Prior to Pope Benedict's arrival in Australia for World Youth Day, the organisers of last year's petition to the Australian Catholic Bishops seeking discussion on ways of addressing the growing crisis in the availability of priests, invited people to write letters to Pope Benedict himself. The petition organisers, Catholics for Ministry, received more than 200 letters which have been forwarded to His Holiness.

Readers of Catholica will be aware that last year 16,800 practising Catholics signed a petition after Masses in 130 of Australia's 1360 parishes asking the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference to acknowledge the acute shortage of priests especially in rural areas where priests travel vast distances to provide Mass and the sacraments, to consider the ordination to priesthood of "suitably qualified married men", to allow the return of married priests to ministry, and to encourage "a wide-ranging discussion of the role of women in ministry and in the authority structures of the church, including the question of women's ordination."

Archbishop Philip Wilson provided a weak official response on behalf of the Australian bishops

The petition has received a not altogether unexpected official response from the President of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Philip Wilson saying effectively that the bishops are working on the problem but that "the issues [are] largely beyond the competence" of the Bishops Conference. This was a response designed more to comfort Rome and not upset the boat rather than one to provide any comfort to the petitioners who had taken the trouble to petition the Bishops. Handled in other ways the opportunity might have been seized on by the bishops to inject a bit more vigour back into the Australian Church and that might have been done in ways that didn't necessarily have to upset the nervous nellies in Rome.

Unofficially it is known that the crisis in providing priests in the future is one of the most pressing issues facing the Bishops in this country and more so in the more sparsely populated regions of the nation. In many places parishes have been closed down or combined and over-worked priests look after multiple parishes both in urban and rural areas. There are priests who travel more than 600 kilometres per weekend to provide Masses in rural areas.

Despite the high visibility of Pope Benedict while he was in Australia and the hundreds of thousands of faces he gazed on while he was here, the security issues and the pressures of his schedule for the official events meant that His Holiness himself would have received a very limited picture of the state of Catholicism in this nation. The enormous expenditure of money and energy that went into mounting the World Youth Day celebrations also provided a somewhat artificial view of the vibrancy of Catholicism in Australia.

In an endeavour to try and provide His Holiness with some understanding of "the other side of the picture", Catholics for Ministry invited ordinary Catholics to write their own personal letters to His Holiness. In the short time frame available to organise this, over two hundred lay Catholics, religious sisters and brothers, married deacons and priests have written letters to the Pope asking him to intervene directly.

In a covering letter, Catholics for Ministry pointed out to His Holiness that there are not enough priests in Australia to celebrate Mass and the Sacraments and there are no theological obstacles to the ordination of married men. For the first 1100 years of church history most priests were married, including bishops and popes. There are married priests now in the Eastern Catholic churches in full union with Rome and convert clergy from other churches are serving as married Catholic priests at present in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, as well as many places including the US and the UK. The letter writers also called for former priests to be returned to ministry.

They requested 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. They also pointed out that while women do 75% of the pastoral work in Australia they are still lacking representation at the senior levels of church leadership, and that the church cannot be said to have reached a consensus about the ordination of women, and that the church should be free to discuss the issue.

The letters came from all states and territories and range across all generations from young generation Y Catholics through to eighty-three year-olds and include many parents with young children, senior priests and many laity working currently in church ministry.

The foregoing overview was written by Brian Coyne, editor of Catholica from information supplied by Terry Curtin on behalf of Catholics for Ministry. For further information about Catholics for Ministry and this letter-writing initiative please contact Terry Curtin (03) 5974 8569. A former senior public servant, Terry worked for four years as a pastoral leader in a Melbourne parish without a priest. He now works as a counsellor.

Some Extracts from the Letters to Pope Benedict

From a mother and father with six children under sixteen… "Dear Pope Benedict … We are very involved in parish and Catholic school life and committed to raising our beautiful children in the faith. Our son is about to head to World Youth Day and we are welcoming two Chinese students into our home … before they too head for Sydney … [But] we look at our community and see our priests struggling. We look at … the priests who have died before their time or left the priesthood disheartened and disillusioned. We admire the many still working towards change. I look at the aging priesthood, the anger and concern of tired priests and bishops, and also see the real hurt, sadness and even anger of parishioners who are denied the sacraments … and ministry. Our church is crumbling before our eyes. There is no need for this as we look around and see the giftedness of many of the laity … What a flourishing and life-giving church we would have if we openly embraced each other's gifts … Please be open to married priesthood and to the gifts of all so that our church may once again flourish."

