Addresses and Statements

Address at Clergy Conference, Le Montage, Lilyfield

23 Apr 2015

Priests for the New Evangelization
Address at Clergy Conference, Le Montage, Lilyfield, 23 April 2015

Welcome dear brothers and thank you for joining me for our clergy day. I would like to reiterate my gratitude for the welcome you have given me before, at and since the Installation Mass. I'm pleased acknowledge the presence of auxiliary bishop Terry Brady, Vicar-General Gerry Gleeson, Chancellor Chris Meney, and the several Vicars and Deans about whose responsibilities I will say more later.

1. Jubilee Council
We are presently celebrating the jubilee of an ecumenical council. It occurred at an exciting time in the life of Church and society, one of extraordinary demographic, economic, cultural and religious change. Though hoping for a new spring-time for the Church, the Council fathers were also aware of serious challenges to faith and morals: the fall away from traditional religion in the West, the lure of alternative philosophies and spiritualities, the good and bad effects of affluence, the trivialization of sexuality and so on… The Council and subsequent popes recognized that a new wave of evangelization was needed, delivered by apostolically engaged clergy, religious and laity. And by God's grace it came, especially through new ecclesial movements.

Consider, if you will, just one of these new movements. The Founder is a charismatic guy, in both senses of the word. Relying on providence he has established many communities of priests, consecrated women and lay people. Preaching and community, modelled on the apostolic generation, are their therapies for a corrupt culture and somnolent Church. They don't conform neatly to traditional diocesan structures, forms of religious life, or roles for the laity – which annoys some people. Some think them strange and secretive, their growth and passion alarming, their liturgical and evangelical practices unseemly, their very existence divisive. But they remain single-minded in their response to the call of the Council, the Popes, above all the Gospel.

I am referring, of course, to the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 and to St Dominic and his Order of Preachers, now celebrating their eighth centenary. But you'd be forgiven for thinking of the fifty-year-young Second Vatican Council and the call of the Popes since John XXIII for a new evangelization. This call has in fact been heard many times in history, in response to backsliding, confusion or opportunities emerging as new worlds opened up. By God's grace fresh apostolic energies, structures and approaches have often followed, and the Church has flowered when least expected. Consider the letters of Paul written to re-evangelize young communities already divided and lapsing in faith or morals; or Benedictine monasticism rising from the ashes of the Roman Empire and cultivating not only herbs and medicaments, but peace and learning and a whole new Christian culture; or orders of friars responding to new ideas and affluence in the Middle Ages, bringing the faith to the emerging universities and cities and demonstrating its complementarity with secular reason; or the Jesuits – and we are all Jesuits now – responding to fission in the old world and opportunity in the new, offering new approaches to spirituality, education and pastoral care; or the eruption in nineteenth century, just when secularist movements seemed to be snuffing out religious life and even religion for good, of new mission-minded congregations and lay movements including St Mary's MacKillop's Josephites, who brought faith-based education, healthcare and welfare to the world on an unprecedented scale…

New evangelizations every century or so are the ordinary rhythm of Church renewal. To evangelize is to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ and bring people to faith through a personal encounter with Him – a task logically and chronologically prior even to worship and action for justice and mercy. As Paul asked: “How are people to call upon Christ if they don't believe in Him? How are they to believe in Him if they've never heard of Him? And how are they to hear of Him without a preacher?” (Rom 10:14) But as Paul discovered, once the preacher has drawn people to Christ, the job is still incomplete. Re-evangelization will be required: once is not enough for the proclamation and hearing of the Gospel, nor is one presenter, mode or rhetoric of articulation. The Gospel must be proclaimed to every person, institution and culture and, Christians themselves need periodic re-evangelizing and re-catechizing, alongside leadership, worship and pastoral care.
 

