006 :
20Mar 2013

Secular Freedom enables Christian Hope... Serendipitously* following on from Bill Marrin's commentary yesterday, Melbourne priest Fr Eric Hodgens today brings us an equally insightful and strong commentary examining the deep challenges in contemporary culture facing institutional Catholicism. This commentary, like Bill Marrin's, was written before the unexpected events in Rome of the past week. Equally though its "tone" fits beautifully with the present mood of optimism and hope that the election of Pope Francis seems to have generated even in the previously disillusioned sectors of the church. If this institution is to get really serious about re-evangelizing the world and regaining a postion of influence in society, Fr Eric today presents some of the key matters that need to be addressed in dot-point summary form. When he originally wrote this he, and we might have thought "pigs might fly" before we see any of these ideas taken up. A lot has changed in a couple of weeks and it might seem a lot more realisable today. [more]

*See editor's comment in the Catholica Forum earlier today HERE.

005 :
29 Nov 2011

Where is the modelling provided by Jesus Christ? Fr Eric Hodgens questions the nobility of character exhibited by the Australian bishops in their recent doings in Rome. This short essay, which has been submitted for simultaneous publication in The Swag, the journal of the National Council of Priests of Australia and Catholica, raises serious questions at a number of levels of the Christ-like behaviour being presently exhibited by our episcopal leaders. Extravagent real estate deals on the one hand in contrast to the sacrificial slaughter of one of their own without any regard to fairness and natural justice. There is not even any transparency and accountability in the real estate deals. We seem to have moved a long, long way from the sandal-clad humility, material poverty and wealth of Spirit modelled for us by Jesus of Nazareth. [more]

004 :
10 Oct 2011

The diabolical state of seminary numbers in Australia... There are people around who seemingly believe a miracle is going to happen and God will answer all the prayers that have been sent up for vocations in the past 40 years. Christian Brother, Barry Coldrey would seem to be one of them. In the Winter edition of The Swag, the journal of the National Council of Priests of Australia he argued that a recent rise in the number of seminarians in some places in Australia was a cause for optimism and a sense that the prayers were beginning to be answered. Fr Eric Hodgens in this response from the latest issue of The Swag paints a far more realistic picture backed up with some graphical evidence. [more]

003 :
18 Mar 2011

The politics of choosing bishops... In the coming while the Catholic Church in Australia is in for the most substantial and perhaps interesting shake-up in its distribution of episcopal power that most of us will have seen in our lifetimes. The shake-up is largely triggered by the fact that a larger than normal number of bishops will be retiring over the next few years on account of reaching the age limit and more particularly there should be some very interesting shifts in that smaller group called metropolitans or archbishops who essentially "control all the money" simply because they're in the places where there tends to be a higher concentration of "silly little old ladies and silly little old men who leave their multi-million dollar estates to the Church for perpetual rosary crusades". Each million dollar bequest the Church receives is probably worth about a thousand ordinary pew-sitters financially. Don't be deceived, as the example of Marcial Maciel Degolado brought into focus there are still a heck of a lot of "silly little old ladies and men" leaving their estates to Holy Mother Church for the recitation of perpetual rosary cycles. The oldest dioceses, unless someone has squandered all the money along the way somewhere, tend to have these largest bequest portfolios. In today's commentary Fr Eric Hodgens is principally discussing the interesting speculation that is emerging in the Diocese of Sandhurst centred on the city of Bendigo in rural Victoria following the unexpected early death of Bishop Joe Grech early in January. There's much other gossip circulating around the nation though of the other appointments coming up some of which I and others have shared on Catholica in recent weeks. There are also articles in the mainstream media such as Barney Zwartz's recent article in The Age on the controversy over the selection process [LINK]. Fr Hodgens' commentary today might be read as a reflection on the wider process of selection — and how it has become once again corrupted, and politicised, in recent times as much as it is a reflection on the particular games being played out in one rural diocese in Victoria. [more]

002 :
21 Mar 2010

The Priestly Drought now 40 Years On... Fr Eric Hodgens, now a retired priest in the Melbourne Archdiocese, has become one of the foremost authorities in Australia in analysing over a long period of time the trend in priestly vocations and the looming crisis facing the institution in providing pastoral leaders at the parish level. In this new article he submitted to Catholica yesterday, in possibly his most graphic explanation of the looming problem, Fr Hodgens spells out the harsh realities facing the bishops and all of us in Australia. [more]

001 :
08 Oct 2008

An intriguing Catholic Education Office appointment — Editorial Comment: Provocative priest and writer, Fr Eric Hodgens, is again stirring the possum in Melbourne and calling for greater accountability from the Church leadership in Church administration. In 2006 he caused headlines questioning the appointment of a former politician to a leadership position in the Catholic Education Office seemingly without widespread consultation of stakeholders in Catholic Education. In this article recently published on his website, Fr Hodgens, queries the wisdom in the appointment of a lawyer seemingly without significant educational experience to the position of Deputy Director of Catholic Education. We publish this article on Catholica out of our commitment to generate greater scrutiny of how our Church is administered. We do receive feedback here at Catholica which strongly suggests the views expressed by Fr Hodgens do echo a larger and significant groundswell of demoralisation amongst the now large, professionally employed sectors of the Catholic Church in some dioceses in this country who are under considerable constraint and fear for their ongoing employment to not express their views publicly on aspects of how their Church is administered. The demoralisation is not uniform. Many leaders seem to have good relationships with their professional workforces and morale is healthy given all the other pressures the Church is under today in Western nations like ours. [more]