Photograph from Pope Benedict's luncheon with selected young people and Cardinal Pell during World Youth Da

From a professional woman in a country town… "Your holiness … I am becoming increasingly concerned that the majority of Australian bishops are losing touch with Australian Catholics. Most of the bishops appear far removed from 'ordinary' Catholics. The opportunity for dialogue with the hierarchy is not encouraged. Where can our voices be heard? I find the authoritarianism of the Australian bishops inhibitive and not conducive to a Church full of life. This can certainly be seen in the absence of young people at Mass. The Australian Church is facing a severe shortage of priests. The church must look deeply into how it is going to survive with such limited numbers. We are seeing an increase in overseas priests serving in parishes. This trend is causing many concerns especially in the areas of language and culture."

From a South Australian professional man… "Holy Father … it is very easy to stay behind the walls of the Vatican and ignore what the people of Australia are trying to tell you — as does the emu with its head in the sand … In almost every parish in Australia there are two or three ordained priests sitting the pews … They would say Mass at moment's notice. Their only fault - they got married. And these wonderful men are already ordained priests!"

From a theology and religious education lecturer… "Dear Holy Father … In our parish there are two priests, each over seventy years old. One is officially retired but still says Mass each Sunday. There is nothing wrong with being seventy except that statistically we can be sure that these men do not have many years of active ministry left. When they become too old to continue there will not be nearly enough priests in Australia to take their place … As a leading theologian … you know that there are no theological obstacles to the ordination of married men. I have a colleague, a Ukrainian Catholic priest, who is married with children. I teach many Lebanese students who have uncles and even fathers who are ordained. For the first half of the two thousand years of Catholic history most Catholic priests were married. If we do not have the sacraments, especially the Eucharist it is very difficult to be Catholic."

From a young Generation Y male Catholic… "Dear Pope Benedict … I would like to take this opportunity to discuss with you some of my concerns about the future of the Catholic Church in Australia. Like many of my friends who have previously been active in youth roles, we are increasingly finding that the Church does not represent our life and lived reality. The aging population of priests within Australia is an issue of grave concern and currently there are not enough priests to perform the sacraments that are fundamental to our faith. Importing foreign priests provides at best a limited solution to the problem and dies nothing to ensure the ongoing growth and survival of the Church within Australia. We are losing the representation of those who are part of our community and consequently the uniqueness of the Australian Catholic community. The ordination of married men would provide an initial solution to the lack of priests and the on-going loss of people from active Catholic life. There are no theological obstacles to the ordination of married men."

From a young Generation Y female Catholic… "Dear Pope Benedict … As a young adult growing up in a community where women's rights are part of the fabric of our society I am very concerned about the lack of acknowledgement by the Church of the role that women play … Women do seventy-five per cent of the work within the Australian Catholic Church but are under-represented at senior levels of leadership and their work and theological study is often unrecognized. I would urge you to allow discussion within the church about the role of women and the future consideration of the ordination of women. There is no theological obstacle to this and indeed the letters of Saint Paul would indicate that women had roles as leaders of household churches."

Photograph from Pope Benedict's luncheon with selected young people and Cardinal Pell during World Youth Day

From a 67 year old professional man who knows many priests… "Dear Pope Benedict … I feel sad that the church has completely lost the generation of my children. It has for all intents and purposes become irrelevant to them … I can understand the loss when I look at Sydney … I am in constant contact with disillusioned priests who are over-worked and tired. I find this disturbing. The shortage of priests is sad because as a community we need the sacraments. Why will you not consider the option of having married clergy? There is nothing against the idea in scripture. Many of the apostles were married. There are so many good men who would do real pastoral service and would enrich the lives of Catholics. Many former priests would feel happy about resuming the priestly role. Celibacy is a gift for some. It is not an imposition. It is estimated that 86% of baptized Catholics no longer worship on a regular basis. Please allow a married priesthood to bring life into a church that is now almost moribund."

From a Victorian Catholic woman… "Your Holiness … I have been a faithful Catholic for my entire life of 65 years and am distressed at what I see in our Church today. Because of the narrow thinking which restricts priestly ordination to celibate males we have a huge pastoral vacuum which is, unfortunately, being filled by either overworking our present priests, or importing priests from other cultures … My grown children, fed up with this sort of ecclesiastical management, have simply walked away from the Church … The bishops are paralyzed by their own admission in addressing local pastoral needs. The immense and complete centralization of power in Rome, which is quite recent and certainly not the long tradition of the Church, is stifling and killing Catholicism in countries where local needs are not as perceived in Rome. My guess is that no one will read this letter, but in response to the Holy Spirit I will nevertheless send it, knowing that I have followed my conscience and expressed my concern for the church I love."

PHOTO CREDITS:
Photos used to accompany this article have been sourced from the free downloads available on the official WYD website: www.wyd2008.org The photograph of Archbishop Wilson was sourced from The Age newspaper website.