 

2. Listening
At my Installation and my first lunch with you I said that my only agenda is the Gospel and I mean that. I need to hear from you and your people what you see as the needs and possibilities, what you find challenging and what would help. That requires that I be available to you with an open ear and heart. So we've settled a first round of meetings via deaneries, the Council of Priests and clergy days. So far about 70 priests have had a private chat with me, mostly on Thursdays at the cathedral. This is very helpful in inducting me to my new ministry and enlarging my confidence in your fraternal cooperation and apostolic generosity. Apart from direct communication, some of you have also raised issues with me via Bishop Terry, Monsignor Usher, Gerry Gleeson or Chris Meney, the College of Consultors or the Council of Priests.

In order to facilitate communication between us and ensure we have a reliable contact point, even as priests move from one assignment or mobile number to the next, we will soon provide a standard Archdiocesan email account for every priest. It will take the form of Joe.Bloggs@sydneycatholic.org. It will allow for more streamlined communication – for example the Ad Clerum and its attachments will be emailed from now on – which will save greatly on printing and postage. It will not replace existing email accounts (unless you want it to) and support will be provided to ensure a smooth set-up. I am happy to hear any thoughts today on how else we can improve communication.

3. Vision
At my Installation I expressed my hope for “a Church in which the Gospel is preached with joy, the wisdom of our tradition mined with fidelity, the sacraments celebrated with dignity and welcome, and the seminaries, convents and youth groups teeming with new life; a Church in which our parishes, chaplaincies and educational institutions are true centres of the new evangelization, our laity theologically literate and spiritually well-formed, our outreach to the needy effective and growing – and God glorified above all.”

I was born in 1960, a little after the Fourth Lateran Council, but not long after John XXIII had surprised the world by announcing that other Council whose jubilee we are currently celebrating. One of the golden threads linking him to his five successors is the emphasis all have given to the new evangelization, none more passionately than Pope Francis. His first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium summarises his vision. “Missionary activity still represents the greatest challenge for the Church,” and that the mission field is not deepest darkest Africa but on the edges of our cities, parishes, chaplaincies, homes, workplaces, schools and so on. “I dream of a missionary option, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church's customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures, can [all] be suitably channelled for the evangelization of today's world rather than her self-preservation… I prefer a Church that is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, to a Church which is [pallid and] unhealthy from being confined [indoors] and from clinging to its own security.”

To be a missionary, on-the-streets Church requires that our proclamation be always faithful to the Tradition received but our language contemporary and accessible;  that our preaching and catechesis begin with the very basics of our faith  and lead to a “solid, profound, secure, meaningful and wisdom-filled” formation;  and that it be fed in that interior space that is prayer and so give Christian meaning and direction to all our busy activity.  We are called to be not merely maintenance-men in our parishes and chaplaincies but “missionary disciples”.

Conscious that we clergy are ourselves in constant need of re-evangelization,  the Holy Father challenges us to go out of ourselves and to 'the existential peripheries'.  On any given Sunday in the territory of our Archdiocese there are 100,000 or so at Mass, which is a wonderful thing for which I thank God and the labourers in this vineyard; but there are another 500,000 or so Catholics who are not at Mass on Sundays – though many of them turned up this Easter! Ours is an historical moment of great challenges for the Church and her priests. In his letter for the Year of Consecrated Life, Pope Francis listed the enduring economic fallout of the GFC, the stresses of globalisation, the threats of moral and cultural relativism, the experiences of isolation and social irrelevance, and the effects of scandals on our credibility.  Yet so many desperately need the Gospel: despairing individuals, struggling families, youth without hope, abandoned elderly and sick, the materially wealthy but spiritually poor. 
 

But these will only receive the Gospel if they see it lived radically and authentically by the Church's pastors. We must learn the “art of accompaniment”, of being close to those in need, so we can present “the fragrance of Christ's closeness” to them.  So the Holy Father has warned us clergy not to obsess about protecting our patch or our personal freedom and not to fear reaching out: evangelization is an opportunity to experience God's love and respond joyfully to it.  We must be configured to Christ the head, the source of grace, not for our own exaltation but so all our ministries will be “totally ordered” to others, to their happiness and holiness. 

