In the wake of the "disappointing" response from the President of the Australian Catholic Bishops last week, Dr Paul Collins and Frank Purcell, the organisers of a petition to the Australian Catholic Bishops last year, last night announced a new campaign to generate at least a thousand letters which they hope to have delivered to Pope Benedict during his visit to Australia next month. The letter they are suggesting people write addresses the looming crisis in Ministry this nation faces with a lack of priests to officiate at weddings, funerals and Sunday liturgies.

Text of the joint letter Paul Collins and Frank Purcell
are sending to the Petitioners

Dear Signatories,

Thanks so much for offering to help continue the work of the petition to the Australian bishops. Here’s something we suggest that you can do to advance this cause: write a letter directly to Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Sydney in July about your concerns. Tell him ...

• that there are not enough priests in Australia to celebrate Mass and the Sacraments, and that importing foreign priests is not the answer;
• that there are no theological obstacles to the ordination of married men, reminding him that for eleven hundred years most Catholic priests were married;
• that Australia be allowed to mount an experiment for a 30 year period in which carefully selected and thoroughly trained married men be ordained, with a review after the experimental period;
• that while women do 75% of the pastoral work in Australia they still lacking representation at the senior levels of church leadership and that their ministry is often unrecognized.

While the focus in the letter should be on what is immediately possible i.e. the ordination of married men, you may want to add that the church cannot be said to have reached consensus about the ordination of women, that you know there is nothing in Scripture against women’s ordination and that the church should be free to discuss the issue.

Catholics for Ministry are trying to get 1000 letters along these lines to deliver to the Pope while he is in Sydney for World Youth Day. Please write a brief (no more than one page), respectful, signed and addressed letter and get as many of your Catholic friends to do the same. Please send the letters to us at:

Catholics for Ministry
PO Box 4053
Manuka, ACT  2603

We’ll gather the letters together and do our level best to get them delivered to Pope Benedict while he is in Sydney. If we’re not successful, we’ll forward them to him at the Vatican. We need to have your letter in hand by Thursday 3 July 2008 in order to give us time to process the letters.

Please write your letter now. Change will only come if committed Catholics are involved. Thank you,

Yours sincerely,

Frank Purcell, Paul Collins

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