Last night, at his installation as Third Bishop in the Diocese of Parramatta, Dr Anthony Fisher OP delivered an inspiring and thought-provoking homily outlining some of the challenges he sees as pastor to the Western suburbs of Sydney. In short, it was his mission statement. Here at Catholica we suggest his homily has wider application than this Diocese and to draw attention to it, and to some of the challenges we'd also like to draw to the attention of His Lordship and other bishops, we submit for thoughtful consideration this editorial...

The challenge facing bishops in the educated, affluent sectors of the world...

In his installation homily as the Third Bishop in the Diocese of Parramatta, Western Sydney, Anthony Fisher, presented a vision of the Catholic Church and its mission in this particular local territory that, in many ways, has much broader application to the universal Church. In so many ways, the Diocese of Parramatta can be considered as almost demographically typical of so much of the Church anywhere in the English-speaking world today. It is a largely urban diocese in the rapidly-expanding working and middle class sectors of society and with an over-representation of refugees and migrants from the great migrant intakes to this country over the past century. It is a diocese which reflects many of the social challenges emerging in modern society. It has a huge, upwardly socially mobile population aspiring ever more to better education for the new generations and seeking, sometimes taking, a bigger share of the 'pie of affluence' that Western society in general has been able to deliver to its citizens in the nearly six decades since the end of the Second World War and the Great Depression which preceded it.

Within Australia it is the envy of many other dioceses because it has suffered less than many others in the fall-off in sacramental participation albeit that much of this is attributed to its multicultural nature just as in the United States what growth the Church has experienced can be attributed to Latino immigration rather than the 'success' of the Episcopal leadership in developing communication strategies that convince the broad masses of the educated and the affluent of the continuing relevance of Jesus Christ in the Third Millennium.

The evidence from schools and other places, is that the educated and young have become as sceptical and disillusioned as many of the offspring of earlier generations of Catholics in this country who today are seemingly deeply disillusioned by the programs offered for spiritual salvation by the institutional leadership. The interview we recorded two years ago on Catholica with four young men [LINK] who are products of the Catholic education system in the Parramatta diocese is, in our experience of talking to many young people today, very typical of the attitudes in the broad swath of young people. They are the sort of people leaders like Anthony Fisher and the other leaders of the Church need to convince in their evangelisation strategies. As parents of young people ourselves, many in the circles I move in see little evidence whatsoever that the institutional leaders — unlike the teachers in Catholic schools — yet have the foggiest understanding of what the communication problems are in the realms of spirituality and religious belief. They, the leaders, tend to be 'pushing their own agendas' of what they believe 'truth' is, what they believe is the correct interpretation of the 'good news' offered by Jesus Christ. Very often though they are light years removed from being able to listen to what young people are saying in the vast majority of homes today — and even what the vast majority of their parents and grandparents are saying who DID follow all the formulas advanced by the late John Paul II and previous generations of bishops. Today many of those parents and grandparents find those formulas very much 'wanting in substance' and are sick of the 'spin' of how the institution never makes mistakes and never has to modify its thinking in the light of the new knowledge our Loving Creator is constantly raining down on human civilisation through new insights obtained through the sciences and other disciplines of human enquiry, including Biblical scholarship and theology itself.

A youngish leader — and intelligent too...

Parramatta is at least lucky in that we have a youngish bishop coming in as leader but as he himself discloses in his homily he's even a good fifteen years older than the median population age for his diocese. Parramatta is also lucky in that we have a bishop coming in who is intellectually astute and, from all reports, well-read in the latest thinking in theology as well as in current affairs and contemporary culture.

Young Anthony also carries some 'baggage'. One is his flawed political response during World Youth Day to the situation of Christine and Anthony Foster whose daughters were subject to abuse by priests with one of them eventually taking her own life [Link to story in The Age newspaper]. It was the response so typical of so many in ecclesial leadership positions in recent times who were more interested in trying to bolster the moral authority of the institution and its leaders rather than to reach out and give compassion, succour, freedom, and peace of heart to those 'most vulnerable' who some, acting in the name of the institution, sought to exploit and abuse. That behaviour is no longer acceptable whether it is coming from a diocesan bishop or the Pope himself.