4. Scrutiny
The recent Royal Commission hearings in Rockhampton have been harrowing and we are under fiercer scrutiny than ever at the moment. As we approach Good Shepherd Sunday I acknowledge that many clergy have found the Royal Commission and the sorry history that provoked it demoralising. Our hearts go out to the little ones damaged, we are ashamed of what some of our brother priests have done, we feel let down by some of our leaders, and we feel somehow tainted by an evil in which we played no part personally. Some say the Catholic Church has received disproportionate scrutiny in these matters compared to others; that we've had our noses rubbed in this again and again; that most of this is ugly history from decades ago; and that we've cleaned up our act in the meantime. While I experience and understand this frustration myself, nonetheless I think we have to hear the anger in our community at our Church's failings, repent with all our hearts and learn all we can from this, do all we can to bring justice, compassion and healing to victims, and put in place what is required to ensure such things are never repeated. If we are to win back the community's trust, it will only be by ensuring that the sheep, and especially the lambs, are 100% safe. I have ordered a review of our safeguarding and professional standards operation here in the Archdiocese and will be announcing some changes in the near future; our chancery has prepared some documents to assist us in this area; and later in the year we'll have a day to share what we've experienced in the face of the unremitting scrutiny and to train us better in this area.

5. Some first steps
To a large degree, whether Church historians in 800 years' time judge this to have been a new springtime for the Church in Sydney, will depend on you. Despite demoralising revelations of past conduct by some clergy and failures of some leaders, this Archdiocese is served by many loyal, generous and dedicated men of God. The People of God rely on your paternal leadership. You are at the coalface helping people to deal with the complexities and emptiness of twenty-first century life – as well as celebrating with them perennial mysteries and present delights.

To assist us in this common mission I have taken a few first, tentative steps which I would like to reflect upon today with you.

5.1 New chancery team
When last we met we had farewelled Dr Michael Casey and introduced Mr Antoine Kazzi as my private secretary; you also met our new Business Manager, Mr Michael Digges, who is also doing the rounds of the deaneries. Recently Monsignor Usher finished as Chancellor. Much might be said about Jack, but let me record today my own experience of him as a priest who perfectly fulfills Pope Francis' JD for a curial official: he is a man who smells of the sheep (you thought that was tobacco!), a man of God with feet deeply rooted in his people's lives, a Christian first, a priest first, a parish priest first, and only then a curial officer; a humble man untainted by personal ambition or self-importance, who has generously helped two archbishops, their chanceries and priests; a fun-loving, good-humoured, Aussie bloke, with a special heart for those who are hurting, for victims of one kind or another.

I needed two very able men to fill the gap left by Jack's departure, and happily I now have the assistance of Fr Gerry Gleeson as Vicar-General and Mr Christopher Meney as Chancellor. The Vicar General's responsibilities will include clergy matters such as appointments, faculties, support, sabbatical and other leave and special issues; he will work with the Vicar for Clergy, regional vicars and deans so that matters are handled locally wherever possible. The Chancellor's responsibilities include keeping the records of the Archdiocese, supporting the Council of Priests, Consultors, Trustees, Curia and various committees, some financial and other approvals, assisting visiting clergy, and responding to other matters on my behalf. With the auxiliary bishop and Business Manager they form my curia and will be my closest advisors.

Along with these structural and personnel changes, our various committees are also in the process of being reviewed and renewed: in particular I would like to see more women, more middle-aged and younger people, and more ethnic diversity on our archdiocesan committees and I ask you to nominate suitable candidates to me for one or other of the thirty or so committees I am discovering we have…

5.2 Parish 2020
In order to further the great work that has already begun on pastoral planning, social profiling, deanery and parish configuration, and parish support, I have decided to bring together the individuals and groups examining these matters into a new working party provisionally called “Parish 2020”. The Vicar-General will chair the Committee, with Bishop Terry as the liaison bishop. Parish 2020 will be entrusted with the tasks of hearing our priests, lay leaders and people with a view to renewing the pastoral plan; bringing the best demographic and planning expertise to bear upon the distribution of our deaneries, parishes, schools and agencies; reducing silos and promoting greater collaboration between parishes in shared activities, resources and planning for the future, and between parishes, schools, agencies and chancery; ensuring our parishes are sustainable and that they receive the best possible support going forward; all with the goals of the new evangelization and better pastoral care.

