An update from Fr. Mark

Dear Parishioners, during these dark days for our Catholic Community I would like to share some words from the Archbishop’s Sermon delivered at the Closing Mass of the 2019 Pontifical Summit for the Protection of Minors:

“The man of earth must die so that the man of heaven can be born; the old Adam must give way to the new Adam. This will require a true conversion, without which we as pastors and bishops will remain on the level of ‘mere administrators’. And as the Holy Father wrote in Evangelii Gaudium- ‘mere administration’ leaves untouched the heart of the abuse crisis.

Conversation alone will enable us to see that the wounds of those who have been abused are our wounds; that their fate is ours; that they are not our enemies but bone of our bones, flesh of our flesh. They are us, and we are them.
This conversion is in fact a Copernican revolution…For us, this revolution is the discovery that those who have been abused do not revolve around the Church, but the Church around them… This is the necessary conversion, the true revolution and the great grace, which can open for the church a new season of Mission.
Many will say – “Lord, when did we see you abused and did not come to help you?
But he will reply: In truth, I say to you, as often as you failed to do this to one of these the least of my brothers and sisters, you failed to do it to me”.
Most Rev Archbishop Mark Coleridge

Many Catholics have been shocked, distressed and saddened by the revelations of abuse exposed in the church over the last 30 plus years. The reality of abuse constantly confronts us as Catholics and members of the wider community. Through the abuse which has been exposed and uncovered, along with the lack of action and even cover up by church leaders and others, in and outside the church, we as a community can see something is not right with our church.

Clearly, elements of our church structures are unhealthy and not robust enough; our formation of priests has not and may still not be good enough to protect people from abuse. Until more recently sections of our church communities have resisted the need to have a safe community for all and some of our priests still resist enacting the safeguarding policy of the Archdiocese.

If people continue to resist the need for safeguarding in our communities and if leaders are not willing to change the way we “be and do” church in this society, we are resigning the Catholic Church to the waste bin of history. If we are not willing to change the heart of the church and our own hearts into the heart of Jesus and the Gospel we have lost our way as church.

The church has failed to protect its own and to this, the church and those in leadership who are responsible stand to answer for their actions. What we need now is for all in the church to develop hearts of the Gospel.

Fr. Mark Franklin