Young Anthony also comes with a legacy of being a John Paul II bishop. He's been overly identified with the agendas of JPII, his successor Benedict, and their self-appointed mouthpiece in Australia, the Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell who have been presenting to us an agenda that has been driving more and more people away from the truths, the insights and the "Way (of thinking and acting)" offered by Jesus Christ. You don't have to believe me. Just read the statistics of the hundreds of millions who have given up the sacramental practice of their faith in recent decades. It is simply bullshit to believe that by reaching out to what Benedict has labelled the "simple people" and the "little people" that the re-evangelisation of Catholicism is going to be brought about. It is simply bullshit to suggest that the vast majority of people who have left have left because they have been sucked out of the Church by secularism, consumerism and the allures of affluence. Benedict's "little people" are not the same "little people" Jesus Christ speaks about. The responsibility of the institution is to be "lifting up the so-called 'little people' — the insecure, the superstitious, the uneducated" not to be attempting to psychologically "cement in" their insecurities, their superstitions and their lack of education and their inability to think intelligently or rationally. The vast masses in the Western world do not need to be "protected from the intellectuals" (to again borrow Benedict's words). They are well educated themselves and they need to be reasoned with in intelligent, adult ways.

While the institution and its leaders do have pastoral responsibilities to the insecure and Benedict's "simple people" — and so do all the rest of us. That responsibility must not be exercised at the expense of the vast majority of the baptised in the Body of Christ!

Catholicism is not some kindergarten game of running around trying to prove to our mothers what "good citizens" and "obedient little Catholics so faithful to the magisterium" we turned out to be. Being Catholic, or Christian, is a deadly serious adult game of learning how to make intelligent moral decisions when the parameters of life are often a long way from black or white. It's about demonstrating our loyalty to our Loving Creator — "the will of our Father in heaven" as Jesus himself labels it — not what immature kindergarten games we play in this realm of existence trying to prove what 'good little girls and boys' we are for some kindergarten Ma'am of our imagination — or the Holy Father. The 'Holy' Father has his own tests ahead of him demonstrating how capable he is of providing a 'morally intelligent' response to the victims of clerical sexual and other forms of abuse around the world rather than trying to bolster the 'moral authority' of a leadership that has almost totally squandered it. The response coming from the Vatican to the Irish abuse situation is still totally inadequate. That needs to be fixed as a starting point for the Episcopal leadership of the institution to start to regain some respect from the world and the baptised of the Body of Christ at large. The Catholic Church is not going to be re-evangelised by exclusively trying to appeal to, and appease, the insecurities of the 5% who might form some remnant of a discredited form of Catholicism.

It is a lie and 'spin' to suggest that modern civilisation is in some "culture of death". It is delusional thinking of the highest magnitude. Modern Western society through its parliaments and laws shows increasing regard for human rights and the sanctity of life. These Church policies focusing on so-called "life issues" are an intellectual disgrace not trying to cut down on the incidence of abortion and euthanasia in society but more connected with endeavouring to appease this insecure minority, Benedict's "little people" again, that "we know God laws better than everybody else in creation and everybody else are sinners". That kindergarten game has to stop as a starting point to reducing the incidence of abortion in modern Western societies. It will only stop when we have courageous spiritual leaders again who have established for themselves a level of respect which is extended to them by the vast majority of citizens because the people again respect and listen to their bishops because they value their advice and wisdom not because the leadership demands respect and adoration of authority figures.

The program already exists —
but people are very confused about what it is these days...

In his homily, Bishop Fisher, argues:

"'We shall not be saved by a formula but by a person,' [John Paul II] observed. It is not a matter of inventing a new program. The program already exists. It is the plan found in the Gospel and the living tradition, centred on Christ himself who is to be known, loved and imitated so that in him we may live the life opportunity and, with him, transform history."

The reality, Your Lordship, is self-evidently the institution is increasingly failing to convince the vast masses in Western society of that proposition. We here at Catholica humbly suggest to you that the 'program' as you call it has become very confusing for the world at large. This is an issue we are constantly discussing on Catholica. What is "the program"? Is it this game of not upsetting the "little people" and their superstitions and magic beliefs about Jesus—the Saviour? Or is it a program seeking to reach out to the increasingly educated in the Western world and speaking to them about moral and life values in the sophisticated and nuanced language they use to communicate about everything else in their lives? Is it some program trying to con society at large that the institution and its priesthood is incapable of errors and mistakes, that they like Jesus himself are beyond sin? Or is it a program of endeavouring to educate people, and particularly the young, about how Jesus Christ offers us life, peace, and happiness not through the promise of reward through miracles if we go to Mass and say our Rosaries often enough but because we have each learned to think, reason and act our way through life in the manner of Jesus Christ?

The measure of our success as Catholics is not how "different" or "square" we can make ourselves look to everyone else in society. It is how effective our moral responses and arguments are perceived to be by the vast masses in society — how much we are respected and listened to because our arguments make moral sense. There seems this fear in this remnant sector driving the Catholic agenda today that the alternative to their agenda requires less discipline, less personal obedience and is some recipe for moral nihilism in society. That is a fallacy. Teaching people to think for themselves and make intelligent moral judgments entails a heck of a lot more personal discipline and obedience to the voice of God in their lives than the insecure sectors of the institution have to offer with their simplistic formulae.