There is much to be said about all those topics, but let me say a little about one: sustainable parishes. I have recently moved from another part of Sydney where the parishes are, on average, nearly twice the size of the Archdiocese's parishes. The older parishes of Sydney were of course established when everyone walked to church and we had more priests than positions vacant. Nowadays we have the luxury of many churches, Masses and priests vying for the same population in some areas, while other areas have too few. Everyone agrees, though no-one wants their Mass time or pew to change. Something has to give. While particular small parishes and subsidized parishes are worth preserving, the wisdom of our canon law and long ecclesial practice is that after a certain length of time a parish should be able to stand on its own feet, so to speak: to fund its clergy and lay ministers, keep up its plant and outreach, contribute to the works of the whole diocese and be a genuine Eucharistic community. If a parish is too small or short of active parishioners to fund a priest or a parish secretary, or to run an RCIA or a youth ministry, or to contribute to the DWF or to warrant regular Confession, maybe it's just too small! And whatever comes in the years ahead by way of twinnings and amalgamations, we must be smarter at stretching and sharing what we have with neighbouring parishes, new and struggling parishes, related ministries, the Archdiocese as a whole. The goal, in the end, is ensuring the best possible evangelisation and pastoral care for our people.

5.3 Support for clergy
Another key goal of mine is to provide greater support for clergy. I pledged at my Installation to pray with you and for you, to listen and learn from you, to lead and support you as father as best I can, and to work with you as brother in our joint mission. Of course, I'm conscious that we all bring baggage with us: our history, personality, theologies, imagination, gifts and limitations. (When some of us think 'the Council' they think town hall, or parish council, or Jerusalem or Trent, or Vatican II or Vatican III…). You'll discover my quirks and limitations as time goes on, and I trust you'll be merciful!

I sense that our Parish Advisory Service led by James Van Shie is very well regarded, as is our Priests' Retirement Care Coordinator, Michael King, and the Retirement Foundation. No doubt there is more that we could do to support our clergy, in taking away some of the administrative load or in providing new resources of one kind or another. There is more to do to support our newbie clergy, religious and overseas-born clergy, by way of welcome, induction and ongoing formation. Our new Episcopal Vicar for Migration, Fr Isidore An-anth-araj, will help with this, and in welcoming him to his new ministry I pay tribute to Fr Dominic Ceresoli CS who served in this area so well and for so many years. There are clergy who take too little leave, don't make their annual retreat, are long overdue for some sort of renewal or sabbatical. Some might benefit personally and benefit the diocese by doing some further study. Others need more spiritual or emotional support, or to be helped to get fit and well. As I've already touched upon, all of us have been winded by the sexual abuse crisis and we will address this more fully at a clergy conference in the near future. The list of challenges for contemporary clergy goes on. If I am to support you well, you must share with me your concerns and excitements, joys and tribulations.

Assisting me in these matters are the new Episcopal Vicar for Clergy, Fr Kelvin Lovegrove, with Monsignor Usher assisting. As he approaches lesser duties, I thank Fr Terry Bell for his very generous and fruitful service in this apostolate as in so many others. With the regional vicars and deans I hope we will have a good team to assist our clergy at various levels.

I would also reiterate to you the importance of looking after yourselves! Amidst pressures of work, aging and ever-increasing scrutiny, it is vital that we not lose sight of why we are doing all this! We cannot be genuine men of God if we are not in constant contact with Him (cf 1Thess 5:17). So the quality of our moral and spiritual lives, our prayer, priestly fraternity, relationships with God and our flocks, need regular examination and reinvigoration – as well as the quality of physical and social lives.

