MISSIONARY FOR AUSTRALIA 4 TH NATIONAL CONGRESS 2014

MULTICULTURAL AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA IS A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY AND HAS BEEN SO WELL BEFORE THE EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT OF THE 1950’S. THIS MULTICULTURAL ASPECT IS MIRRORED IF NOT MORE PRONOUNCED WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH COMMUNITY OF AUSTRALIA AS WELL. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA IS ETHNICALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE.

THE CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA IS FOUNDED ON MIGRATION. THE FIRST CATHOLICS TO ARRIVE WERE IRISH CONVICTS ON BOARD THE FIRST FLEET IN THE CHANGING ETHNIC PROFILE OF THE AUSTRALIAN POPULATION HAS CONSEQUENTLY DELIVERED A MULTI LINGUISTIC CATHOLIC CHURCH.

THE CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA HAS A LONG AND COLOURFUL HISTORY OF MIGRATION THE EARLIEST EXAMPLE IS FROM 1861 WHEN A GROUP OF IRISH EMIGRANTS WHERE EXILED FROM ENGLAND AND DENIED ACCESS TO AMERICA DUE TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR. A CATHOLIC PRIEST, FATHER DUNNE CHARTERED A SHIP AND WITH 400 ON BOARD SET OF FOR AUSTRALIA,

AS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IBN AUSTRALIA BRINGS IN MORE AND MORE INTERNATIONAL PRIESTS TO MINISTER IN AUSTRALIA, DEBATE IS SPREADING ABOUT IF AND HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE. SOME WOULD ARGUE THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE DONE AT ALL. IT SUFFICES HERE TO SAY THAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA HAS ALWAYS HAD MISSIONARIES’ PRIESTS AND SISTERS COMING TO AUSTRALIA TO BUILD NOT ONLY CHURCHES, BUT MORE SO ECCLESIAL COMMUNITIES.

C ITIZENSHIP OF PASTORAL WORKERS

CITIZENSHIP OF PASTORAL WORKERS

This graph shows the distribution of the 682 sponsored pastoral workers amongst the various types of sponsor organised by the geographic region of the sponsored workers’ country of birth.

COMPARISON OF PASTORAL WORKERS FROM OVERSEAS AND CATHOLICS BORN OVERSEAS

CATHOLIC BORN OVERSEAS

Australia needs more priests to minister in our parishes; The Church in Australia is the most impacted by migrants therefore she needs more priests and religious to serve an ever growing multicultural church; Priests and religious from overseas, alongside migrant communities, are contributing to a more vibrant, vital and festive Church. They make the Church in Australia a more universal (international) Church.

ARGUMENT AGAINST They create many problems, first of all from the point of view of language and cultural differences. Different way of being a priest derived from a different ecclesiology “from which we have moved on”. Some think they are not enough well prepared to minister in Australia. The question of financial accountability. Some would complain that bringing in priests from overseas would delay the local church from empowering the laity to take on more administrative and pastoral roles. Some also believe that relying too much on missionaries’ priests might lessen the effort of the local church to effectively become more responsible for local vocations.

Educational Shift: Pastoral care of the multiethnic catholic community in Australia is the primary reason to resort priests and religious from overseas rather than the idea of shortage. Change of terminology: stop calling priests, religious and lay pastoral workers: “from overseas”; or “imported”. These are missionaries called to build God’s Kingdom in our midst. Create a national program of guidelines to receive missionaries to minister in Australia. Information Seminars and orientation programs should begin in the Country of origin and it should be a joint effort between the sending Church and the Church of arrival.

Create orientation programs that should be national as well as regional and local. Australia is such diversified country and this reflects o the Church. To minister in the context of a big city is not the same as to minister in the context of rural communities. There are aspects that should be dealt nationally and other are local. Participation of the local clergy, religious and lay pastoral leaders in the orientation programs. Too often these orientation programs are just for those coming from overseas and they are meant “for them to learn from us”. We need a fundamental cultural shift. Priests, Religious and lay pastoral workers coming from overseas are men and women of the same faith, empowered with a profound experience of the Church. Some hold the high degrees of Education in multiple matters. Some have suffered prison and persecution for the sake of Christ and the Church. We have so much to learn from one another. I find that some oppose this mutual exchange of gifts. It comes clear to me that some may be used to think of the universal Church as an abstract concept and take universality as meaning uniformity through which we can attain unity. Consult with the missionaries about their needs. More visible presence of the missionaries in various diocesan commissions.