Executive Director’s Report for April: Easter Blessings!

Surgun100, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

May this Easter inspire us to greatness for God!

Perhaps the greatest benefit of this role is to work with the most competent and inspiring group of Church Leaders that I have ever known.

There is just more talent in one room, or one Zoom, than I have experienced, in forty years of working in the Church and not-for-profits.  I have known great church leaders, and even met a few great Popes, but the quality of every person in MPJP leadership meetings is so consistently high that it really inspires me in the ups and downs of working in the Church. The Easter message of resurrection sits well with the rebirth of religious order ministries as MPJPs, and with the talents God has given to so many here, I am sure He expects a great impact on many lives through our ministries.

God wants us to assist more people, with the greatest needs, in the most positive and uplifting ways.

This last month has been a cavalcade of meetings and forums, both times to plan and times to share wisdom amongst our community.

Our Committee of Religious Institute and Ministerial PJP School Authorities or CORMSAA started with its annual in-person meeting of representatives around Australia at ACU North Sydney, This committee has developed a very strong and positive relationship with the National Catholic Education Commission.  This is bearing fruit most of all in RI and MPJP schools now having a seat at the table in the key discussions on the current needs and future hopes of Catholic education.

Much work is being undertaken by CORMSAA itself on how school authorities best respond to regulatory requirements.  This is challenging how we build and operate structures which enable our MPJPs to be both transparent and at the same time also very much able to respond to the needs of today’s Mission.  Our recent Forum on School Service Fees was an amazing success with off-the-chart positive responses to our speakers, and the opportunity to share with peers in breakout rooms.

The AMPJP Council and an additional canonical steward from each MPJP met at Mary MacKillop to look at its Strategic Direction for the next three years.  Key issues to address included formation of both current but also future canonical stewards, succession planning, the need to be at the table when key decisions are being made by the Church, the need to share the positive stories of the vibrant ministries of MPJPs, and the need to address Synodality within MPJPs and across the Church,

Finally the Formation Committee met the following day to consolidate its plans for the year and beyond. A key element is the development of a paper with the working title “The Ecclesiology and Missiology of Ministerial PJPs”.  This will be developed by our theologians Jamie Calder sj and Chris Jacobs-Vandegeer, in deep consultation with canonical stewards through this year’s Wisdom Circles and the August Canonical stewards Forum.

Chris Jacobs-Vandegeer also led an excellent Forum on Bonhoeffer and How we truly see someone. This was very well received by the participating canonical stewards.

So the foundations for the year are laid, and the year’s work for AMPJP is building up.  This Easter let’s pray that our work together displays at least a little bit of greatness – for God.

New Resource:

S.Euart, ‘Ministerial Public Juridic Person: Model for Canonical Governance’, originally published in Studia Canonica 55  2021, 75-102; https://www.osucentral.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Ministerial-Public-Juridic-Person.pdf