5.4 Subsidiarity
Our jubilee Vatican Council emphasised subsidiarity and communion in Church governance and administration.  Canons 374, 553 and 555 prescribed deaneries for common pastoral action at a local level. Deans exercise a level of local leadership, liaising between the bishop (and his team) and the local clergy (and their teams); supporting the clergy, especially those needing particular assistance; resolving issues; and communicating to and fro up-the-line. Deans often know the problems or opportunities in particular localities or with particular personalities and be able to handle things locally or escalate them as required. Deans can also help break down walls between parishes and ensure that they collaborate as far as possible, sharing ideas, programmes and specialist personnel, coordinating Confession and Mass times etc. so as to maximize our evangelical and pastoral outreach.


Our archdiocese prescribes five deanery meetings per year and all priests in a deanery with archdiocesan appointments are expected to attend. Please understand that these are not optional extras easily trumped by funerals or days off, but part of how we engage in the business of the archdiocese, give and receive formation and information, and engage in fraternal support. The same is true of clergy days, ordinations and funerals of our brother priests: we should all be there if at all possible. Please join me in encouraging missing brothers to attend. Retired priests and religious priests on non-diocesan duties are also welcome.

The new Council of Deans advise me on clergy appointments and facilitate pastoral planning by drawing attention to demographic changes, new needs and opportunities.

The Council of Priests is another important forum for bringing matters to my attention and discussing them in some depth. These meetings have been restructured so that rather than simply reading out reports we have time to discuss salient points and recommendations can be made to me and back to clergy.

I have asked our Auxiliary Bishop, VG and Vicars to share with me the duties of conferring Confirmation, Episcopal Visitation, and care of priests. Please know and explain to your people that when they do these things they are there on my behalf, as vicars of the Archbishop, and not merely wandering gypsies!

5.5 Review of evangelization ministries
If the new evangelization is key to the contemporary Church, the apparatus supporting it is very important. We need the right agencies, personnel and mandates to help us in this area and to ensure we make the most of contemporary approaches such as the new media. We will be reviewing our specifically evangelization ministries: Credo, Catholic Youth Services, the Catechumenate Office, the Catholic Adult Education Centre, Catholic Communications and The Catholic Weekly – with a view to maximising collaboration and effectiveness. Watch this space! Our Episcopal Vicar for Evangelization, Fr Paul Monkerud, will help keep us focused on these matters.

5.6 Pastoral letters
I recently published a Pastoral Letter to coincide with Easter and the Anzac centenary, on hope and peace in a time of insecurity. I trust it gave you and your people some food for thought, prayer and discussion. I won't rehearse its themes today, but I do undertake to continue to work for peace and friendship amongst people of faith in our own country. Pope Francis has also named this a Year for Consecrated Life. We know that religious women and men played a crucial role in building the extraordinary network of parishes, schools, hospitals, aged care and welfare services in our archdiocese. So, later this year, I will prepare something to reflect gratefully upon that contribution and to promote vocations to consecrated life.

5.7 Parish and school
Recently I addressed priests and principals concerning my vision for Catholic education in Sydney.  I highlighted the particular purpose of our schools, particularly emphasising their missionary character today. Conscious of their many achievements, I also highlighted some challenges and areas of future development: forming well the consciences of our kids, growing Catholic enrolments and getting those enrolees more connected to faith and practice, reversing the loss of Catholic cultural identity and confidence amongst young teachers, ensuring schools are oases of Catholic prayer and life, creating a Catholic Studies unit for the HSC, establishing new schools and enlarging existing ones to fulfil demand on the near horizon  and deepening collaboration between school and parish. The last of these is a perennial challenge to which several of you have drawn my attention already. Our new Episcopal Vicar for Education, Fr Michael McLean, will help us in this area, working closely with our priests and the CEO.

It was in the context of promoting prayer and Catholic identity that I announced that all schools are to pray the Angelus at noon each day and I ask for your support in this endeavour. We are now doing the same in the chancery each day and you might like to get your own parish staff and parishioners to join our school children and staff in this. Materials on the what and why of the Angelus have been distributed.

