005 :
27 Apr 2010

"Systemic reform of Church structures is needed!" Bishop Patrick Power, Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Australia's capital city, Canberra, has in recent days renewed his often repeated calls for fundamental reform in the Catholic Church in the Canberra Times and Eureka Street. Bishop Power has given us permission to republish his comments on Catholica mainly for the benefit of our growing readership in the Northern Hemisphere. The commentary which follows has already been the subject of discussion in the Catholica forum and we welcome the contributions of others to our conversations. [more]

004 :
24 May 2008

Bishop Power's expression for support for Bishop Robinson… Retired Australian Bishop, Geoffrey Robinson, has in the last week or so come under pressure from the Vatican, from an unsigned statement put out in the name of the Australian Bishops, and from at least one Cardinal in the United States, for his blunt book entitled "Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church — Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus". Bishop Patrick Power, who is presently on long service leave, yesterday sent Catholica this unsolicited statement of heartfelt support for Bishop Robinson which it is our great pleasure to publish. The sentiments expressed in this article very much accord with the overwhelming sense of support we detect being expressed for them in the disenchanted, largely non-vocal, though exceedingly large sectors of the lay Church we come into contact with in this nation. We salute both Bishop Robinson and Bishop Power for having the courage to exhibit the spiritual leadership of their people that they have shown. …Brian Coyne, Editor. [more]

003 :
23 Nov 2007

Revitalising the Church to meet the needs of the modern world… Following a recent letter to many of the Australian Bishops in which I invited them to submit any commentaries they might have from time to time that might be of interest to the readership of Catholica Australia, Bishop Pat Power sent in a copy of this address he gave two weeks ago at Chevalier College, Bowral. It is a powerful address effectively making a call for the entire Church to get back "on message" to the vision of the Second Vatican Council which was outlined in the Pastoral Constitution, Gaudium et Spes. …Brian Coyne, Editor. [more]

002 :
21 Aug 2007

Open Letter to Petition Organisers... Bishop Pat Power has written to the organisers of the Petition to the Australian Catholic Bishops supporting the call for consideration of the ordination of married men and also encouraging discussion of the more contentious issue of the women's ordination. [more]

001 :
29 Sep 2006

A Time for Reform... Today we have pleasure in presenting an article that Bishop Pat Power sent in to us. It was actually written as on op-ed piece for the Melbourne Age in 2002 but is particularly relevant at this time as Bishop Power will be one of the keynote speakers at the forthcoming Australian Reforming Catholics Annual Conference on 13-14 October. In this article he articulates some of the areas in which he believes reform is necessary and he seeks to outline some of the characteristics he sees the institutional Church needing to embrace if it is to surmount the challenges it is presently facing. [more]