Bishop Anthony Fisher has his work cut out for him in his new diocese. But so does every other bishop around the Western world endeavouring to respond to the real spiritual needs of the broad sweep in their flock and not be tempted to alone respond to the needs of those who only know how to say "yes father, no father, three bags full father" as they recite their spiritual nursery rhymes. As the youngest bishop in Australia and potentially our most intellectual there is much for us to be hopeful for — not only in what he might build in Parramatta on the legacy of his predecessors, Bishops Bede Heather and Kevin Manning, both men who earned considerable respect from their people in difficult circumstances — but also as an example to bishops elsewhere in Australia and across the English-speaking world.

Here is the full audio track of Bishop Anthony Fisher's homily and below that I have transcribed the central section which I suggest has wider application than just the Diocese of Parramatta. If you would prefer to see the video version it is included at the bottom of this page.

What is that mission?

Jesus chose tonight's first reading as his mission statement. And unlike so many his was anything but 'spin'. He chose a text full of promise, of evangelisation, healing, liberation, vindication, blessing. But behind such hopes were real people who were suffering or searching, crying out for consolation. It's those who have 'bad news' who are most hungry for 'good' — the poor in spirit, or resources, the powerless, ignorant or sinful.

So at the beginning of his public ministry Christ identified himself as the one who 'delivers us from every evil' — from anything opposed to true human happiness. To the victims of unemployment, family breakdown, prejudice or other injustice in Western Sydney the Church recommits herself tonight to bring the 'good news', to bind up broken hearts, to proclaim freedom from the many kinds of captivity, and God's favour for the little ones.

In our second lesson we heard St Paul's anxieties for the Ephisians of his time lest they be tossed to and fro not by poverty and powerlessness so much as fashion and falsehood and so be at the mercy of a culture of lies and death. Christ's gift in this situation, he explains, is to send apostles and pastors, preachers and teachers. Their mission is simple — to consecrate people in that truth, and unite them in that love, for which Jesus prayed in our gospel. This is why evangelisation, preaching, religious education and formation are 'core' in every age. For every successor of the Apostles since Paul has had the mission of 'building up' the Church in truth and love.

The Church, like her God, is ever ancient, ever new. In every generation she faces both perennial challenges and novel ones. At the dawn of this millennium, Pope John Paul the Second called us to a 'trusting optimism' neither underestimating the problems nor responding with stock solutions. 'We shall not be saved by a formula but by a person,' he observed. It is not a matter of inventing a new program. The program already exists. It is the plan found in the Gospel and the living tradition, centred on Christ himself who is to be known, loved and imitated so that in him we may live the life opportunity and, with him, transform history.

That transforming life must be expressed in concrete initiatives and the advent of a new bishop occasions a fresh look at our activities.

The inspiration for 21st Century Western Sydney must be the same as for 1st Century Ephesus: Jesus Christ — the same yesterday, today and forever.

Like every Age and Place before it, the Diocese of Parramatta today has its particular needs and gifts. This is a 'young diocese' — canonically and demographically. By comparison to the median age of its people in their early 30s, I'm already an 'old guy'. With so many young families and young adults, with new parishes, schools and outreach every year, so much is possible. There is every reason to have that 'trusting optimism'. Add to its youthfulness, the ethnic diversity of this Diocese and it's like World Youth Day everyday here in Parramatta — if, perhaps, a little less intense.

The novelty of this very building that houses the bishop's cathedra, or chair, attempts to express the ever-newness of the Church even as the neo-gothic spire and medieval Madonna reflect its continuity with more ancient tradition. It is in fact the fourth church on this site since the days of those first Dominicans and it too will evolve as the 21st Century unfolds — for we are not either a pre-Vatican II or a post-Vatican II Church; either a Roman or an Australian; either a Western Desert or a Western suburbs one; we are the Catholic Church embracing all time and space and cultures. Nicaea and Vatican II, Rome and Australia, the bush and the city.

With full heart, I give thanks to Almighty God for calling me to serve him and his people, as Religious, Priest and Bishop of such a Church.

Video of the Homily

COPYRIGHT and ORIGINAL VIDEO LINK:
As Editor of Catholica I am not sure who the copyright is vested in with this video, the bishop, the diocese or the xt3/iactiv8 websites. Under copyright law it would have been acceptable to take the part I have transcribed as part of a review, which is how this editorial has been presented. I have perhaps stretched the allowances of the law to include the audio and video tracks of the entire homily but I trust the copyright holders will excuse this by way of our attempt to use this homily to generate wider discussion about important issues. The original video of the whole installation ceremony from which the homily video was extracted can be found at:
http://iactiv8.viotv.com/?MediaId=b2f5b5b2-0e18-41e0-b50e-d5d0de41f098

Brian Coyne, Editor and Publisher

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