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Mark Coleridge's appointment as Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn The rumour in recent days is that the appointment was going to be announced on Monday and that it was going to be another "Pell nominee" and that's certainly been confirmed now with the announcement of Mark Coleridge's name.
I don't know much about Mark Coleridge other than that people speak highly of his intellectual competence. It is a symbolically important appointment in many ways and not just because it is Archbishop of the nation's capital city. It will be very interesting to see how he fills out in this new position of responsibility and how he tackles the challenges he faces and what contribution he makes to the substantive challenges the institutional Church faces in this nation.
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The
Church in Rome does face a challenge. It is whether they are going to
encourage the Church down the JPII road of belief that the likes of George
Pell can "re-evangelise" a nation like Australia using what
amounts to a "politicisation" of Catholicism. The evidence,
as I never tire of pointing out, is that for all the media hype generated
by JPII the reality is that about half the flock still participating at
the start of his pontificate no longer participate today. Pell was chosen
because his mindset was close to JPII's that that very political focus
would bring about re-evangelisation. Quite clearly it hasn't worked in
25 years going on 40 years and there is scant evidence now that Pell's
style reaches beyond a certain, and very particular, small cohort of the
population who see themselves as some kind of remnant and the only "true
believers". The mission we are changed with by Jesus Christ though
is "to bring the 'Good News' to ALL people" not just some remnant
or psychologically insecure subsector of the population.