, history is different, as one who had to survive South Melbourne moving to Sydney there is life after that sort of change I can say, but in the context of footy and most of us if we look back at our own experience of life moving house, changing the car, any number of different circumstances where we say look we’d love things to go on as they are but the old car is blowing a bit of smoke and its letting us down and it won’t start in the morning, we’d better get rid of it. We’ve loved having it we love driving it but let’s put it in the trading post and see if some fool can come and take it off our hands, we mightn’t say that, it’s basically what we do, so we’ve gotta move on, its not gonna do us any good any more, we face up to those sort of circumstances.
I must say in reading Darryl McClure’s article this morning, it certainly struck a few chords with me and may be it should with all of us as part of the Church. Not just in our own circumstances here in Geelong with two parishes I may be very conscious on this feast of the Parish to recognise that the parishes this parish of St. Mary’s is going to become one with the Parish of St. Margaret’s East Geelong, we’re calling it a reunification it doesn’t matter what you call it, its gonna have its difficulties, but its also going to have it strengths and it’s a matter of may be glass half empty, glass half full, arrangement do we look at the weaknesses or do we look at the strengths that can be there. The weakness of course and the problems that come with change are bought about by any number of different circumstances not the least being the very rapidly declining number of priests and I’ll mention that a little more specifically in a few moments.
But it’s not just that the Priest is there just as an administrator or as even as the Pastor. The Priest is the person who makes the Eucharist possible and the Eucharist is the gathering point it’s the source of identity that we have within the context of the Catholic faith really means. Catholic faith without Eucharist is not Catholic faith at all. It is the very focal point and centrality of what we are, I remember reading many years ago a story of a very remote community that was Catholic that had not had the opportunity of Mass for many years, the people would come together and would gather around in a little building that used to serve as their Church very humble and poor community and they would produce the cloth called the Corporal on which the last Mass was celebrated. The last Eucharist was celebrated, that was their connection with the Eucharist that was their connection with the sense of identity as members of the Catholic Church, and so, Eucharist is absolutely central to who we are and what we are within the context of Catholic faith.
But we look at the situation that we say well things are gonna be more difficult, this time last year there were four priests between Geelong and East Geelong for example; and now there’s myself and I’m very grateful for the assistance of Father Burke but that’s a rapid decline in just a few short months, and it’s the same all over the Archdiocese its probably the same pretty well through out the whole country. At the same time God in His wisdom and goodness has given us a few things to look at the half full idea in the sense that things aren’t as bad as they could be.
He’s given us something called something called Mobility. It’s probably parked out the front there, its got four wheels and a steering wheel. Or maybe it’s got two wheels and handle bars, and or may be it’s a telephone, whereby if we don’t have four wheels and a steering wheel we can ring up someone who has. And any of those different circumstances which if I go back x number of years and parishes were built very close together because everybody walked to Mass, it doesn’t happen that way, things are different.
We have other means of communicating we’ve got Email, and we’ve got telephones, we’ve got mobile phones and with everything else we can do so much in terms of linking ourselves with the Eucharist in ways that we never did before. We can click on the internet a number of different sites and get a daily Mass, people who are shut in and unable to get to Mass can actually through the internet if they’ve got friendly Son or daughter who can do these sort of things for them if they’re not up to it themselves can actually tune in to a daily Mass at any time it suits them. We’re actually investigating the opportunity of going down that track ourselves here from St. Mary’s. So these are the pluses that are there, there the recognition of the fact that all is not lost at the same time the sense of losing something as Parish identities whether they grow larger or whether Parishes identities are lost, submerged or whatever all of this is happening all over this country, its happening all over Britain, we recently had visitors from the Dioceses of Lancaster and Leeds who were here for World Youth Day, a very similar story going on there.
These are the circumstances within which we have to operate as I said the question of Eucharist is absolutely central that’s why the number of priests that are available to make that possible is going to be fairly complex and just to give you a bit of an idea of where its heading and this is not meant to be doom and gloom its meant to be realism of acknowledging the facts as they are, and I speak to you as someone in my fortieth year of Priesthood and I’m still in the younger half, which is sort of good from one perspective but maybe not so good from another.
Just to give you an idea of what’s happening this is the current situation:-
We’ve Got 171 Priests in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, and that’s not just working in Parishes, that’s in Seminary Staff, and some are studying and some are on Loan somewhere and some in the Military and so on. A Hundred and Seventy One.
We’ve got 20 Priests from Overseas, and we’ll have two of those working in the Geelong area soon, one already in Corio and another one going to Looking after Meredith and Rice Village. So that’s 191. That’s not too bad; remember that’s spread over 230 Parishes at the moment.
But in 5 years time, those 171 that we’ve got now under 75 years old, 31 will pass the age of 75 in the next 5 years, and so you take 31 from 171 and you’ve got 140 that’s only 5 years time.
And then there’ll be an average of Ordinations will be about 3 per year and that’s based on who’s in the Seminary at the moment. So that’s we’ll get another 15, if we assume the number of priests from overseas remains consistent at 20 that’ll take us up to 175.
You say that’s not too bad. However in the past 4 years we’ve lost each year an average of 8 priests under the age of 75, through sickness and early retirement and a couple of cases resignation death whatever and I suppose death is the ultimate resignation in itself but we’ve lost 8 per year for the last four years.
Let’s look on the bright side of life and say that’s reduced to five per year so you still take away another 25 from 175 you end up with 150.
And of those one third thereabouts will be between the ages of 65 and 75, and including yours truly.
So then we go 10 years down the track. Now my Car’s ten years old, its still purring along very nicely, but ten years is not long and in ten years time you go down the same sets of figures and you’ll have 116 of the current 171 will be under 75, will have 30 ordinations, 10 by 3, we consider that the priests from overseas remain the same another 20 that takes us up to what have we got 146, 166, but if your still going to lose 5 per year that’s a lot better than what we’ve had in the last four years that takes you down to 116, which includes anybody who becomes a Bishop Specialist Chaplain to various hospitals and so on Seminary Staff Military Chaplains and so on. 116.
And of those more than half will be between 65 and 75. Them’s the facts, they’re based on studies of ages and birthday’s and all sorts of other things.
So that in the immediate future its going to get harder before it gets easier and that just means that there are less Priests to make the Eucharist possible and particularly in Geelong where we haven’t got the opportunity to pull priests in from various religious orders and so on as would be the case in Melbourne.
So we say well, what do we do? Do we throw up our hands and we say no, of course we don’t. But we’re realistic about it, and we adjust accordingly as we all have to changing circumstances but we also retain a sense of optimism, because we are people of faith, and we believe in Emmanuel that God is with us. And we believe that if we do our best if we are realistic and if we persevere and if we are resilient to the demands of today we can build effectively to the needs of tomorrow.
Look at this magnificent building and you think of the vision of those who designed it and of those who said we can do this. Now from design to completion was the best part of ninety years but none the less it happened and here are we enjoying the fruits of their labour of their generosity, of their vision. That’s all part of our Parish history we are part of Parish history as well there are challenges, there are difficulties but we are on about the things of God, we are people who have the mission of Jesus let’s carry that forward with a sense of optimism and a sense of faith, believing in the God who cares and loves for us believing in the patronage of Mary Queen of the Angels of this Parish and give a sense of leadership for our Church of the future.
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Homily - The 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time |
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