I am also aware of the growing demand for Catholic preschools. Developing a much greater and more systematic Catholic presence in early childhood education and out-of-school-hours care is an important opportunity for the Church and will require the input and support of our priests and parishes.

5.8 Engagement with youth
Youth ministry has been an important part of my own journey as a priest and bishop, with the scars and afterglow of World Youth Day all around me and my continued role as the Australian Bishops' Delegate for Youth. Continued engagement with youth will be crucial for the future of our Archdiocese and beyond, for in so many ways Sydney leads our country in youth ministry.

The young need credible role models. They need to see in us clergy a passion for Christ, His gospel and His people, holy men who are really interested in them as young people and in their future connection with the Church. Parishes, schools, universities and chaplaincies are crucial points of connection, as are local, national and international festivals of faith such as World Youth Day. I have written elsewhere about the benefits of these festivals and I ask for your continuing support of youth involvement.

5.9 Deacons
Recently I had the privilege of ordaining six deacons and on your behalf I welcome them as new clergy of the Archdiocese. This included two new permanent deacons, the first in a decade and a half and the first fruits of our renewed Permanent Diaconate Programme. As more emerge in the years ahead to enrich the ministries of our Archdiocese, I trust they will be welcomed as co-workers in our parishes, chaplaincies, agencies and communities. Thanks to Fr Michael de Stoop and his Vocations team, Fr Tom Carroll and his Permanent Diaconate team, Fr Danny Meagher and the Good Shepherd Seminary, Fr Eric Scruzny and the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, and Fr Gerard Kelly and Catholic Institute of Sydney, all for contributing to the formation of our future clergy. I exhort you all regularly to promote vocations through prayer, preaching and information, as well as assisting individuals discern their vocation. I'd love you all to bring one young man each to the next vocations dinner at the cathedral!

6. Focus on preaching
One Sunday morning a priest announced to his congregation: “My dear people, I have here in my hands three sermons: a $100 sermon that lasts five minutes, a $50 sermon that lasts half an hour, and a $10 sermon that lasts a full hour. Now, we'll take the collection first and see which homily I should deliver.” At some future clergy day I will address at greater length our mission as preachers. It is obviously a passion of mine, and not just because I indulge in the occasional $50 job! Recovering the importance of homiletics in the ministry of priests was one of the goals of our golden jubilee Council and it is as yet an incomplete renewal.  To such important documents as Paul VI's Evangelii nuntiandi, John Paul II's Redemptoris missio and Novo millennio ineunte,  and Benedict XVI's Verbum Domini, Pope Francis has added his Evangelii gaudium. 

 
http://www.op.org/en/content/homiletic-directory-and-dominican-preaching
Recently the Congregation for Divine Worship released a Homiletic Directory approved by Pope Francis and building upon the contributions of the Council, Popes and Synods.  It is a rich document with many helpful suggestions. Key points include:

  • Proclaiming God's word is not only instruction but also worship: it glorifies God, sanctifies people and has a sacramental significance. 
  • The homily must be shaped by the Word of God and sound exegetical principles,  the liturgical context,  a life itself shaped by the Scriptures and Tradition,  and the needs of the hearers.  Only this will make for “heart to heart communication”.  
  • Homilies are kerygmatic: they proclaim – Lat. proclamare, to cry out – God's works in salvation history and the mystery of Christ. The Scriptures, Fathers, doctrinal and liturgical Tradition, and the Catechism are invaluable for primary proclamation. 
  • Homilies are also catechetical: they deepen understanding about the person and nature of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Church and the sacraments, and how these unite us to the Father and give us even now a share in the life of the Trinity. 
  • Homilies are moral: they show the faithful how to live in light of the realities preached. 
  • All this requires continuing education and formation of clergy and thorough homily preparation through study, prayer, reflection and pastoral creativity.  The Directory repeats Pope Francis' strong words about the priest who fails in such remote and proximate preparation for preaching “a false prophet, a fraud, a shallow imposter… dishonest and irresponsible”. 
  • The Directory also offers some helpful thoughts on how to pray the Scriptures in preparation for preaching,  and on the preaching arts, providing concrete examples, themes and texts of liturgical year.

I hope to unpack this Directory with you more fully in the future: in the meantime, I have organised for you all to receive a copy as a gift today and invite you to have a look at it yourselves.

7. Pallium Mass
The pallium is the most ancient Roman vestment and in its somewhat reduced, football-scarf form, is still given by popes to metropolitans as a symbol of their authority and their communion (and therefore that of their province) with the Church of Rome. It is traditionally blessed on the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul on 29 June and then either imposed or dispatched. Earlier this year the Holy Father announced that he will bless the pallia on that date in the company of the new metropolitans, but then ask us to take our pallium back home so the Apostolic Nuncio may impose it in the presence of the suffragan bishops, clergy and people of the Archdiocese and the Province. I will attend the Pallium Mass in St Peter's Basilica with family, friends and some benefactors of our diocese; if any of you are interested in organising parish pilgrimages at that time we would do what we could to assist. The new Nuncio has advised that he will formally confer the Pallium upon me on the morning of the Feast of St James, Saturday 25 July, at a Mass at St Mary's Cathedral. More details will follow, but please put it in your calendars now.

Conclusion
Thank you for coming today. I think the Church of Sydney has many strengths, not least of which is its clergy. I look forward to many years of labouring in God's vineyard of Sydney with you for His glory and the good of souls.

1.Evangelii Gaudium 15, 27, 49.
2.EG 41.
3.EG 164.
4.EG 165.
5.EG 262.
6.Cf. EG 119-121.
7.EG 164 citing John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis (1992).
8.Pope Francis, Apostolic Letter on the Occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life, 21 November 2014, II, 4.
9.Ibid, I, 3.
10.Ibid, II, 4.
11.EG 169.
12.EG 81.
13.EG 104 citing John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem (1988), 27: AAS 80 (1988), 1718.
14.Vatican Council II, Lumen gentium.
15.Available at: http://www.sydneycatholic.org/people/archbishop/addresses/2015/2015325_761.shtml
16.It is predicted that demand for places in Archdiocese of Sydney schools will rise by 10,000 in the next decade and require approximately 4 new high schools and 6-8 new primary schools.
17.Anthony Fisher OP, Effects of World Youth Days and Australian Catholic Youth Festivals (2014).
18.Charles Connor, Meditations on the Catholic Priesthood (New York: St Pauls Publications, 2005). Also helpful are: Thomas Acklin, The Unchanging Heart of the Priesthood (Steubenville OH: Emmaus Publishing, 2006); Avery Dulles, The Priestly Office: A Theological Reflection (New York: Paulist Press, 1997); Donald Goergen and Ann Garrido (eds), The Theology of Priesthood (Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 2000).
19.Bld Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi: Apostolic Exhortation on Evangelization in the Modern World (1975) and St John Paul II, in many places, e.g. Redemptoris Missio: Encyclical on the Church's Missionary Mandate (1990) and Novo Millennio Ineunte: Apostolic Letter at the Close of the Great Jubilee (2000).
20.Pope Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini 59-60, 78-83, 90-98; EG.
21.Available at: http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/HomileticDirectory.pdf
22.Congregation for Divine Worship, Homiletic Directory (2015), 4, 13, 14.
23.Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum 9, 13, 21.
24.Citing Vatican Council II, Sacrosanctum Conciliium 24, 35, 52 and 56.
25.Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum 25; Presbyterorum ordinis 4, 18.
26.Vatican Council II, Ad gentes 6.
27.HD 2, 3, 6.
28.HD 1 (citing Sacrosanctum Concilium 35), 2, 10 (citing the Introduction to the Lectionary), 17 (citing Catechism of the Catholic Church 114), 20, 23-25.
29.HD 21.
30.HD 22.
31.HD 25 citing PO 19.
32.HD 26 citing Evangelii Gaudium 145 & 151 and Dei Verbum 25.
33.HD 27ff.